Communications Officer

Communications Officer

Location: Bristol City Centre
Salary and hours: £30,000 pro-rata. Part-time role 22.5 to 30 hours / week, to be agreed with the successful candidate.
Contract: Fixed term contract until end of February 2028

Introduction

We are recruiting a Communications Officer role within our core team at the Natural History Consortium.

We’re a small friendly team, working at pace, looking for an experienced individual to work on our internal and external communications. The role will include working on our social media platforms, marketing public and professional events, and working alongside partner organisations.

We’d love to hear from you if you’re highly organised, creative, with experience in communications and marketing and an understanding of working in a small busy organisation where everyone mucks in.

About The Natural History Consortium

The Natural History Consortium (NHC) is a charitable collaboration of 13 research, media, policy, and conservation organisations working together on a shared mission: engaging people with the natural world through collaborative action.

Together our objective is to advance the public understanding of wildlife, the natural environment and their conservation.

We achieve this by:

• Delivering entertaining and informative events and activities that inspire greater public interest, volunteering and action for nature
• Facilitating, developing, and disseminating novel communication techniques that engage the widest possible audience
• Building, supporting and piloting effective partnerships that bring together diverse organisations that face similar challenges and issues, and help organisations learn from each other

Our staff team exists to leverage the resource of the 13 partners who have extensive skills, experience and knowledge and meet regularly to input into NHC programmes.

Our annual programmes include City Nature Challenge, the Festival of Nature, and Communicate. In addition to our core programme, we are currently a delivery partner for the Western Forest, leading on their communications.

Working at The Natural History Consortium

This is a part-time role based at our office in Bristol City Centre. It is a fixed term contract until the end of February 2028. The role will be a minimum of 22.5 hours per week and a maximum of 30 hours per week, hours will be discussed with the successful candidate and fixed at the beginning of the contract. The majority of hours will be worked Monday – Friday, between our core hours of 8am – 6pm. The team typically work remotely on a Friday, we offer flexibility to work remotely on occasion on an ad hoc basis (during non-event delivery periods).

Some weekend and evening work will be expected during event delivery, particularly during Communicate (17-19th November 2026) and Festival of Nature (June 2027, date TBC). Time off in lieu will be given.

Benefits

• 25 days holiday plus 8 bank holidays pro-rata
• “Work anywhere August” remote option
• Reading Week – our annual programme of self-directed learning and training

The Purpose of the Role

This role contributes to our aim of engaging people with the natural world through collaborative action through our internal and external communications.

The expected outcomes for the role are:

• Managing social media channels and newsletters, including creating content and monitoring engagement for LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook.
• Working on the communication and marketing of Western Forest, including creating content for and managing social accounts and newsletter, maintaining and updating the website.
• Supporting Forest Action delivery through direct supporter engagement, including email and face-to-face communication, and contributing to the successful delivery of events.
• Working on Western Forest marketing campaigns alongside the Communications Manager e.g. coordinating press opportunities, podcasts, radio, print, newsletters.
• Marketing our programme of events aimed at public audiences including Festival of Nature.
• Marketing our programme of professional facing events, including Communicate conference. Curated by our NHC partners, Communicate currently takes place in-person in Bristol, London, and Manchester, and online.
• Contributing to the successful operations and administrations of the charity.

Responsibilities and Activities

Planning

• Working alongside the Communications Manager to create detailed social media, newsletter and communications plans for all channels
• Researching audiences and keeping on top of the latest changes in social media communications to be able to inform planning

Team Management

• Working alongside partners, contractors and consultants
• Managing communications volunteers, interns or placement students

External Communications

• Meeting ticket sales targets for events including Festival of Nature and Communicate
• Managing and creating strong written and visual content for social media channels and newsletters
• Creating visuals and assets using platforms such as Canva and manage our bank of photos, videos, and archive materials
• Responding to enquiries by phone, email, and face to face at events
• Liaising with our wider partnership of event contributors to activate marketing networks
• Attending external meetings both in-person and online including Western Forest meetings

Partner Communications

• Ensure NHC communications amplify the messaging, campaigns, and events of NHC partners to encourage positive action for the natural world, working alongside Marketing and Communications Leads at each organisation
• Support NHC partners through the creation of marketing and communications packs about our events and programmes

Website management

• Research, write and edit clear and compelling website text with regular updates and news articles
• Manage website structures on WordPress (training available)
• Using Google Analytics 4 to track performance across websites (training available)

Operational delivery

• Supporting in the delivery of both in-person and online events

You may be required to assist with other areas of work so should be prepared to undertake other duties appropriate to the post, and any other reasonable duties required.