Communications Officer – Orkney Native Wildlife Project

Communications Officer – Orkney Native Wildlife Project
Reference: AUG (Apply online only)
Location: Orkney Native Wildlife Project – Kirkwall Office
Contract: Fixed term Contract until 31/12/2027
Hours: Full Time, 37.5 hours per week
Salary: £27,123.00 - £28,956.00 Per Annum
Benefits: Holidays, Pension and Life Assurance

Introduction

The Orkney Native Wildlife Project aims to safeguard the unique and internationally important native wildlife of Orkney and the benefits it provides for local people and the economy by addressing the threat it faces from an invasive non-native predator: the stoat. Stoats threaten the Orkney vole, and many birds including hen harriers, short-eared owls, red-throated divers, waders and seabirds. It is therefore essential to remove stoats from Orkney to prevent significant and long-term negative impacts on Orkney’s native wildlife.

The Orkney Native Wildlife Project is a partnership project between RSPB Scotland, NatureScot and Orkney Islands Council, made possible by generous funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, EU LIFE, partners and donations from supporters.

Our communications team are a key function within the project and are required to be flexible and adaptable to an ever-changing project landscape. We are looking for someone who will actively seek out our internal good news stories as well as work well with both local journalists and partner communications teams.

What’s the role about

We are looking for a person who has a passion for our native wildlife and has a desire to get out into the field with their colleagues to get the best stories and social media content. You will be responsible for our current social media presence and will create engaging, compelling content that helps bring the project to life for local communities and people further afield.  You will also design and curate content for our website and will be responsible for ensuring it is up to date and is both interesting and informative. You will be proactive in creating working relationships with our partner organisations as well as members of the press.

You will be an effective and creative communicator with media and social media experience. You will have the confidence and ability to inspire trust and support for the project and an ability to win over hearts and minds. You will have experience of working with local communities in a collaborative and sensitive way.

Key Responsibilities:

• Following an agreed communications strategy that contributes to underpinning the ONWP objectives.
• Building and maintaining relationships with partners, locals and the press to ensure effective target delivery.
• Creation of internal FAQ documents as well as external blogs and newspaper columns.
• Building effective internal relationships across project team, RSPB and other project partners. Through discussions and joint working with appropriate colleagues, to ensure effective project delivery.
• Monitoring Media in agreed work areas to identify potential reputational risks to the ONWP and its partners.
• Providing specialist advice to project team to support the development and implementation of our key messages.
• Joining our field workers in their practical work to create engaging social media content.

What we need from you

Essential

• The ability to demonstrate work-related experience.
• Experience of delivering at least one public-facing, advocacy-themed communications campaign.
• Ability to develop public messages from briefings or background information on a wide variety of topics.
• Strong social media campaign skills preferably including content gathering in the field.
• Ability to effectively organise and participate in diverse, cross-functional project teams, outside agencies and government stakeholders. Experience in monitoring the effectiveness of your own outputs and responding dynamically.
• Experience writing press releases.
• Experience designing printed promotional materials.
• Experience producing video content for social media.
• Experience of dealing with potentially controversial issues and reputational risk including producing reactive statements and FAQs.

Desirable

• Experience of working on nature conservation issues.
• Experience making animations and or videos for social media.

Closing date: 23:59, Sunday 14th September 2025
We are looking to conduct interviews for this position from W/C 22nd September 2025.

Interested?

If you would like to find out more, please click the apply button. You will be directed to our website to complete your application for this position.

The RSPB is an equal opportunities employer. This role is covered by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974.

This role is not eligible for UK Visa Sponsorship - the successful applicant will need to have a pre-existing Right to Work in the UK in order to be offered an employment contract.

We are committed to developing an inclusive and diverse RSPB, in which everyone feels supported, valued, and able to be their full selves. To achieve our vision of creating a world richer in nature, we need more people, and more diverse people, on nature’s side. People of colour and disabled people are currently underrepresented across the environment, climate, sustainability, and conservation sector. If you identify as a person of colour and/or disabled, we are particularly interested in receiving your application.

As part of this application process you will be asked to provide a copy of your CV and complete an application form including evidence on how you meet the skills, knowledge, and experience listed above. If you wish to provide a cover letter with your application, please include this at the end of your CV document upload. Contact us to discuss any additional support you may need to complete your application.

No agencies please.