Head - Media

Head
- Media

Department: Marketing & Membership

Employment Type: Permanent
- Full Time

Location: London

Compensation: £45,000 - £65,000 / year

techUK Overview:

techUK is the trade association which brings together people, companies, and organisations to realise the positive outcomes of what digital technology can achieve. With over 1,200 members (the majority of which are SMEs) across the UK, techUK creates a network for innovation and collaboration across business, government, and stakeholders to provide a better future for people, society, the economy, and the planet.

By providing expertise and insight, we support our members, partners, and stakeholders as they prepare the UK for what comes next in a constantly changing world.

Role Overview:
This is an opportunity for an experienced media professional to own techUK’s voice in the national conversation on technology and policy, running a busy press office and shaping how the UK’s most contested tech issues are argued in public.

This is a role at the heart of the UK's technology and policy landscape, creating the strategic messages that land with the media and working on key issues that within our sector that regularly create headlines in broadcast and national media. As Head of Media, you will lead techUK's response to fast-moving Government announcements, regulatory developments and industry news, often working to tight timescales on behalf of our more than 1,200 members.

Never a quiet day - this can range from working on rapid response commentary on data centres, AI regulation or defence procurement to proactive outreach around the use of robotics in healthcare and our members views on international policy and trade. Responsible for our reputation management, you will need to bring clarity to complex issues, ensuring techUK's positions are communicated clearly to our audiences so we remain a relevant, credible and influential trade association.

You will sit inside techUK's operation rather than alongside it. You will be in the room as our positions are developed, brief the Senior Leadership Team before broadcast or interviews, and join meetings with Government and regulators alongside our policy leads. Very few in-house media roles offer that proximity to the substance, and it is what makes the difference between reactive press handling and genuine influence.

Reporting to the Director of Marketing, Membership and Communications, you will own the press office, set and deliver techUK's proactive media strategy, run our spokespeople operation and lead issues and crisis communications.

Success in this role is cut-through rather than volume: the quality and placement of coverage and whether techUK’s arguments shape the terms of the debate on the issues that matter most to our members. We are looking for someone proactive, organised, and comfortable working both independently and as part of a team, who brings new ideas and thrives across a range of projects in a fast-paced environment.

This role would suit someone with strong communications experience and a genuine interest in technology and/or policy.

• Own techUK's press office, responding to often technical and time-sensitive media enquiries across the technology policy landscape.
• Set and deliver techUK’s proactive communications, identifying news opportunities that raise techUK's profile and support the wider technology sector.
• Run techUK’s spokespeople operation: developing briefings, delivering media training sessions, sitting in on interviews and accompanying colleagues to in-person interviews where appropriate.
• Lead issues and crisis communications, preparing forward-thinking crisis comms strategies, statements and briefing.
• Build relationships with national,…