Senior Press Officer - News Desk

Do you want a fun and fast-paced role in which you'll be helping to lead and develop a team handling daily media queries from journalists, ensuring responses and advice are of the highest standard alongside overseeing timely media monitoring, updates and evaluations ? If so, we'd love to hear from you!

About the Team

The Ministerial and Communications Group sits at the heart of the Treasury. If you are interested in the inner workings of the Government, meeting Ministers, Senior Officials and liaising with the Press then this could be the place for you! We are a friendly and inclusive Group working on some of the most exciting issues of the day, bringing together work from across the rest of the department and engaging closely with partners across Whitehall and beyond.

We provide support to Ministers, through Ministerial offices. We act as Treasury's external face, through the Press Office and Communications team. We are responsible for managing the department, through our support for the Permanent Secretary, the Second Permanent Secretaries, the Treasury Board, and the Executive Management Board (EMB), and our ownership of Treasury governance structures. The Group is led by the Permanent Secretary.

About the Job

In this role, responsibilities include:

• Reactive media management - lead the response to breaking stories, helping the team quickly draft, clear and issue well-written statements and briefing to journalists, while keeping the department updated on news coverage.
• News management - the ability to quickly spot potential problems and but opportunities to shape coverage and insert a positive government voice while ensuring the wider department and no 10 are kept updated.
• Managing and developing News desk - manage and develop a small team, ensuring the smooth running of News desk and consistently high-quality lines, briefings and monitoring.
• Media handling and monitoring - provide regular media handling advice to Ministers, officials and colleagues on sensitive, complex and high-profile issues and maintain a first class media monitoring operation.
• Relationship management - build strong relationships with officials, journalists, stakeholders and colleagues in other departments to support effective media operations.
• Media operations - assisting on ministerial media visits, including issuing operational notes and assisting with media on the day.
• Alongside these responsibilities you will also take part in our out-of-hours duty rota. This will involve proactively monitoring for breaking news and coverage that might require correction or clarification, providing swift and effective responses to requests for comment and keeping the department updated.

About You

You will possess strong oral and written communication abilities and be capable of engaging effectively with senior leaders. You will be able to analyse complex information, consider various options, and clearly articulate your recommendation. You will take responsibility for delivering timely and quality results with focus and drive. Deliver service objectives with professional excellence, expertise and efficiency, taking account of diverse customer needs.

Some of the Benefits our people love!

• Generous Annual Leave - 25 days (rising to 30 after 5 years), plus public holidays and the King's birthday.
• Outstanding Pension Scheme - Defined Benefit pension with employer contributions of 28%
• Parental Leave Packages - Including 6 months' occupational pay for maternity/adoption, shared parental leave options.
• Flexible & Hybrid Working - Options include part-time, job-share, compressed hours, flexitime, and hybrid working (where business needs allow).
• Advance Schemes & Discounts - Rental deposit, cycle-to-work, SmartTech, season ticket loans, and access to HM Treasury's benefits portal for a wide range of discount codes.

For more information about the role and how to apply, please follow the apply link.

If you need any reasonable adjustments to take part in the selection process, please tell us about this in your online application form, or speak to the recruitment team at .