Director of Policy and Communications

About UKRIO

The UK Research Integrity Office (UKRIO) is the UK's national advisory body for research integrity. Established in 2006, UKRIO delivers a wide-ranging programme of guidance and support to enhance good research practice and research culture.

About the role

Guided by a high profile Board chaired by Dame Linda Partridge, the charity is launching a new five year strategy to deepen and expand UKRIO's reach and impact.

This newly created role sits at the centre of that evolution. As Director of Policy and Communications, you will build a new function from the ground up, spearheading UKRIO's policy, communications, and external affairs work to engage and influence actors across the research ecosystem. This includes setting the strategic direction for UKRIO's communications, ensuring our outputs are high quality and audience focused, and leading key influencing activities such as policy roundtables, consultations, and events.

The role carries significant external facing responsibility. As a key spokesperson for the organisation, you will champion research integrity, build strategic relationships, and represent UKRIO at conferences and meetings. As a member of the Senior Leadership Team, you will also help shape our organisational culture and embed fairness, transparency, and excellence across the charity.

This is an exciting opportunity for a dynamic policy and communications professional who recognises UKRIO's vision and potential and wants to play a leading role in bringing it to life. You will have the scope to shape our brand, elevate our profile and reach, and enhance the impact of our work. If you're full of ideas, proactive in your approach, and motivated by meaningful work, we'd be delighted to hear from you.

Key responsibilities

Strategic leadership

• Work closely with the CEO and Senior Leadership Team to ensure UKRIO's strategy and programme of work are effectively developed, implemented, and communicated, balancing high level oversight with hands on delivery where appropriate in a small team environment.
• Proactively identify opportunities to expand UKRIO's reach and impact by assessing where the charity can deploy its resources most effectively; building strategic partnerships; and leading initiatives that increase engagement across sectors and audiences.
• Contribute to the strategic development of the charity, including shaping its value proposition, education and training offer, and partnership and funding decisions.
• Embed UKRIO's theory of change and evaluation framework into organisational systems and ways of working, fostering a culture of reflection, accountability, and continuous improvement.

Influencing and external engagement

• Develop and lead an integrated policy, communications, and engagement strategy that keeps research integrity high on the national agenda, strengthens stakeholder understanding, and enhances UKRIO's profile, credibility, and influence.
• Maintain a watching brief on emerging policy, sector, and research integrity developments, identifying strategic opportunities, risks, and areas where UKRIO should position itself or provide additional resource and support.
• Build and maintain strong relationships with stakeholders across government, academia, research funders, publishers, research organisations, and civil society, identifying opportunities to advance UKRIO's strategic objectives.
• Lead UKRIO's thought leadership activities - including policy statements and consultations - ensuring outputs are timely, authoritative, and grounded in evidence.
• Provide strategic oversight of UKRIO's events programme, ensuring alignment with organisational priorities, and lead the facilitation of policy roundtables and external engagement events as needed.
• Represent UKRIO externally, including in consultations, conferences, advisory groups, and media engagements, proactively working to elevate the charity's influence and impact.

Communications

• Provide strategic leadership and operational oversight for all aspects of UKRIO's communications, ensuring policy messaging, branding, digital engagement, and content are high quality and aligned with organisational priorities.
• Lead UKRIO's editorial function, setting standards and overseeing all external outputs and written/visual assets to ensure they reflect the charity's tone of voice, values, and rigorous standards of accuracy and integrity.
• Take an active role in shaping creative communications approaches, ensuring UKRIO's messages and outputs are tailored to different audiences and use the most effective channels and formats.
• Oversee the development of a modern, user centred digital communications approach (including a full review and redevelopment of UKRIO's website), actively working to strengthen brand identity, user experience, content quality, and digital functionality.
• Oversee continuous improvement in digital communications, using analytics, audience insights, and emerging tools to enhance reach, engagement, and impact.

People management

• Line manage the Communications and Events Manager and other relevant staff, providing clear direction, constructive feedback, and professional development support to enable high quality delivery and innovation.
• Manage paid associates and/or volunteers as required, ensuring appropriate support, training, and processes are in place for effective delivery.
• Work with Senior Leadership Team colleagues to foster a positive organisational culture where staff have clear objectives, feel supported, and are empowered to deliver to a high standard.

Project management and oversight

• Contribute to the development, execution, and evaluation of UKRIO's annual business planning process and organisational work programme as part of the Senior Leadership Team.
• Lead, oversee, and/or quality assure key outputs to ensure they are delivered on time, within budget, and to a high standard, providing regular monitoring, reporting, and analysis.
• Hold budget holder responsibility and ensure adherence to project management processes that support transparency, accountability, and value for money.

General responsibilities

• Ensure UKRIO activity is compliant with all relevant legislation, including UK GDPR, charity guidelines and standards of good practice
• Keep up to date with developments in research integrity, governance, ethics and other related topics
• Deputise for the CEO as required, undertaking additional tasks or duties as directed.
• Act as a team player, supporting the organisation to deliver on its wider goals and objectives
• Collaborate with the wider team to ensure our work is most effectively deployed, disseminated, and utilised

The above list is not exhaustive, and the postholder may be asked to undertake other reasonable duties as requested.

Person specification

Essential criteria

• At least 5-8 years of experience in policy, public affairs, or communications, ideally at a national or sector wide level.
• Strong understanding of complex policy environments (e.g., charity sector, public sector, higher education, research funding, or similarly regulated landscapes).
• Proven ability to influence government, funders, or sector bodies, including shaping policy positions and leading strategic engagement.
• Experience convening multi stakeholder groups or facilitating collaborative policy development.
• Demonstrable experience leading strategic communications, including organisational messaging, editorial oversight, and high quality digital, written, and visual outputs.
• Strong content development skills, including proofreading, copyediting, adapting content for different audiences, and producing a range of written and visual assets.
• Experience delivering integrated communications across digital platforms, with an understanding of audience segmentation, analytics, and user centred approaches.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including public speaking, media engagement, and representing an organisation externally.
• Strong project management skills, with evidence of managing multiple priorities and delivering high quality work to deadlines.
• Excellent analytical and problem solving skills, with a commitment to continuous improvement and evidence informed decision making.
• Experience leading teams and managing cross functional work, including setting direction and supporting professional development.
• Ability to work strategically while remaining hands on, comfortable building new systems and approaches in a small, growing organisation.
• Understanding of ethical leadership, including reflexivity, transparency, and accountability.
• Commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion.
• Willingness to travel occasionally within the UK and to attend occasional evening events as part of the role's external engagement responsibilities.

Desirable criteria

• Knowledge of research integrity, research ethics, governance, or related policy areas; or experience in higher education, research funding, or science and innovation policy.
• Experience working in a small charity or start up environment.
• Experience with digital tools such as Mailchimp, SurveyMonkey, and CRM systems (e.g., Maximizer), WebPress and Canva.
• Experience managing a full review and redevelopment of a website . click apply for full job details