The Role
Scottish Women’s Aid is excited to recruit for maternity cover for our External Affairs Officer. The role holder
plays an essential part in the continued development and delivery of key messaging for SWA, increasing awareness
of the organisation and ensuring our core values are reflected in all our communications.
The Organisation
Scottish Women’s Aid is Scotland’s leading voluntary sector organisation working to prevent domestic abuse and
promote effective policy and practice responses for women, children and young people who experience domestic
abuse. We are the umbrella organisation for 36 autonomous Women’s Aid groups delivering direct services to
women, children, and young people across Scotland.
What You’ll Do
The External Affairs Officer will develop and support effective media relationships to ensure awareness and
understanding of SWA to a wide target audience. You will create meaningful dialogue with appropriate
stakeholders, responding to media enquiries and drafting briefing notes, articles and web content aligned to
SWA’s core values and strategic priorities.
What We Need
The successful candidate will have substantial communications experience in a similar role, ideally with a sound
understanding of parliamentary, political and policy processes. You will have the confidence, skills and
proficiency to quickly add value to the role and organisation, alongside excellent written and verbal skills
with the ability to translate complex information for appropriate media use. A sound understanding of social
media, website, and content management systems, as well as impact evaluation and measurement, is essential for
success in this position.
We’re looking for someone who has
• A proven track record of delivering on external affairs strategy in a similar organisational context
• A well-established comms network that supports effective partnership working with the media as well as political
and parliamentary stakeholders
• A sound knowledge and understanding of the ethical considerations associated with media and communications
• The ability to manage communications in relation to external projects and services
• A positive track record of working to support colleagues with local and national campaign priorities
• Knowledge of communicating a gendered message and understanding of the issues relating to violence against
women
• Experience of a range of software such as Mailchimp, Drupal, Survey Monkey, MS Office