Internal Communications Officer

As a key member of the Internal Communications team in DDC, you will play an important role in developing and delivering strategic internal communications and events based on clear objectives, insight, proactive digital delivery, and evaluation. Working within a small team, you will support high-quality, targeted Readiness communications campaigns across Defence. You will collaborate closely with the C1 Readiness leads to contribute to campaign communications on topics such as Growth and Change, while also leading logistics for the MODCAST, the Ministry of Defence’s internal podcast, readiness-themed events, newsletters, and related activities.

You will work alongside the C1 and D Band Readiness Campaigns roles to ensure full portfolio coverage and identify opportunities to include other campaign messaging in events, maximising communication impact across Defence.

The central Internal Communications (IC) team within DDC delivers and coordinates communications to both military and civilian staff across the entire Ministry of Defence. With over 250,000 employees across around 4,000 sites worldwide, the MOD is one of the largest Whitehall departments. Its workforce is highly diverse, including soldiers, sailors, pilots, office workers, doctors, teachers, police officers, engineers, and scientists. Many frontline operational roles lack regular access to Defence’s digital communication infrastructure, requiring a flexible and nuanced approach to internal communications.

This role sits within the Readiness team of the IC function, which focuses on communications supporting Defence’s operational preparedness and capability development. The team delivers campaigns that promote understanding and engagement around readiness priorities, including growth, change, and operational effectiveness. Your work will ensure key messages reach the diverse Defence workforce effectively, helping maintain a well-informed and prepared organisation aligned with Defence’s strategic goals.

This position is advertised at 37 hours per week.

The successful candidate will play a central role in supporting the delivery of internal communications focused on change, growth, and wider Readiness within Defence. This includes creating and managing intranet content, organising events, producing articles and videos, and ensuring all communications effectively engage the diverse Defence workforce. A key responsibility will be leading the logistics for Readiness-related activities such as all-staff calls, the MODCAST internal podcast, newsletters, and other communications, ensuring smooth and timely delivery.

The role requires building a comprehensive understanding of Defence audiences to tailor messaging that reflects Defence priorities and resonates across different groups. The candidate will enhance existing campaigns, channels, events, systems, and processes to maintain relevance and maximise impact. They will also develop the skills necessary to cover for other team members, ensuring continuity in campaign delivery during absences.

Collaboration is essential, working closely with the wider Directorate of Defence Communications (DDC) team to identify opportunities for Readiness messaging to be integrated into ongoing campaigns or standalone initiatives. The candidate will provide professional, clear, and comprehensive internal communications advice to stakeholders at all levels, fostering strong relationships and confidently challenging where necessary to maintain communication quality and alignment.

Flexibility is important, as the role may require supporting other areas of the IC team when priorities shift or resources need to be reallocated. The successful candidate will also prioritise their own professional development and training to continually enhance their skills and effectiveness.

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.

Candidates will be required to provide CV details to include job history; qualification details and previous skills and experience.

Candidates will be required to provide a statement of suitability. (500 words)

At sift, Candidates will be assessed against their CV and Statement of suitability and the following:

• Communicating and Influencing

Applications will be sifted on all Success Profile elements, but in the event of a high number of applications, the sift will be conducted on your Communicating and Influencing behaviour only.

Interview will be questions on the behaviours and GCS competencies.

At interview, Candidates will be assessed against the following:

Behaviours:

• Working Together
• Communicating and Influencing

Technical Skills:

• Communications: Implementation
• Communications: Impact

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

There may be occasions where it is not practicable or appropriate to interview all DCS candidates that meet the minimum criteria for the job. For example, in certain recruitment situations such as a high volume of applications, seasonal demand, or peak periods, the employer may wish to limit the overall number of interviews offered to both DCS and non-DCS applicants.

As a result of the changes to the UK immigration rules which came into effect on 1 January 2021, the Ministry of Defence will only offer sponsorship for a skilled worker visa under the points-based system, where a role has been deemed to be business critical. This role does not meet that category, and we will not sponsor a visa. It is therefore NOT open to applications from those who will require sponsorship under the points-based system.

Should you apply for this role and be found to require sponsorship, your application will be rejected and any provisional offer of employment withdrawn.

The Ministry of Defence requires all candidates who are successful at interview to declare any outside interests. These declarations will be discussed with successful candidates following the interview process and before a formal offer of employment is made, as some outside interests may not be compatible with MOD civilian roles. This will not, in the majority of cases, prevent employment in MOD, but it is a measure that must be taken to ensure that appropriate mitigations can be put in place to manage any potential, perceived or actual conflicts of interest from the first day of employment.

The Ministry of Defence adopts a zero-tolerance approach to unacceptable behaviours, which includes bullying, harassment, sexual harassment, discrimination, and victimisation. You will not be eligible and will not be considered for this post if you have been dismissed from a role for such unacceptable behaviours within the last five years. This will also apply if you resign or otherwise leave a role but, because of an adverse decision, would have been dismissed for gross misconduct had you continued in that employment. Pre-employment checks will be carried out.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.