Communications Officer

DIVISION DIANA

TITLE Communications Officer

LOCATION London, United Kingdom

GRADE G15/G17

POST No. NDX0016

SECURITY CLEARANCE NATO SECRET

OVERVIEW OF DIANA

NATO DIANA is the Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic, a NATO body dedicated to finding and accelerating innovation to provide decisive defence and security effects for the Alliance, while fostering deep-tech innovation.

NATO DIANA is comprised of a Board of Directors, representing all 32 nations, and an operational team referred to as the DIANA Executive (“DX”). Operating from three offices in Europe and North America, the DX leverages a network of military end users, world-leading accelerator sites, test centres, professional mentors and experts, and Allied expertise to accelerate the most innovative technologies from across the NATO Alliance. DIANA is a dynamic, agile workplace, which strives for innovative thinking, diversity, and performance excellence across all teams. To achieve our mission, DIANA is committed to providing our people with an environment that is positive, inclusive and collaborative.

OVERVIEW OF THE ROLE

DIANA’s Communication Unit is responsible for the planning, implementation, and evaluation of DIANA’s outreach activities. Through a full range of communications activities, the Communications team informs and engages relevant target audiences in the private and public sector – in 32 Allied nations. The Communications Unit will communicate with a variety of audiences to establish DIANA in Allied defence innovation ecosystems and support the exposure of DIANA innovators to defence and commercial networks to strengthen NATO’s technological edge.

Reporting to the Communications Director.

Duties of this role include:

• Undertake proactive and reactive media relations to support DIANA objectives, including briefing senior leadership, liaising with NATO colleagues for roundtables, leading and coordinating media events, and act as the primary point of contact for media inquiries.
• Coordinate and support the delivery of key DIANA events, collaborating with teams across DIANA, and serving as the main point of contact with the external events agency for event logistics and coordination.
• Develop external communications materials including presentations, speaking notes, social media content, and web content to advance DIANA's objectives.
• Support DIANA colleagues with day-to-day requests such as presentation review, document formatting, talking points and messaging, content drafting, and communications advice.
• Develop and implement communications for internal audiences including staff, DIANA network members, government stakeholders, affiliated sites, and NATO colleagues.
• Perform any other related duties as may be required.

ROLE REQUIREMENTS, QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

ESSENTIAL

The incumbent must have:

• a Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field and 2 years post-related work experience OR exceptionally, the lack of a Bachelor’s degree may be compensated for with 6 years’ extensive experience in the duties related to the post.
• Minimum 2 years of professional experience organising, coordinating and delivering events in a corporate/business environment, such as trade shows, conferences, or international meetings.
• Minimum of 2 years of professional experience in media relations, such as media outreach strategy, drafting pitches, preparing briefings for senior leadership, and responding to media inquiries.
• Minimum of 2 years of work experience in one other communication related function, either graphic design, content management, brand management, social content production, or internal communications.
• Familiarity with the defence sector and its stakeholders
• Be detail-oriented, diligent and thorough on any task from copyediting to managing deadlines.
• Have a willingness to be proactive, hands on, and ready to jump into tasks across DIANA.
• Possess the following minimum levels of NATO’s official languages (English/French): V (“Advanced”) in one; and I (“Beginner”) in the other.

NOTE: Most of DIANA’s internal work is conducted in the English language.

DESIRABLE

The following would be considered an advantage:

• Experience working with or in a technology, innovation-focused or fast-paced start-up environment
• Knowledge and understanding of international and political affairs, particularly in the context of DIANA and NATO
• Competency in other Alliance and Partner languages.

WHAT WE OFFER

• Genuinely meaningful work as part of the newest unit within the most successful alliance in history.
• Tax-free salary.
• Household and children’s allowances and privileges for expatriate staff including expatriation and educational allowances (where applicable) and additional home leave.
• Excellent private health insurance scheme.
• NATO pension scheme.
• Generous annual leave of 30 days plus official holidays.
• Flexible working conditions and a smoke-free office in London.
• Opportunities for learning and development.

The incumbent is required to be a resident in the host nation for the duration of their contract. DIANA has a flexible teleworking policy to permit working in office, at home, and across NATO Allied Nations subject to managerial approval. In accordance with the NATO Civilian Personnel Regulations, the successful candidate will receive a definite duration contract of three years, which may be followed by an extension.

If the successful applicant is seconded from the national administration of one of NATO’s member States, a 3-year definite duration contract will be offered, which may be renewed for a further period of up to 3 years subject to the agreement of the national authority concerned. The maximum period of service in the post as a seconded staff member is six years.

NOTE: Irrespective of previous qualifications and experience, candidates for twin-graded posts will be appointed at the lower grade. Advancement to the higher grade is not automatic and will not normally take place during the first three years of service in the post.

Appointment will be subject to receipt of a security clearance (provided by the national Authorities of the selected candidate) and approval of the candidate’s medical file by the NATO Medical Adviser.

Applicants who are not successful in this competition may be offered an appointment to another post of a similar nature, albeit at the same or a lower grade, provided they meet the necessary requirements.

NOTE: DIANA will not accept any phase of the recruitment and selection prepared, in whole or in part, by means of generative artificial-intelligence (AI) tools, including and without limitation to chatbots, such as Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer (Chat GPT), or other language generating tools. DIANA reserves the right to screen applications to identify the use of such tools. All applications prepared, in whole or in part, by means of such generative or creative AI applications may be rejected without further consideration at DIANA’s sole discretion, and DIANA reserves the right to take further steps in such cases as appropriate.

For more information on DIANA, please visit our website.