Senior Communications Manager, Media and External Relations

Rose Bruford College is a specialist conservatoire with a national and growing international reputation. Its graduates are working across the creative industries and beyond, and some of what they have gone on to do has shifted conversations, changed industries, and made a genuine mark on the world. Getting those stories heard, alongside the College's wider voice in sector, civic, and community life, is what this role is about.

As Communications Manager, Media and External Relations, you will work as part of a small Corporate Affairs team, taking an integrated approach to external communications across a wide range of audiences: students, staff, local and national partners, government bodies, sector organisations, alumni, and the creative industries. You will build relationships with journalists and editors worth knowing, identify the angles that have genuine traction, and find the platforms where the College's voice belongs. You will also manage the College's alumni communications programme, keeping those relationships warm, productive, and well-maintained in a way that serves both the College and the people it stays in touch with.

This is communications as a business discipline. It requires someone who is as comfortable with a database and a submissions calendar as they are with a press pitch: organised, rigorous, and clear-eyed about what is worth pursuing and why. You will work within a strategy set by the Head of Communications and contribute your own instincts and ideas to how the team's work develops. Some of what you will be building does not yet exist, and that should be an appeal rather than a deterrent.

What you will bring

Experience in communications, media relations, or external relations, ideally in a specialist, creative, or education environment. A track record of identifying and placing content across sector and specialist channels. Experience managing contact data or a CRM. Working knowledge of SEO and GEO. Comfort with AI tools as part of how you work. Awareness of the higher education sector landscape is desirable.

The role

Based at our Sidcup campus with London venue attendance as the work demands. Strong on-site presence expected in year one. Hybrid working available once working patterns are established.

To apply, send a CV and covering letter to recruitment@bruford.ac.uk. For an informal conversation, contact Véronique Fricke, Director of Corporate Affairs at veronique.fricke@bruford.ac.uk

Rose Bruford College is committed to equality, diversity, and inclusion. We welcome applications from all backgrounds.