Job Description

Digital, Social and Creative Content Manager

Fixed term up to 12 months

Full time / Part time

Salary: £57,815 - £65,021, with potential for further progression to £73,211 with our pay progression scheme.

Location: Hybrid

Contracted to our Wilmslow, London, Edinburgh, Cardiff or Belfast office, we will be relocating to Manchester city centre from 28 September 2026. Once the move takes place your contracted office will be Circle Square, Manchester. Through hybrid working we offer flexible home and office-based working opportunities and there will be times when you will be expected to attend the office to collaborate with colleagues or travel due to business need.

Why work for the ICO?

• Pay progression scheme.
• Hybrid and flexible working options. 
• 25 days paid holiday per year, plus privilege and public holidays.
• Flexi leave (up to 26 additional days leave per year).
• Pension (employer contribution around 28.9%).
• Online discount scheme to save money at major supermarkets, retailers, gyms, restaurants, insurance providers and many more.
• Health Cash Plan.
• Fantastic development opportunities to learn and progress.

Further details can be found on the benefits section of our  website .

The ICO’s work affects every single person in the UK. Our regulatory role impacts how healthcare can innovate to help you live longer, how social media firms select the content you see and how police can use technology to reduce crime. We oversee how you can access information about how your taxes are spent, or about how a company is using your data.

It is our communications department’s role to tell those stories.

We work to support the office’s work in explaining the law and influencing the behaviour of organisations. We help people to understand their information rights, and support public trust and confidence in the responsible use of data. And we increase public and stakeholder awareness of the benefits of what we do, protecting and enhancing our reputation.

What does that mean in practice? Running impactful campaigns that change people’s lives. Working with national print and broadcast media, placing stories, building a contacts book and spotting opportunities. Growing our social media following, finding new ways to engage audiences in our work and creating content people want to see. And ensuring our website reflects the breadth of work and level of detailed guidance that characterise the ICO.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is the independent regulator of information rights. In a data-driven world, we provide advice, guidance, and support to organisations enabling compliance with their obligations, as well as protecting individuals and their personal data.

As an employer, we are passionate about making a positive difference to the lives and careers of our people, and we empower you to be curious, impactful, collaborative and respectful.

Our Digital, Social and Creative Content Manager is at the centre of our work to engage people in what the ICO does.

We want an experienced digital comms professional who can communicate, explain and raise awareness of the ICO’s work, with creative content at the heart of their approach. You will be comfortable working across the full range of social and digital channels, and you will be able to integrate that work with the output of teams across communications, with a pivotal role in our campaigns, news delivery and wider communications.

We want someone who can lead our digital team, ensuring our work is prominent and engaging, as well as prioritised and focused on strategic outcomes. In doing so, you will help equip your communications colleagues with the skills they need to adopt new and innovative approaches to communicating. You will have overall responsibility for leading and managing a team of nine, including a web content team, graphic design team, social media team and a speechwriter – the former two managed by team managers. You will be responsible for overseeing and ensuring successful delivery of year two of our 2025-27 social media strategy, a key role in delivering the ICO’s Digital Vision, and overseeing the increasing professionalisation of our graphic design service.

We want someone who can be a key member of the Senior Management Team, playing an active role in the continued improvement and evolution of our communications function, and helping to deputise for the Head of Media. You will help further embed a culture of proactivity, flexibility and collaboration in teams across the directorate to make sure we are delivering the very best communications.

This is an exciting and challenging opportunity for a candidate who is able to demonstrate creative thinking, engaging story-telling, excellent news judgment and strong leadership – with a keen eye on detail, delivery, impact and the bigger picture. Crucially, the role requires an ability to form good, productive, effective and professional working relationships with people across the organisation, including at the most senior levels.

Key responsibilities:

• Lead the successful delivery of the final year of our impactful social media strategy, working closely with Insight and Evaluation (I&E) colleagues to ensure objectives are met, our creative content approach continues to develop, based on insight, and our content pillars for each of our platforms are adhered to.
• Provide overall editorial responsibility for content across the ICO’s digital channels, including our website, owned social media channels and our evolving newsletter offer.
• Lead the digital and creative content team, ensuring the continued high performance and motivation of our highly skilled team, with delivery aligned towards delivering engaging, accurate and timely content, which reflects the ICO’s regulatory priorities.
• Lead and expand the ICO’s reach with segmented audiences on social media, build understanding of those audiences, and deepen engagement with them.
• Working with the Head of Media and News Manager to lead an integrated and collaborative Media Team.
• Drive innovation in the use of technology in communication by leading experimentation and analysis of new platforms, tactics and engagement methods.
• Be a key member of Communication Directorate’s Senior Management Team (SMT), deputising when necessary for the Head of Media.
• Scan and interpret the modern communications landscape to identify risks to ICO’s reputation and service continuity, working closely with other senior managers across the Communications and Public Affairs Directorate to manage and mitigate these risks.
• Working closely with I&E colleagues, lead the analysis of social media channel performance data and audience insight, ensuring that weaknesses are identified early and lessons are learned from users, clients and partners – and that this information is shared across the Directorate, acted on and leads to improvements of the service, adaptation to the changing external environment and growth in our audiences.
• Achieve the best return on investment by managing resources, maximising the use of existing assets and ensuring the highest standards are followed in all procurements.
• Work closely with colleagues in communications to develop their technological skills and promote a digital-first culture, as well as providing expertise on digital opportunities for media handling plans.
• Building close and highly effective working relationships across the organisation and with counterparts in other arms-length bodies and other partner organisations, ensuring delivery of activity is coordinated, and a continuing feedback loop of best-practice among your peers
• Help develop the ICO’s external identity, including tone of voice through our social media strategy, messaging and content.

Person specification

Essential criteria assessed at application stage:

• Experienced across PR, digital, media and social media.
• Extensive experience of digital and creative content production, marketing and campaigning approaches, including knowledge of social media and online communications design, functionality, information architecture, navigation and SEO (also measured at interview).
• Track record of developing and delivering proactive communications strategies, including social media and creative content, that enhance the reputation of an organisation, as part of an integrated national communications service (also measured at interview).
• Proven leadership skills and ability to promote a digital-first culture for communications. Ability to inspire colleagues to higher levels of innovation and achievement, and to develop their technological skills (also measured at interview).
• A passion for and deep knowledge of modern communication methods, digital communication and social media in particular (also measured at interview).
• A very high standard and track record in a range of content types including writing, photography, video and working with designers.

Essential criteria assessed during interview:

• A track record of gaining the confidence of and influencing senior stakeholders at CEO/Secretary of State/Ministerial and Director General level and delivering high quality materials for them at pace.
• Strong analytical skills and the ability to interpret and learn from digital performance data, including a commitment to continual improvement through monitoring and evaluation.
• The ability to work well under pressure and manage multi-level priorities and short deadlines.
• Sharp news sense, excellent judgement, strong political savvy and outstanding communications skills.

Equality, diversity, and inclusion

The ICO is committed to promoting and enhancing equality, diversity, and inclusion. We are focused on developing a workforce that is representative of the communities we serve and together we are building an inclusive workplace where all of our colleagues have the opportunity to make a real difference. We are championing this through our Equality Diversity and Inclusion Board together with a number of staff networks. Read more about our commitment on our website.

Candidates with a disability who meet the minimum criteria for this vacancy will be invited to interview as part of the ICO’s commitment to the Disability Confident Scheme.

As part of the ICO’s commitment to our EDI objectives and creating a workplace that represents the communities and societies we serve, we guarantee an interview to candidates who declare they identify as belonging from an ethnic minority background and who meet the minimum criteria for this vacancy

If you are disabled or have an impairment and require an alternative application method, please email the HR team at recruitment@ico.org.uk

Closing Date

Please submit your CV and cover letter by 23:59,on 11 June 2026 Your cover letter should be no more than 1,000 words and should clearly demonstrate how you meet the essential criteria for the role.

We may close this vacancy early if we receive a high volume of applications. To ensure your application is considered, we encourage you to apply as soon as possible. If you require any reasonable adjustments to support your application, please contact us at recruitment@ico.org.uk

In the event of a high volume of applications, we may not be able to invite all candidates who meet the minimum criteria to interview. However, we encourage you stay in touch and apply for future roles that match your interests.

All candidates who meet the minimum criteria and apply in-line with our guaranteed interview scheme for disabled and ethnic minority applicants will be interviewed.

Clearance Required for this role:

Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS)