Digital & Design Manager

Salary: National – ranging from £55,800 – £83,000 and London from £60,900 – £90,000 per annum

In the Communications directorate at the FCA we change opinions and behaviours to enable a fair and thriving financial services market for the good of consumers and the economy. It’s an exciting time as we’re expanding our team and changing how we do things to deliver more engaging, insight-led, audience focused communications. If you want to be part of a supportive and fun team, work across a wide range of issues and are ready to be challenged, curious and creative then come and join us.

The team/department 

Part of the FCA’s Communications Directorate, the Marketing, Digital and Events department incorporates a range of specialist teams including Digital & Design, which this role manages. This role leads 2 teams: Digital Content and Design & Production, with 4 direct reports and 11 indirect reports.  

This role leads the development and delivery of the FCA’s digital and design output. This incorporates website content, design principles and digital tone of voice, our creative content and publishing including design, typesetting, animation, videography, and managing and evolving our visual brand identity, including application internally and externally and advice about use and misuse.    

The FCA website is our key platform to reach and engage firms, consumers and wider stakeholders – with millions of visitors every year and complex legislation around accessibility, copyright and data sharing to comply with. A key aspect of the role is as senior specialist to represent our digital channels and the users of our digital channels (firms, consumers, media, stakeholders, FCA people) on relevant committees.  

What you will be doing (the role)  

• Leadership and line management: set the direction for and oversee a multi-disciplined team of digital, design and production specialists, enabling inclusive and collaborative working across the directorate, building the team’s capability, motivation and resilience, focusing their work on key priorities, managing resourcing, ensuring professional excellence in creating engaging communications that are appropriate for the target audience. Effective supplier management including procurement, performance management and assessment ensuring high standards and good value for money

• Strategic advice and creativity: applies in-depth specialist knowledge to advise on how to develop and deliver engaging, effective content on a range of subjects, including complex issues, in a range of formats in a clear and credible way, providing advice to senior leaders and colleagues across the FCA on digital, branding, design, and multimedia production

• Effective delivery: ensure the work of the team supports the effective delivery of outcomes set out in the FCA Strategy and Communication Plan with evaluation in place to support continuous improvement in the team and delivering value for money. This work should help change behaviour and raise awareness of important messages helping firms to understand our expectations, meeting transparency and accessibility obligations, protecting consumers from harm and promoting competition and growth

• Risk management: manages the operational, execution and public confidence risks of digital and multimedia communications – ensuring appropriate training, controls and mitigation are in place. This includes handling crystallized risks, ensuring business continuity or addressing emerging issues 

• Budget management: ensuring adherence to finance policy and guidance, VFM principles and accounting good practice on forecasting, invoicing and purchasing

• Horizon scanning for innovations in websites, design and digital content, for more efficient and better ways of working, keeping up with changing technologies and building new capabilities in the team. This includes identifying opportunities for automation and transformation of ways of working supported by digital channels

• Compliance: ensures the FCA’s website and design products meet legislative obligations on accessibility, copyright and privacy and challenges inappropriate use of FCA branding

What you will get from the role  

This role provides the opportunity to make a difference to society, creating impactful digital and design content that protects and empowers consumers, supports market integrity and contributes to the growth and competitiveness of the UK’s financial services markets. 

As part of the Senior Management Team this role will contribute to the overall leadership of the Communications directorate and work alongside a range of specialist professional communicators covering all corporate communication disciplines, enabling professional development and stretch. 

Working at the FCA provides intellectual challenge and the opportunity to work on a variety of issues that matter to the financial lives of people and businesses across the UK.   

Our competitive flexible benefits scheme gives you the opportunity to create a personalised benefits package, tailored to suit your lifestyle. You can use this allowance to purchase additional benefits such as dental or cycle to work or you have the option top up your base salary by taking this as cash.  

Core benefits that you will receive as standard are:  

• 28 days holiday per year plus bank holidays

• Private healthcare with Bupa  

• A non-contributory Pension of at least 8% of basic salary each month (there are several contribution levels that increase depending on your age – up to 12% a month once you reach age 35)  

• Life assurance of eight times your basic salary  

• Income protection  

We support hybrid working which means you will be able to work from home up to 60% of the time over a month with the remainder of your time in one of our three office locations.  

The skills and experience you will have  

Minimum  

We are a signatory to the Government’s Disability Confident scheme. This means that we will offer an interview to disabled candidates entering under the scheme, who best meet the minimum criteria for a role. 

• Substantial professional experience in one or more of the following specialisms: digital transformation, management of websites, digital channels and content, brand, design and multimedia production

• Proven leadership experience with demonstrable ability in developing a strong, resilient, high-performing team

• Demonstrable experience and good working knowledge of SEO, UX and content management platforms 

Essential

• Experience in devising and delivering corporate brand and design strategy including developing and managing brand guidelines, applying good practice design principles, traditional and digital publishing techniques 

• Evaluation-focused with research expertise and understanding of UX/user experience, consumer journey mapping and user testing to ensure content and channels meet expectations and are effective, with a credible track record of continuous improvement, sound evaluation and judgement  

• Application of inclusive content design skills: able to set design parameters ensuring the specialist needs of the FCA and our audiences continue to be met, including accessibility ratings and the Welsh Language Act. Proactively seeks to widen our audience reach (including vulnerable consumers)

• Forward-thinking and quick to adapt to the fast-changing digital world, bringing us up to date with what our audiences expect in terms of channels and content (video, design, graphics, digital, gifs, animation, photography) 

• Experience in establishing appropriate risk management and controls in digital publishing 

• Strong project management skills to ensure multiple elements of content for important announcements, consultation exercises and in-house campaigns are coordinated and delivered with appropriate governance and audit trail  

• Strong verbal and written communications, influencing and negotiation skills to work effectively with a wide range of senior stakeholders internally and externally - with ability to adapt style to communicate with credibility with individuals at all levels  

• Able to make bold, timely decisions, trusting expertise and experience when information is scarce or ambiguous.  

• Experience of managing effective teams, building capability, supporting development and career progression, wellbeing and motivation 

• Contribution to management of the wider division and proactive approach to spotting opportunities to improve standards, work seamlessly and inclusively

About the FCA   

The FCA regulates the conduct of nearly 45,000 firms in the UK to ensure our financial markets are honest, fair and competitive. We do this to make sure markets work well for individuals, businesses and the economy as a whole. For more information on what we do, our three-year strategy can be found here.  

The FCA's Values & Diversity  

Our ambition is to cultivate a culture of inclusion for all employees that respects their individual strengths, views, and experiences. We believe that our differences and similarities enable us to be a better organisation – one that makes better decisions, drives innovation, and delivers better regulation.  

The FCA is committed to achieving greater diversity across all levels of the organisations. Given this, we particularly welcome applications from women, disabled and minority ethnic candidates for our role.   

Flexible working

We welcome applications from candidates who are looking for flexible arrangements.  Many of our staff work flexibly including working part-time, staggered hours, and job shares.  We can’t promise to give you exactly what you want but we won’t judge you for asking.    
  

Multi-location

As part of the FCA’s on-going commitment to develop our national presence, most of our vacancies are now open to working in our Edinburgh, Leeds, or London offices.  This means that as part of the application process you will be able to select your preference of which office location you would like to work from.   

Useful information  

Applications for this role close at 23:59 on Thursday 5th September 2024.

This role is graded as Manager – Corporate.

Got a question?    

If you are interested in learning more about the role please contact: 

• For internal applicants, please contact Melanie Dubock at [email protected]

• For external applicants, please contact Ifrah Azam at [email protected]

What to expect from our interview process  

The process will involve three separate stages: 

• A competency-based interview  

• Psychometric Assessment   

• Final Interview  

Your Recruiter will discuss the process in detail with you during screening for the role.  

Recruitment Timeline: 

• Closing Date: 5th September  

• First Round interviews & Assessment: WC 16th September

• Final Interview: WC 23rd September 

Please make your Recruiter aware if you are going to be unavailable for any date during this time.  

Application support  

We want to remove any possible barriers and are committed to providing a wide range of reasonable adjustments so that you can keep the focus on your conversations and be at your best.  

If you have an accessibility requirement, disability, or condition that means you might require changes to the recruitment process, please contact your recruiter to discuss this further. Our aim is to make your application as easy and comfortable as possible, and your recruiter will be happy to work with you to make any necessary arrangements where possible.