Director Ext Affairs Engage & Corp Comms (Headquarters, Chelmsford)

Location of Role: Essex Police HQ, or other locations in Essex as required. This position necessitates office based attendance, with local and national travel, to perform the duties as required.

Advert Closing Date: 08/12/2025

Starting Salary: Competitive salary based on Assistant Chief Officer (ACO) banding (national pay award pending), plus company car.

Part/Full Time: Full Time

Contract Type: Permanent

Working Pattern: Mon-Fri

Weekend/Evening Working: No

Essex Police is seeking an exceptional communications leader to join our Chief Officer Group as Director of External Affairs and Corporate Communications. This is a rare opportunity within one of the UK’s largest police forces to bring communities and businesses together to help prevent and detect crime, build trust and confidence, and make Greater Essex an even safer place to live and work.

We are looking for a visionary professional, someone who can bring fresh perspective, strategic direction, and executive-level leadership to a complex and high-profile environment. Whether you come from the private, public or third sector, if you have the credibility, agility, and ambition to lead external affairs and corporate communications at scale, we want to hear from you.

About the Role

As a member of the Chief Officer Group (Executive Board), you will lead the development and delivery of Essex Police’s external affairs, corporate communications, and marketing strategies. You will be responsible for shaping how we engage with the public, partners, and stakeholders locally, regionally, and nationally.

This role is about more than just leading a high performing public affairs and corporate communications function. The role will help unite people and organisations to reduce crime, respond effectively to critical incidents and emergencies, keep the public informed and safe, and build a strong workforce and volunteer network of over 6,000 individuals dedicated to protecting and serving the entire county.

You will provide strategic advice at the highest level, lead through critical incidents and represent the Force across multi-agency partnerships and national forums, so that emergency services, local government and private businesses work together to make everyone safer.

As Head of Profession for external affairs and communications you will set standards, drive innovation, and inspire our teams to deliver excellence across all communications and public affairs activity.

You will ensure that people and businesses across Greater Essex know how to avoid becoming a victim of crime, how to contact or to work with police officers and staff to get help or advice and – most importantly – you will help make the county a great place to live and a bad place to try to commit crime.

What We Are Looking For

We are seeking a dynamic and experienced leader with:

Extensive executive-level experience in external affairs, communications, media relations, marketing, employee engagement, and stakeholder engagement.
A proven track record of operating at board level in large, complex organisations in the private, public or third sector.
Strategic expertise in managing reputational risk, building trust and long-term brand development to support recruitment of the very best people and the creation of effective crime prevention campaigns.
Political acumen and the ability to build effective relationships across agencies and sectors.
Experience of leading high-performing teams and embedding long-term planning into a large-scale communications function.
Exceptional communication and negotiation skills, with a personal ethos of transparency, integrity, and professionalism.

Prior experience in policing is not essential, but the ability to understand and navigate the public sector and landscape is.

Why Essex Police?

Essex Police is a values-led organisation committed to innovation, inclusion, and public service. We offer a unique opportunity to lead at the highest level, influence public trust and confidence, and make a tangible difference to the communities we serve.

You will be joining a collaborative and forward-thinking executive team, with the autonomy to shape strategy and the support to deliver it.

Crime is falling in Greater Essex; this is your chance to join our officers, police staff and volunteers to make a fast-growing region an even safer place to work, to study, to travel through or to live in.

For an informal conversation about the role, please contact: Geraldine Hetherington on 07540 726238 or by email at Geraldine.h@ellwoodatfield.com

To apply or find out more, visit: https://www.ellwoodatfield.com/jobs/director-of-external-affairs-and-corporate-communications

Please do not apply to this role by clicking the "Apply" button below as applications in this manner will not be accepted.

All of our posts require a level of vetting and security clearance. During the recruitment process you will be sent vetting information forms to complete.

Kent Police and Essex Police welcomes applications regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership status, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation, sex, or employment status.

Please let us know if you require extra support at any stage of the application process, or for further information regarding this position, please email us at recruitment.business.services@ecis.police.uk stating ‘Application Support and Adjustments’ in the title of your email. Alternatively, you can call us on 01245 452833. Where appropriate we will make adjustments to the selection process, working arrangements and/or the working environment provided it is reasonable in all the circumstances to do so.

If you’re not from the UK, you must be a resident in the UK and have lived here continuously for the last three years. You must also be free from restrictions with indefinite leave to remain. If you’re from the UK you must have lived here continuously for the last three years. This doesn’t apply to those serving abroad in the British Armed Forces.

As a Disability Confident Leader we:

have subjected our Disability Confident self-assessment to external challenge and validation
are taking an active leadership role in encouraging and helping other employers on their journey to becoming Disability Confident.

Diversity, Equality and Inclusion are central to the values of our organisation. At Essex Police we value and embrace the unique experiences, identities and abilities that each of us bring to our roles. We strive to empower everyone to bring their authentic self openly and safely to work.

Through the dedicated commitment of our support networks, DE&I team and wider HR departments, we are on a journey to embed our DE&I commitments, ensuring Essex Police is an employer of choice; where everyone feels included.

Essex Police and Kent Police are an equal opportunities employer. Communications may be recorded for monitoring purposes.