Senior Communications Planning & Portfolio Manager

Job summary

Senior Communications Planning & Portfolio Manager

£78,000 per annum

Bedford

Permanent

Hybrid Working

Ready to make a real difference? Join us at the Money and Pensions Service (MaPS) as our Senior Communications Planning & Portfolio Manager. This is your chance to play a meaningful role in helping people across the UK build stronger financial futures and to do it as part of a supportive, energetic team.

Why This Role Matters

The Customer Engagement function sits within Customer Delivery Directorate and aspires to become a communications and marketing centre of excellence within MaPS. Our team’s mission is to reach people where they are and help them to connect to our MoneyHelper guidance, services and partners. We do this through collaboration with colleagues across the organisation, and direct delivery through communications and engagement channels.

We are looking for someone to partner across the organisation, to understand business priorities and utilise that information to shape effective customer communication and engagement plans. This is a senior role and will sit as part of the Customer Engagement Senior Leadership Team (SLT).

You will be an experienced strategic communications or media/campaigns planning manager, who is passionate about your work, demonstrating strong strategic insight, great planning skills and the ability to work across teams. You will own the communications planning grid, and lead regular and strategic cross-business planning meetings.

You will be a brand ambassador for MaPS, MoneyHelper, and our amazing consumer-facing services.

You’ll join a team that’s passionate, collaborative, and driven by the belief that financial confidence should be something everyone can access.

About Us

MaPS is based in bright, modern offices in Bedford, and we’re here to help people across the UK feel more confident and informed about their money.

Our values guide how we work together:

• Caring – for colleagues and the communities we support
• Connecting – building supportive, positive relationships
• Transforming – creating impact that truly matters

We’re proud to foster an inclusive, welcoming culture. Our colleague networks include LGBTQ+, neurodiversity, women’s health, men’s health and ethnicity groups — and we welcome applications from all backgrounds.

Job description

• Lead communications business planning, personally being the main business partner and through working in a matrix way with others in the communications team.
• Set up and run regular communications planning sessions, bringing together operational, strategic, policy and insight teams from across the business, and aligning with the business planning cycle. Lead the ‘start the week’ cross-team communications meetings.
• Ownership of the central communications planning grid for MaPS, responsible for driving more centralised planning and coordination of communications activities across a diverse portfolio of MaPS objectives.
• As part of the Customer Engagement SLT, work together with leads for marketing, partnerships, media and editorial to agree communications priorities, campaigns, themes, reactive work and so on, and be responsible for ensuring those priorities are implemented in a coordinated and flexible way across teams.
• Work closely with colleagues in ensuring the delivery of strong briefs for media, creative and digital use, and ensure specialist functions are fully briefed to ensure they can deliver high quality tailored support.
• Create and maintain strong internal networks, gaining a deep understanding of the relevant operational and content areas to advise on messaging and the most appropriate communications approaches to meet desired external and communications objectives.
• Regularly review and develop communications planning processes and tools to ensure effective and efficient planning across the communications team.
• Evaluate the success of our communications activity and whether we are achieving the desired range of coverage, reach and engagement, including supporting on Board reporting.
• Act as a trusted advisor to senior leaders and colleagues across the business, and use horizon scanning, evaluation and insight, to ensure our plans and products are as effective as possible.
• Support the ongoing evolution of the Customer Engagement strategy and implementation plans, including route to market activities.
• Bring energy and fresh ideas to communications delivery challenges and a proactive, problem-solving approach.
• Any other duties as reasonably required.

Person specification

To be successful in this role, you’ll need:

Essential

• 7+ years’ experience in a strategic and/or communications planning role within a complex organisation. Consumer facing communications experience is an advantage.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and experience of bringing teams together to manage and deliver proactive communications campaigns, projects and announcements, and evaluating outcomes.
• Strong experience of using business information, intelligence and insights to inform communications strategic, plans and messages.
• Experience informing and shaping strategies and activities utilising paid, no and low-cost channels and working with multiple channel owners (media, social media, websites etc) to deliver these.
• Experience of building relationships with key internal and external stakeholders, to supporting organisational and wider government objectives and campaign delivery.
• Experience working with, and providing advice for, senior internal stakeholders.
• Confident in using planning tools such as Monday.com and Microsoft programs.

Desirable

• Knowledge of the Government Communications Service OASIS model, the GCS evaluation cycle or similar.
• Experience of being a communications business partner.
• Experience working in a marketing, campaigns and/or media team.

Personal attributes:

• A self-starter with excellent written and verbal communication skills who can work at pace, prioritise competing demands, horizon-scan, and be responsive to change with short deadlines.
• Organisational skills, with the capacity to prioritise and work across multiple projects.
• Sensitive to and respectful of colleagues’ expertise and remits with an ability to bring a wide range of experts together to deliver to shared aims.
• Good team member, with the ability to build effective working relationships with colleagues and stakeholders. Comfortable to lead and work in a matrix way.
• Ability to persuade and influence at a senior level with gravitas and bring together and influence a team of people from different disciplines.
• Excellent verbal and written communications.
• Comfortable co-ordinating others.

Benefits

• 30 days’ annual leave plus bank holidays
• Pension contributions matched 2 to 1 (employer contribution up to 10% of your salary)
• Season ticket loan
• Cycle to work scheme (up to £3,000)
• Subsidised eye tests & flu jabs
• Life assurance
• EAP Assist & Life
• Enhanced family and sick pay
• 2 paid volunteering days
• Recognition scheme
• Retail discounts portal

Flexible Working

We believe work should fit around life. This Bedford‑based role offers genuine flexibility so you can balance work, family, and personal commitments. We come together for purposeful team collaboration to stay connected and drive great results.

Career Development
We love supporting internal growth and progression, while continuing to follow fair and open Civil Service recruitment practices.

Important Information About Applying

• Please apply only via official MaPS links - we can’t accept applications via email or unauthorised sites.
• MaPS is unable to offer visa sponsorship.

Reserve List: If you're successful at interview, we may place you on a reserve list for up to 6 months. If a similar role becomes available, you may be offered it without the need for another assessment.

If you believe your application hasn’t followed the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles, you can contact resourcing@maps.org.uk. If unresolved, you may then contact the Civil Service Commission.

Job Reference: MaPS01185

Close Date: 31/05/2026

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

We keep things simple, fair, and transparent:

Step 1: Submit Your Application

Open: 15/05/2026 , Deadline: 31/05/2026

To apply, please submit the following documents:

1. Your most up-to-date CV
2. A cover letter (maximum 1,000 words). Please structure your cover letter in two parts:

• Part 1 – Motivation and fit
  Explain why you are interested in this role and how your experience and values align with it.
• Part 2 – Essential Criteria
  Using the Essential and Desirable Criteria, provide concise examples that demonstrate your judgement, level of responsibility and impact.

Step 2: Telephone Interview

Between 15/05/2026 – 02/06/2026

If your application is shortlisted, you will be invited to a telephone interview with one of our recruiters. This is an opportunity to:

• Discuss your experience in more detail
• Learn more about the role and our organisation
• Ask any questions you may have

Step 3: Final Stage Interview

Hosted on 12/06/2026 and 15/06/2026

Successful candidates from the telephone interview will be invited to attend an in-person interview in our Bedford office

This stage will consist of:
• A short presentation and discussion, followed by
• A structured interview

Together, these will explore how candidates apply their experience, judgement and skills to scenarios relevant to the role.

We follow fair, open, and merit‑based recruitment in line with the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see theCivil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

• Name : SOPHIE.RIGNEY@REED.COM
• Email : SOPHIE.RIGNEY@REED.COM

Recruitment team

• Email : SOPHIE.RIGNEY@REED.COM