Communications and Engagement Lead

As a Change Consultancy, at Clarion Insight we help organisations, teams and individuals to successfully embrace business change in complex environments, by putting people at the centre of everything we do.

As we continue to grow and serve an increasingly diverse set of clients (National Security, Defence and Policing), we are seeking a talented and motivated Communication and Engagement Lead to join our expanding our team within the London area. 

About the role

As a senior Communications & Engagement Lead, you will be embedded within client environments as part of Clarion Insight’s wider change and transformation teams. You will lead communications and engagement activities across large, multi-year digital transformation programmes. You will be the voice of change and the ear of the organisation, driving clear, consistent, and trusted messaging while also actively listening to users, stakeholders, and influencers to surface real concerns and blockers. 

Key responsibilities:

• Leading the development of phased communications strategies tailored to programme stages and stakeholder groups, that support programme recovery, readiness, and delivery outcomes 
• Developing C-SMART (Challenging, Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound) communication objectives and measuring impact through communications insight and evaluation methodologies. 
• Creating a unified programme voice and tone across delivery teams, senior stakeholders, and user communities, that provides trust and builds alignment. 
• Designing and delivering scalable engagement plans that enable active listening and capture insights to inform programme direction. 
• Surfacing hidden resistance and monitoring signs of change fatigue to adapt messaging and engagement methods to maintain momentum. 
• Engaging senior leaders and service owners to build buy-in and accountability for change. 
• Translating insights into actionable recommendations, presenting targeted messaging that supports clear and timely decision-making. 
• Aligning communications and engagement across diverse groups and building shared ownership over messaging and engagement.
• Thinking creatively and exploring innovative ways to engage diverse audiences to improve the adoption of new systems, processes, and behaviours. 
• Collaborative leadership, leading and influencing across boundaries without direct authority.
• Risk and reputation management, anticipating communication risks (e.g. misinformation, engagement gaps) and responding swiftly with transparency and confidence to safeguard credibility.

About You    

We’re looking for a senior consultant with a strong background in communications, engagement, and change delivery, particularly within public sector environments. You’ll be confident working across complex programmes, influencing senior stakeholders, and leading strategic engagement initiatives that support readiness and transformation.

You will bring:

• Proven experience designing and leading large-scale stakeholder engagement and change communications strategies in complex programmes. 
• Track record of delivering in challenged or underperforming programmes, using communications and engagement to reset direction and restore momentum. 
• Strong experience engaging senior stakeholders and leadership teams presenting information clearly to support evidence-based decision making. 
• Understanding of organisational culture and how to design scalable communications that support behavioural and cultural change. 
• Ability to translate engagement insights into delivery planning, readiness, and transition design. 
• Experience in public sector transformation programmes navigating organisational complexity. 
• Experience in designing and facilitating workshops and engagement sessions.
• A creative mindset, bringing innovative storytelling, visualisation, or campaign techniques to refresh how change is communicated and experienced.
• Strong writing, visual communication, and messaging design skills simplifying complexity.
• Ability to work effectively across multiple teams and locations, maintaining alignment and consistency in messaging.

It is also desirable that you bring:

• Experience working with or alongside policing being highly desirable.
• Conflict management and navigation, effectively managing conflict, tensions, or resistance in sensitive environments.

We recognise that the level of experience you have in any of these capabilities will vary, and at Clarion we also have a desire to support our employees to remain current, be business focused and develop their change consultancy knowledge and skills.

About Us

Clarion Insight is a specialist consultancy focusing on improving organisational, team and individual performance through the transformation of relationships and ways of working.  We have an enviable track record of successful delivery of both small and large-scale change and transformation programmes in exacting and sensitive environments.  

We believe that the greatest competitive advantage for any business is in the quality of their people and how they work with each other. That’s why people are at the heart of everything we do. We are passionate about helping clients improve the quality of their relationships at all levels of the organisation.  

We adopt these same principles for our own teams. Our core values of Trust, Tolerance and Teamwork are at the heart of how we work. We encourage and empower our people to lead, take responsibility, and make optimal use of their skills and expertise - all whilst working together as one integrated team.   

Salary:  Dependent on experience

Benefits:  Clarion offers a comprehensive benefits package which includes 28 days annual leave, plus bank holidays, holiday trading scheme, private medical insurance, up to 10% Company pension contributions, life assurance, hybrid and flexible working.

Location:  This is hybrid role; typically working 3 days on client site in London and up to 2 days working from home. 

Employment Type: Permanent 

Clearance  

SC clearance is preferable and NPPV3 clearance would be ideal.  All successful applicants must be eligible & willing to obtain an SC and NPPV3 clearance and be prepared to progress this to eDV level, if required. For further information on the criteria to obtain this please visit - United Kingdom Security Vetting: Applicant - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)  

Application

If you are interested and want to join a dynamic and growing team, please apply through our Careers page: https://clarioninsight.com/communication-and-engagement-lead. Successful candidates will be interviewed by video call followed up with a second interview at our offices in Cheltenham. We will look to accommodate any individual requirements to ensure our selection process is inclusive. 

Our values and company ethos are very important to us, and we strive to live these through everything we do. We are committed to equality of opportunity for our team and encourage all applicants regardless of age, disability, sex, pregnancy and maternity, gender reassignment, sexual orientation, race, religion / belief and marriage / civil partnership. 

For more information about Clarion Insight please go to www.clarioninsight.com.