Senior Social Media Manager

Overview

We are seeking an experienced and forward-thinking Senior Social Media Manager to lead the strategic direction of our social channels within one of the UK’s most fast-paced and high-profile environments. As a key member of our newly formed Storytelling and Partnerships team, you will play a vital role in transforming how the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) communicates externally. Your work will elevate digital storytelling, forge impactful partnerships, and maximise the visual and narrative potential of ministerial visits. You will be responsible for shaping our presence across platforms by crafting bold, timely, and impactful content that informs, inspires, and connects with global audiences. Working alongside multidisciplinary teams, you will apply your digital expertise to campaigns with national reach and real-world impact.

Key Accountabilities

• Lead the development and execution of social media strategies supporting high-profile campaigns, ministerial visits, and day-to-day communications, ensuring every storytelling opportunity is maximised across platforms.
• Manage and inspire a talented social media team to deliver creative, high-impact, channel-appropriate content across Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, X, YouTube, Facebook, and emerging platforms, with a strong focus on real-world stories from visits and stakeholder engagement.
• Translate complex policy and external affairs insight into accessible, human-centred social content that showcases businesses, workers, communities, and partners who bring DBT’s mission to life.
• Collaborate closely with designers, videographers, animators, and visits colleagues to create compelling multimedia content capturing strong visuals, authentic moments, and narrative opportunities from ministerial engagements.
• Monitor platform performance and audience behaviour, generating actionable insights to shape future visit storytelling, stakeholder amplification, and campaign optimisation.
• Advise on platform best practice and emerging digital trends to ensure DBT’s visit content, partnership moments, and external affairs storytelling remain fresh, relevant, and innovative.
• Coordinate with press, policy, visits, and external affairs teams to ensure social content is aligned, timely, and strategically integrated into wider communications objectives.
• Support rapid response and digital crisis communications by providing clear, accurate, and agile social content during fast-moving situations, including those arising from visits or stakeholder activity.

About Disability Confident

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About the Department for Business and Trade

The Department for Business and Trade sits at the heart of the government’s number one priority: kickstarting economic growth to deliver the highest sustained growth in the G7. Our mission is clear – to drive more people into good jobs, raise living standards, and deliver productivity growth across every part of the United Kingdom.

We achieve this by making the UK the best place in the world to do business, creating the most connected economy, and delivering excellent services to business. Through our Industrial Strategy, Trade Strategy, Small Business Plan, and Plan to Make Work Pay, we work in partnership with business to create conditions for investment, innovation, and job creation that put more money in working people’s pockets.

With 95% of UK businesses aiming to grow and 37% of international investors in 16 key markets likely to invest in the UK, our challenge is to translate strong policy delivery into business uptake and public trust. We demonstrate tangible economic impact through authentic business, consumer, and worker stories that show – not just tell – how government is delivering growth in partnership with business.

Our Communications Transformation

DBT’s Communications and Marketing function is undergoing a bold transformation to meet the demands of the modern media landscape and deliver on our ambitious growth mission. We are moving from traditional discipline-based communications to an integrated, outcome-focused model that positions communications as a critical delivery enabler, not just a service function.

Our Integrated Approach

Working through matrix teams, we bring together multidisciplinary communications and engagement professionals to deliver priority campaigns under one strategy aligned to the growth mission.

Mission-Led Approach

All our activities directly support the Growth Mission. We translate complex economic policies into clear narratives for target audiences across all DBT communications and engagement channels. Our communication outcomes contribute to the overall mission milestone of “higher living standards in every part of the United Kingdom.”

We operate with SMART objectives, use insight to drive clear audience journeys from awareness to action, and measure impact through metrics aligned to the mission milestone.

By joining DBT Communications and Marketing, you will be part of a team redefining how government communicates about economic growth – working collaboratively across disciplines, using evidence and insight to drive impact, and demonstrating how government partnership with business is creating jobs, driving investment, and improving living standards across the UK.