Communications Officer (3-year Fixed Term Contract)
Application Deadline: 23 February 2026
Department: Communications
Employment Type: Fixed Term - Full Time
Location: Oxford
Compensation: £35,000 / year
Description
Lady Margaret Hall (LMH) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, set in peaceful, spacious gardens beside the University Parks. Founded in 1878 as Oxford's first women's college, LMH opened the door to higher education for women at the University, driven by a deep commitment to learning and equality. Today, the College continues to draw inspiration from this pioneering vision, with a strong focus on widening access and supporting academic excellence.
Since 1979 LMH has been a co-educational community. We now have around 400 undergraduate and 300 postgraduate students, along with approximately 80 academic staff and 145 support staff. LMH is the only Oxbridge college to hold a Gold-level Investors in People accreditation, reflecting our commitment to developing and supporting our staff. We live by our values of Excellence, Knowledge and Understanding, Community, and Fairness.
The College is known for its welcoming atmosphere, its strong sense of community, and its ongoing work to broaden participation in higher education.
The Communications Officer Role
Lady Margaret Hall is seeking a motivated and thoughtful communications professional to join our small, collaborative and supportive Communications team. This is a newly-created role that reflects the College's growing investment in clear, purposeful and engaging communication, particularly as we prepare for LMH's 150th Anniversary in
Working closely with the Head of Communications and the Digital Content and Communications Manager, the post-holder will contribute to a wide range of projects across digital, print, internal and external communications. The Communications Officer will be part of a friendly and adaptable team that welcomes new ideas, responds quickly to changing priorities, and continually looks for ways to improve impact and effectiveness.
This is a varied, hands-on role involving regular interaction with all of the College's key audiences, including students, academics, alumni and support staff. It offers an excellent opportunity for a generalist communicator to broaden their skills while helping to shape the stories and messages that promote LMH's distinctive character and the people who shape it.
Relationships
Responsible to: Head of Communications (Principal's Office) Liaison with: Digital Content and Communications Manager; Development Team; Academic Members; wider College support staff and students.
Main Tasks
Content Creation
* Identify and write high-impact news stories for our website and print publications, collaborating with colleagues, academics, students and alumni to produce content that promotes the College's priorities.
* Contribute to print publications, including our LMH News magazine and the annual Philanthropy Report, through content generation, proofreading and editorial support.
* Support the creation of engaging content for the College's social media channels, collaborating with the Digital Content and Communications Manager, who retains overall ownership of the channels.
* Produce internal and external email communications, including drafting and building HTML emails for the alumni bulletin and weekly staff and student updates, and support broader internal communications such as the HR team's termly Staff Newsletter.
Digital and Web Communications
* Maintain and update the LMH website, ensuring information is accurate, accessible and engaging for key audiences, working with colleagues across the College to achieve this.
* Contribute to ongoing website improvement projects, liaising with external developers to deliver enhancements.
* Support the maintenance of the College intranet and preparations for the forthcoming migration to the University's OxIntranet platform.
* Provide occasional hands-on support for video and media projects (including filming, scheduling shoots or taking photographs) alongside the Digital Content and Communications Manager.
Event and Project Support
* Promote College events by creating content for the website, newsletters, social media and digital display screens.
* Support communications planning and content delivery for LMH's 150th Anniversary celebrations (2028–29), including major projects such as a coffee-table book, portrait gallery expansion and the digitisation of our Oral History project.
* Contribute to communications activity underpinning the soon-to-be-launched LMH150: Thinking for the Future fundraising campaign, working with colleagues in the Development Office to create inspiring donor-focused content.
* Provide occasional assistance to the Head of Communications on press and PR matters.
Insights and Stakeholder Engagement
* Monitor the impact and reach of College communications, staying up-to-date with emerging trends and identifying opportunities to enhance performance.
* Build and maintain strong working relationships with staff, students, academics, alumni and University-wide colleagues to proactively identify communications opportunities.
This role has been created to meet the growing need for strategic and professional communications support across the College. As the College's priorities develop, the post-holder may be asked to take on new areas of responsibility, with training and support provided as appropriate.
Person Specification
Essential
1. A degree (or equivalent qualification), or a similar level of skill and experience gained in a work environment.
2. Outstanding verbal and written communication skills, with a high level of attention to detail and accuracy.
3. Proven skill and experience in writing engaging copy for a range of audiences and channels.
4. Strong organisational and project management skills, with the ability to prioritise and keep track of multiple tasks and deadlines.
5. Understanding of, and commitment to, accessible and inclusive communication.
6. Excellent interpersonal skills, with the ability to work collaboratively with a wide range of people.
7. Competence in using content management systems such as Drupal or Wordpress to update and manage web content.
8. Confident IT user with strong skills in email, web-based publishing and word processing, able to quickly learn new tools, create basic digital content, and use analytics to monitor engagement.
Desirable
1. Ability to create HTML emails using systems such as Stripo, MailChimp or Adestra.
2. Skill in producing high-quality digital and visual content (using, for example, Adobe Creative Cloud or Canva) for target audiences.
3. A good understanding of GDPR and web accessibility requirements (or the ability to develop this quickly).
4. Ability to produce or support the creation of multimedia content, such as social posts, photography or basic video.
5. Background in contributing to or editing long-form print publications.
6. Experience of working in a higher-education or charity environment.
Terms and Conditions
The salary will be c.£35k per annum FTE. This role is offered on a 3-year Fixed Term contract. The role is offered as full time, but part-time applications (minimum 0.6FTE) will be considered.
Benefits of working for the College include 37 days holiday (including bank holidays), pro rata for part time appointments, the option to join a University pension scheme and one free meal whilst on duty and the kitchens are open (when the kitchens are closed a meal allowance will be paid). Additional benefits include discounted bus/train travel to commute to work or salary sacrifice bicycle scheme, employee assistance programme, annual flu jab and eye examination, regular staff social events and wellbeing activities.
Working hours – 37.5 hours per week, with exact working hours to be agreed upon appointment. While most work will take place within regular working hours, periodically some flexibility may be required in order to provide support for evening or weekend events. For extended periods of out-of hours working time off in lieu is granted. All Bank holidays during term time are working days and time-off in lieu is granted.
There will be an initial probationary period of six months. Applicants must be eligible to work in the UK.
How to Apply
Applications can be submitted via the 'Apply Now' button. Applicants are asked to upload:
* A covering letter indicating why you are applying for the role and how you fit the selection criteria
* Your CV
The closing date for applications is midday on Monday 23 February 2026. First interviews are expected to take place week commencing 2nd March
A principal aim of this College's Equal Opportunities Policy is to ensure that in the recruitment, selection, training, appraisal, development and promotion of employees, the only consideration must be that the individual best meets, or is likely to meet, the requirements of the programme or course or post.
Lady Margaret Hall is committed to providing a learning, working and social environment in which the rights and dignity of all its members are respected, and which is free from prejudice, intimidation and all forms of harassment, including bullying. We seek to ensure that no-one suffers, either directly or indirectly, as a result of discrimination.
Lady Margaret Hall has a range of family friendly policies.
Issued by the HR Office