Senior Media Advisor

Our Organisation

At Melbourne Water we love water and love life. What we do makes a vital contribution to Melbourne’s famous lifestyle. We achieve this by supplying high quality drinking water, providing outstanding sewerage services, integrating drainage systems, building resilience to flooding and by enhancing our waterway and land for greater community use. At Melbourne Water, we are in the ‘Decade that Matters’ and we’ve got some ambitious goals to achieve. It’s a pride we share in helping to make greater Melbourne a fantastic place to live.

The Role

Reporting to the Manager Media and Reputation, the Senior Media Advisor will build Melbourne Water’s brand and reputation by driving proactive and positive coverage of Melbourne Water’s services and work via traditional media. In this role, you will maintain a proactive program of positive PR and effective issues preparedness as well as monitor internal and external environment to develop proactive media plans, stories and communications assets and also reactive media statements.

This will be achieved through:

• Driving proactive PR management programs building brand recognition and maximizing positive sentiment of the Melbourne Water brand and services in the community.
• Developing and maintaining a calendar of positive PR activity and supporting media statements, briefing documents and support materials.
• Planning and pitching positive stories to media (producers & journalists) to promote Melbourne Water and generate increased positive coverage.
• Fostering and maintaining strong relationships with media and journalist relationships.
• Managing any reactive media enquiries to proactively manage out any media issues to protect Melbourne Water’s reputation by minimizing negative commentary.
• Responding to media enquiries, researching and developing reactive media statements, briefing documents and support materials within tight deadlines ensuring Melbourne Water spokespeople are fully prepared.

Your Skills and Experience

• Exceptional media management experience and PR skills.
• Government experience preferred.
• Highly creative with exceptional written and verbal communication skills.
• Proven and demonstrated ability to plan and implement effective PR programs and media outreach to support delivery of business priorities, projects and campaigns via owned and earned channels.
• Demonstrated proactive and reactive media management skills, including preparation of spokesperson briefing and support materials.
• Sound commercial acumen and judgement gained in large or complex organisations.

Your demonstrated stakeholder engagement skills with the ability to build and maintain relationships across diverse stakeholders groups will be keys to this role.

For more information, please see the attached Position Description.

Culture at Melbourne Water

We take enormous pride in cultivating a culture that holistically benefits our team and the wider Melbourne community. The pillars of our culture are based on Flexibility, Impact, Growth & Development, and People.

• We are committed to flexible working in a variety of manners including hybrid work, varied start/finish times, purchased leave, part time work, and 9-day fortnights. We understand that Melbourne Water and our customers are benefitted by enabling balance in work and life.
• Make an impact as part of a passionate team doing meaningful work to enhance life and livability in Melbourne.
• We relish learning and challenging the status quo for continuous growth. Perpetual and varied opportunities for learning and development are offered in a variety of manners - from formal development programs, digital learning content and lunch & learns; to visiting our sites and getting to see our initiatives and projects first hand.
• People are the foundation for all that we do. Our people are warm, welcoming, and inclusive.
• We welcome applications from everyone, including people with disability, mature age and young job seekers, members of the LGBTI+ community, and people from culturally diverse backgrounds. Melbourne Water welcomes and encourages applications from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

How to apply

Click on the "apply" button and complete the online application form.

Closing date: 8 April 2024 at 11:55pm AEST