Senior Social Media Officer (2469)

Do you want to create a better world for animals? At the RSPCA, we believe all animals deserve kindness and respect. We work for the benefit of every animal, from pets to farmed animals, and wildlife to animals used in science. Choose a career with us and make a difference for every kind.

We are looking for a new Senior Social Media Officer to join the team.

Contract: 12-month fixed-term contract to cover a period of maternity leave. 

Working hours: 35 hours; Monday - Friday.

You will be required to work out-of-hours on a rota basis. This is normally for one week every three months (evenings from 5-9pm and weekends from 9am-9pm). Overtime is paid for this. 

Hybrid role: Your base will be at the South East/London Hub, but you will predominantly be working from home. You will be expected to travel for team meetings once every couple of months, and to animal centres and branches as needed to collect content, but we will normally try to match you to your closest sites. 

Applicants must be able to start at the beginning of November 2025.

We think this role's going to be popular and are expecting to attract high interest so we strongly encourage early applications to avoid missing out - closing date is the 5th of September 2025.

This role is being offered as a 12-month fixed-term contract to cover a period of maternity leave. 

Imagine you start your day and 300 messages have come in overnight; they all require your attention. On top of that, you know you have to create and schedule some content, attend a meeting and deal with a request from a volunteer, and support the team who are requesting support with an issue on socials. This just about sums up a typical day for our Senior Social Media Officer, so if this sounds like your kind of role and pace of working, this may be the role for you. 

You will create content covering a very wide range of topics, from rehoming to welfare advice, corporate partnerships to fundraisers, and jumping on trends to maximise our reach, in addition to liaising with our frontline teams to gather content. You will be responsible for engaging directly with our supporters and influencing public perception of the RSPCA. You will manage the reputation of the organisation during both small and large-scale crises and directly communicate animal welfare advice to the public, enabling them to take appropriate action to care for animals and alleviate suffering. We are sadly sent upsetting content featuring animal cruelty and neglect via social media, so you will also need to be able to cope with this. Support is provided for this. 

As Senior Social Media Officer, you will also:

• Lead the social content calendar and quarterly planning, analysing performance to guide future content.
• Approve posts created by the social media officers, ensuring these are on-brand, factually and grammatically accurate and have a good supporting customer journey.
• Produce engaging content to raise awareness of the RSPCA and animal welfare issues.
• Lead on larger-scale projects such as integrated campaigns across the organisation.
• Manage online social communities, dealing with hundreds of messages per day.
• Write reactive statements to diffuse situations and build brand trust, to be used by multiple teams across the organisation.
• Work with influencers and content creators, researching and identifying those who would be a good fit, building relationships and supporting them to create content for key campaigns, including organising and attending centre visits.
• Take the lead on supporting branches and national sites on social media usage.
• Deputise for the Social Media Manager in their absence (including out-of-hours and during annual leave).

To be a successful Senior Social Media Officer within the RSPCA, you must have:

• Proven experience of crisis communications and reputation management.
• Experience of dealing with people on social media who are disgruntled.
• A proven ability to work well in a fast-paced environment, with the ability to build a rapport with a wide range of stakeholders and to juggle priorities.
• The ability to remain calm and professional at all times, when representing the RSPCA (this role is exposed to upsetting content depicting animal cruelty).
• Be a great team player; stepping in to help and support others on particularly busy or difficult days. 
• Demonstrable experience of using Sprout Social.
• Up-to-date knowledge and experience of using social media platforms, including X, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn
• A working knowledge and demonstrated experience of using Canva. 
• Great organisational skills, with the ability to multi-task.
• The ability to be adaptable and resilient to changing priorities and workloads.
• Proven experience of working well with Google applications.

Successful candidates for certain RSPCA roles will need to undergo a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check.

Applicants must have the legal right to work in the UK - We are unable to sponsor visas at RSPCA

First stage interviews will take place during the week commencing the 15th of September. 

The interview process will involve a written task.

We want to ensure we do all we can to give you a positive candidate experience through our recruitment. Whilst we do try to give feedback where we can, sometimes due to receiving high levels of applications, this may not always be possible

We are building the future of a diverse Society, and our priority is to support animal welfare by finding people from all backgrounds who are committed  to our mission.  For this reason we actively encourage a wide diversity of applications - in particular from members of minority ethnic groups, and people with disabilities - as these candidates are currently under-represented at the RSPCA. Your transferable skills & lived experiences could make you a valuable addition to our RSPCA Family! 

Should you need any support with your application or interview process please contact resourcingteam@rspca.org.uk / 0300 123 0685.

Our mission is to ensure animals have a good life by rescuing and caring for those in need, by advocating on behalf of all animals and by inspiring everyone to treat them with compassion and respect