Head of Social Creative and Production - Government Media Unit

What is the Government Media Unit?

The Government Media Unit (GMU), part of the Government Communication Service in the Cabinet Office, has been established as part of a fundamental transformation of government communications to ensure we are able to operate effectively in a highly fragmented and unstructured media landscape. Established in April 2026, the GMU has a clear goal to reach, connect and rebuild trust with UK citizens in the most effective way possible. Our aim is to provide the public with relevant, useful and authentic content when and where they want to receive it and communicate in an entirely new way.

The government has signalled a clear intention to focus on ambitious, measurable, long-term objectives that deliver better outcomes for citizens. This requires a new way of doing government communications which is more joined-up and better reaches our audiences to build awareness, understanding and trust in the Government.

The GMU will proactively deliver on priority campaigns and lead on cross government communications strategy, coordination, and planning. We need people who think differently and who can respond in a flexible way to the ever-changing media landscape. The GMU will collaborate across the wider GCS, No 10 and departmental communication teams across government. We are focused on real-world impact over volume. This team prioritises evidence-based strategies, audience-led insights, and rigorous performance measurement to combat misinformation and drive meaningful engagement. We execute a modern, integrated communications ecosystem, and operate using a structured 'Long, Short, and Live' model, connecting the whole government communications landscape to deliver high-impact, data-driven narratives that turn promises made into promises kept.

This is a really exciting time to be joining the GMU as we look to expand our activity, test and learn different approaches and deliver communications which make a difference to peoples lives. Join us as we transform government communications, moving beyond reactive announcements to build genuine trust through competence, integrity, and benevolence. We are a strategic strategy & delivery centre, designed to bridge the gap between traditional press offices and behavioural marketing, ensuring government actions resonate with the citizens who need them most.

What were looking for

We're seeking innovative minds and creative talents to help craft our evolving vision. This is a unique opportunity to grow, learn and share your talent with a team of diverse experts with passion and a genuine curiosity to innovate government comms. Most importantly, we want people who are passionate about delivering outstanding communications for the public.

We value colleagues who embrace change, think outside the box, and thrive in a dynamic environment. We welcome applications from the widest range of people of different backgrounds, cultures and experiences. If you're passionate about making your mark and flourishing in an atmosphere that champions fresh thinking and adaptability, we want to hear from you.

About the Government Communication Service

By joining a communications team, you will become a member of the Government Communication Service (GCS) , a well-established network of professional communicators working in government departments, agencies and arms length bodies. Youll benefit from continuous professional development from our new learning and development curriculum, a network of skilled communicators sharing best practice, mentoring opportunities, and more!

For more information on how becoming a part of the Communications Profession can support your career and development, please visit our careers page .

For our top tips on how to write your application, please take a look at our recruitment top tips for candidates guide .

Job Description Overview

As the Head of Social Creative and Production within the Government Media Unit, you will be one of the most senior creative voices in the team, responsible for setting and maintaining the standard of social video content produced directly for citizens. You will bring together strategic vision and hands-on craft, leading the GMU's creative and production output from initial concept through to final delivery across owned social channels.

You will lead a diverse team of creative and production professionals, overseeing complex, fast-moving production workflows while maintaining an unrelenting focus on quality, relevance and impact. Your work will directly shape how the public experiences and understands government, redefining what it means for government to communicate authentically and compellingly in a social-first world.

Working closely with colleagues across strategy, campaign and wider creative disciplines, you will ensure that everything the GMU social team produces is grounded in audience insight, responsive to the cultural moment and ambitious in its execution. This is a rare opportunity to lead creative change at the heart of government communications, at a time when the GMU is expanding its reach and testing bold new approaches to direct-to-citizen storytelling.

We are looking for a leader who combines creative ambition with production rigour and expert editorial judgement, who can inspire a team while staying close enough to the work to shape it, and who is genuinely excited about the opportunity to make government communications more human, more engaging and more effective.

Responsibilities & Duties

• Creative Excellence in Social Content: Drive a step-change in the quality and ambition of the GMU's social output, setting high creative standards across the team and getting hands-on when needed to produce engaging visual stories that inform, educate and fundamentally shift how citizens see and relate to government.
• End-to-End Production and Project Management: Lead complex, fast-moving production workflows across the full production lifecycle, from pre-production planning and shoot logistics through to post-production and final asset delivery, ensuring projects are delivered to the highest standard, on time and within budget.
• Creative Horizon-Scanning: Continuously monitor and interpret government delivery, emerging cultural and media trends, identifying risks and opportunities that will keep the GMU's direct-to-citizen storytelling innovative, authentic and relevant to the audiences it is trying to reach.
• Editorial Judgement: Experience setting the editorial tone, with a strong understanding of what makes a story stand out on socials and how to translate it into compelling digital content.
• Cross-Discipline Leadership: Provide clear, confident leadership across all owned social content production, effectively managing diverse creative disciplines and keeping projects on track while creating the conditions for the team to do their best and most ambitious work.
• Embrace AI as a collaborative and creative tool, utilising it within your workflows; experimenting, testing and implementing new tools to increase productivity and deliver at pace.

Person Specification - Essential Criteria

Experience / Ability

• Significant experience in a senior creative leadership role, ideally within an agency, in-house creative team or government communications environment.
• A proven track record of leading and developing multidisciplinary creative teams to deliver high-quality, engaging content on social media.
• Demonstrated ability to translate complex briefs or objectives into clear, compelling and culturally resonant creative ideas that connect with diverse citizen audiences.
• Experience championing a social-first, audience-led approach to creative development, with a strong understanding of how content performs across different platforms and formats.
• Ability to use performance data, audience insight and always-on measurement to continuously improve creative approaches and drive smarter, more effective work.
• Experience introducing innovation and new technology into creative workflows, ...