Your New RoleAs an Internal Communications Business Partner (ICBP), you'll act as a strategic advisor to senior leaders, shaping and enabling clear, credible and effective communication that supports Sage's business strategy and employee experience. This is a high-impact partnering role where you'll use judgement, insight, and influence to guide leaders on what to communicate, when, and how - particularly in complex or ambiguous situations.
Alongside this advisory and insight-led role, the ICBP is accountable for activating and delivering internal communications across assigned areas, ensuring communications are audience-led, well-timed and consistently aligned to Sage's enterprise narrative and Employee Experience principles.
You will:- Act as an internal communications advisor to leaders within assigned regions, functions or business pillars, providing strategic counsel on intent, risk, sequencing and audience impact to shape effective communications approaches.
- Translate internal communications strategy, enterprise narrative and employee experience (EX) principles into integrated, audience-led communications plans that support business priorities and outcomes.
- Shape, challenge and sense-check communications requests to ensure clarity of purpose, appropriate tone, realistic sequencing and alignment to enterprise narrative expectations, balancing consistency with local relevance.
- Apply judgement to plan and sequence communications activity within assigned areas, operating within prioritization, escalation and risk thresholds.
- Own publishing and send authority for agreed communications within assigned areas, advancing activity linked to defined change agendas or enterprise-level risk as appropriate.
- Actively assess and surface communications-related risks, tensions or misalignment, adjusting approach where possible and advancing when organizational, reputational or employee-relations thresholds are met.
- Sense-check how communications and change are landing with colleagues, interpreting feedback, sentiment and delivery experience to inform advice, planning and continuous improvement.
- Bring real-world insight and emerging sentiment into the Internal Communications function, contributing to planning, prioritization, standards and evolution of the Business Partnering model.
- Collaborate closely with Employee Experience, channels, operations and specialist roles to ensure clear briefs, strong alignment and effective hand-offs from planning through delivery.
- Maintain a strong understanding of business context, leadership priorities and organizational dynamics within assigned areas, using this insight to strengthen communications advice and impact.
Can you be our new Internal Communications Business Partner? We are looking for:- Significant experience in internal communications, corporate communications or a related field, operating in complex, matrixed or multi-stakeholder environments.
- Demonstrated ability to operate as a senior strategic advisor to leaders, providing credible counsel on communications approach, sequencing and risk, not simply delivery support.
- Strong critical thinking skills, with the ability to connect business intent, organizational context, audience needs and employee experience principles to shape effective communications plans.
- Sound judgement and confidence operating in ambiguity, applying discretion and independent thinking to assess risk, trade-offs and implications for colleagues and the organization.
- Proven ability to influence and challenge senior collaborators constructively, building trusted relationships and shaping decisions without relying on formal authority.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to tailor messaging, tone and framing for different audiences, contexts and levels of complexity.
- Experience planning and delivering internal communications that support business priorities, change activity and leadership objectives, balancing enterprise consistency with local relevance and nuance.
- Strong understanding of employee experience, organizational dynamics and change, with the ability to interpret how communications and change are landing with colleagues and feed insight back into planning and decision-making.
- Comfortable working across specialist and operational roles (e.g. channels, operations, events), providing clear direction, strong briefs and effective collaboration from planning through delivery.
- Organized and disciplined in approach, with the ability to manage multiple priorities, apply sequencing judgment and maintain high standards in fast-moving environments.
