Press Office Assistant
Undergraduate Placement Year (July 2025-26)
Hi, welcome to Kia UK!
Who’s Kia?
Founded in 1944, Kia was originally known for our bikes…then motorbikes…and now, the best cars in the world (in our opinion anyway!). These cars include the award winning Sportage, plus others, alongside our world beating Electric Vehicles, such as the EV9, EV6 and soon, the EV3.
Kia is currently at the forefront of electric vehicle development and right now we’re the 5th largest vehicle manufacturer in the UK, but we’re not stopping there. Right now, Kia is going through a major transformation taking us from fast followers to leaders in the automotive space. This is where you come in…
Here at Kia, PR is a core aspect of our business, and this position will be an integral part of the PR team. From day one you’ll be in out in front of the media, contributing ideas, and taking responsibility for your own PR projects. Don’t worry though, although you’ll be coming in at the deep end, we’ll be supporting you the whole way plus giving you access to top tier industry PR training courses throughout the year.
Projects which will need your attention include launch activities for a variety of all-new Kia vehicles due through 2025 and 2026, including our first fully electric commercial vehicle. There are also many other events you’ll work on – regional media drives days, tailor made features for the biggest media outlets in the country, hosting journalists at our European head office’s events, award ceremonies, and much much more. Hey, why not pitch your own idea and we’ll do it!
People are central to Kia UK and every day is an opportunity to learn something new and to grow personally and professionally. This was recognised with Kia UK named as one of the UK’s Best Workplaces 2024 by Great Place To Work, and also ranked in the 2024 Best Workplaces for Women and Wellbeing. Kia employees reported positively on areas such as working atmosphere, trust in management, corporate strategy, pride in working for the company, benefits, facilities and much more!
What will I be doing?
1. Running your own PR projects, then developing the media exposure these projects receive
2. Supporting the Senior Events Coordinator in the creation and management of media events
3. Representing the brand in front of the UK media (including major product launches)
4. Contributing to Press Releases, pulling content from across the entire business
5. Supporting our Head of PR, PR Manager, Senior Events Coordinator and wider Press Office team to achieve a best-in-class service to the UK media – we’re currently rated no.1 automotive press office in the UK, and have been for six years.
6. Monitoring media coverage and reporting back to the Head of PR.
7. Networking with UK journalist at events, industry organised gatherings and other opportunities
8. Working with our agencies to ensure they have everything they need to support us effectively
9. Deal with a wide range of media enquiries and liaise with all business departments and suppliers
10. Simple financial handling to ensure our projects and events go ahead as planned
11. If you want, we can arrange for you to do some work experience at one of the UK’s leading automotive magazines, no pressure!
Am I right for this?
We don’t want to discourage anybody from applying for this role by making a long list of requirements but to summarise; we want someone who is genuinely passionate about PR so ideally studying/just finished studying a relevant course (. PR / Journalism / Writing / Media / Communication).
This role will encourage you to act quickly, test your flexibility, and motivate you to constantly adapt to new things (exactly what the media expects from us!). You can get a huge amount of experience, knowledge and skill development out of a year with us so we’d really love to welcome someone with big dreams that we can support!
We recognise that there may be a number of ways to meet our requirements. We are looking for the best candidate for the job and encourage you to apply even if your experience or qualifications don’t exactly match what we’ve outlined in the role description. If you think you could be a good fit for this role, we’d love to hear from you!