Content Planner and Producer – Brand Marketing

The annual salary range for this position is $54,000-56,000.
***This position may be based anywhere in the US.*
Unrestricted US work authorization is required. **

About Mercy Corps

Mercy Corps is powered by the belief that a better world is possible. To do this, we know our teams do their best work when they are diverse and every team member feels that they belong. We welcome diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be stronger and have long term impact.

Program / Department Summary

The mission of the Resource Development (RD) department is to advance the organization’s strategic goals and support our worldwide team by raising funds, profile, and influence. Our job is to tell the Mercy Corps story to the organization’s most important audiences in a clear and compelling way. The RD team encompasses several dozen dynamic professionals who possess a wide range of expertise. We are gift officers, direct response fundraisers, web developers, marketers, and media relations strategists. We are database managers, digital specialists, creative designers, and storytellers. Most of all, we are passionate about Mercy Corps’ mission and believe a better world is possible.

General Position Summary

The Content Planner and Producer is responsible for planning, gathering, and producing assets in order to create content that elevates the Mercy Corps brand and supports fundraising efforts. These assets will primarily consist of interviews with program participants, staff, partners, and others from the countries where we work. Secondarily, these assets include mobile photos, videos, and stories from our programs to be produced into social content.

Under the supervision of the Senior Global Photographer, the Content Planner and Producer will plan complex international asset gathering trips and will be deployed on many of these trips. In this role, they will be on the front lines of our work, and will often serve as the face of the RD department to project participants, country teams, experts, consultants, and other departments. They will be instrumental in packaging assets post-trip and distributing them to communications stakeholders. They will also write finished pieces to support fundraising and communication objectives as needed. The Content Planner and Producer works in close partnership with multiple fundraising teams, creative, marketing, media relations, programs, SPOs, TSUs, and country teams.

Essential Job Responsibilities

STRATEGY & VISION

• Bring Mercy Corps stories to life through insightful and authentic interviews.
• Work with the Senior Global Photographer to develop and refine asset gathering processes and strategy.
• Work with the Senior Global Photographer, country teams, SPOs, TSUs, and communications stakeholders to develop and execute complex international trips that meet multiple fundraising needs.
• Develop and strengthen cross-department relationships in order to facilitate creative and effective asset gathering.
• Translate complex issues into compelling and accessible content.
• Provide additional strategic support as needed.

OPERATIONS

• Plan asset gathering trips; gather input from RD stakeholders and coordinate with country teams.
• Execute 4-6 international asset gathering trips annually, conducting interviews with project participants, staff, partners, and experts.
• Work closely with all teams to share content in a timely way from the field when needed.
• Gather and process consent forms.
• Process written assets post-trip, including coordination of any translations needed, writing photo captions and compiling and distributing a content catalog to RD stakeholders and country teams.
• Create written pieces based on assets gathered as needed.
• Deploy to emergency responses when original content is needed.

Supervisory Responsibility

None.

Accountability

Reports Directly To: Senior Global Photographer

Works Directly With: Other teams within Brand Marketing and MarComms Teams, including Creative, Digital Marketing, and Communications; RD audience teams, SPOs, in-country communications staff, in-country program staff, and other global staff.

Accountability to Participants and Stakeholders

Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our program participants, community partners, other stakeholders, and to international standards guiding international relief and development work. We are committed to actively engaging communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring, and evaluation of our field projects.

Minimum Qualification & Transferable Skills

• BA/S or equivalent in a relevant field required – Journalism, English, creative writing, or related field.
• 3+ years of experience writing for a variety of audiences – a diverse portfolio of writing samples required.
• Excellent interviewing and reporting skills that help create accurate, thorough, thoughtful, and emotionally evocative content.
• Strong intercultural skills are required.
• International travel experience is strongly preferred.
• Superior written and verbal communications skills are a must. Able to distill concepts and translate technical language into compelling human stories.
• Ability to conduct interviews and write with a style and voice that is consistent with the Mercy Corps brand.
• Familiarity with high ethical standards for interviewing and asset gathering.
• Is a strong strategic thinker, always grounding recommendations in objectives and goals.
• Strong organizational skills and attention to detail.
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, ambiguous environment.
• Excellent interpersonal skills, with an ability to communicate clearly and passionately, both in writing and verbally. A positive attitude and a solution-oriented approach to work are a must.
• Familiarity with Mercy Corps’ work preferred.

Success Factors

The successful Producer will be a talented and experienced interviewer and creative writer, who can connect the Mercy Corps brand with the target audience’s perspective through storytelling. They are a keen strategist who can contribute to developing complex annual asset gathering plans and processes. They are a seasoned international traveler, who is comfortable working long days in remote and sometimes dangerous places. They have a professional mindset in approaching their work, able to think clearly under pressure and make decisions quickly on the ground, always ensuring that high quality assets are delivered. Flexibility is crucial in this position, as situations and needs always change rapidly.

With strong organizational and interpersonal skills, this person is able to work collaboratively and effectively with our global teams in both the pre-production and post-production phases of trips, and is able to work and communicate effectively with staff and project participants from a variety of backgrounds. The ideal candidate is an agile writer who takes feedback constructively and views writing as a collaborative process. They work well independently when necessary, and are able to function as part of a larger team as well.

Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions

This position can be based remotely anywhere in the US. International travel (up to 35%) to urban and remote locations is required with this position. Estimated travel includes four to six, 2-3 week trips annually.

Mercy Corps team members represent the agency both during and outside work hours when deployed in a field posting or on a visit/TDY to a field posting. Team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner and respect local laws, customs and MC’s policies, procedures, and values at all times and in all in-country venues.

Fostering a diverse and open workplace is an important part of Mercy Corps’ vision. Mercy Corps is an Equal Opportunity Employer regardless of background. We are committed to creating an inclusive environment.

Ongoing Learning

In support of our belief that learning organizations are more effective, efficient and relevant to the communities we serve, we empower all team members to dedicate 5% of their time to learning activities that further their personal and/or professional growth and development

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Achieving our mission begins with how we build our team and work together. Through our commitment to enriching our organization with people of different origins, beliefs, backgrounds, and ways of thinking, we are better able to leverage the collective power of our teams and solve the world’s most complex challenges. We strive for a culture of trust and respect, where everyone contributes their perspectives and authentic selves, reaches their potential as individuals and teams, and collaborates to do the best work of their lives.

We recognize that diversity and inclusion is a journey, and we are committed to learning, listening and evolving to become more diverse, equitable and inclusive than we are today.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Mercy Corps is an equal opportunity employer that does not tolerate discrimination on any basis. We actively seek out diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be collectively stronger and have sustained global impact.

We are committed to providing an environment of respect and psychological safety where equal employment opportunities are available to all. We do not engage in or tolerate discrimination on the basis of race, color, gender identity, gender expression, religion, age, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin, disability (including HIV/AIDS status), marital status, military veteran status or any other protected group in the locations where we work.

Safeguarding & Ethics

Mercy Corps is committed to ensuring that all individuals we come into contact with through our work, whether team members, community members, program participants or others, are treated with respect and dignity. We are committed to the core principles regarding prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse laid out by the UN Secretary General and IASC and have signed on to the Interagency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme. We will not tolerate child abuse, sexual exploitation, abuse, or harassment by or of our team members. As part of our commitment to a safe and inclusive work environment, team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner, respect local laws and customs, and to adhere to Mercy Corps Code of Conduct Policies and values at all times. Team members are required to complete mandatory Code of Conduct elearning courses upon hire and on an annual basis.