Senior Officer, Global Communications – Program Influence

Job Overview

As a key member of IRC’s Marketing and Mobilization team, the Senior Global Communications Officer develops and completes global communications strategies that highlight technical programs, reaching consumer and sector audiences by using media, earned channels, and major sector moments, as well as by generating owned opportunities.

Working in partnership with the broader global communications team, Crisis, Response, Recovery and Development (CRRD) leadership, advocacy colleagues, and fundraisers, the Senior Communications Officer is a partner in driving business- to-consumer communication outputs and advising on strategic business-to-business communications.

Responsibilities

· Leads cross-function, cross-audience efforts to drive the external communications strategy for priority technical programming areas, e.g., education, health, livelihoods, etc.

· Partners closely with colleagues working on gender equality and protection to increase the profile of the IRC’s work with women and girls, while ensuring all external communications materials are written through a gender lens.

· Ensures messaging alignment around coordinated activations with key internal partners, including digital, advocacy, fundraising and market public affairs leads that highlight key moments and opportunities (UNGA, International Women’s Day, etc.)

· Deploys excellent writing skills that deliver: killer pitches that land IRC-led features, high-level messages for cross-organizational use, op-eds in top outlets, and talking points for spokespeople.

· Knows how to develop business-to-consumer and business-to-business messaging and crafts simple and compelling narratives based on complex themes.

· In collaboration with the Senior Director, develop annual and context-specific narratives and plans – including audience-targeted key messaging – for select priority areas. Sample tactics include: media outreach; announcements; content development; social media activation; events/conferences, and, partnerships.

· Partners with digital, creative studio, public affairs and marketing colleagues to produce and coordinate content collection and identify the right medium for distribution.

· Works closely with technical leads to craft communications facing materials that showcase IRC’s leadership around sector reform, including the organization’s commitments to client-centered programming, cost effectiveness, and program quality.

· Contributes to quarterly reports on coverage and communications results using industry standard metrics and benchmarking.

· Writes press release, blogs and op-eds.

Qualifications

· Genuine excitement about the notion of highlighting our story within the humanitarian sector and beyond.

· 6+ years in external facing communications in the private, NGO or Cause-Marketing sectors.

· Good understanding of humanitarian and development landscape.

· A creative problem solver who’s able to navigate complexity and ambiguity to get to the heart of a great story.

· A generalist who thinks about and drives Communications across channels, e.g., video, digital, social, internal and media.

· A passion for working with media and having existing relationships with journalists, and an ability to form new relationships.

· A strategist, planner and do-er, i.e., someone who has a consistent track record of developing creative ideas and campaigns and drive implementation.

· Superior communications “hard skills,” e.g., a terrific writer with a proven track record to develop, pitch and secure media coverage.

Working Environment:

This position is tied to IRC’s headquarters in New York with some domestic and international travel. Until January 2022 the position has the flexibility to be fully remote, with a hybrid working environment expected after**.**