Senior Communications Manager

Department: Global Communications Team

Location: Candidates can be based in any country where they have the legal right to live and work, and where HelpAge is able to employ and pay them legally. We are actively seeking candidates based in Africa, Asia, or the Middle East.

Contract: Permanent

Please view the details of this role via https://www.helpage.org/vacancy/senior-communications-manager-storytelling-and-media/

About HelpAge

HelpAge International works with partners and a diverse global network of more than 171 organizations across 90 countries, supporting millions of older people to live safe, dignified and healthy lives. Through our partnership and collaborations, we work to ensure the inclusion of older people across society and strive to deliver a just and fair world for everyone, whatever their age. Our work is driven by our desire to deliver real impact for older people, to be inclusive, to work in partnership and to learn from our shared experience.

About the opportunity

We are looking for a senior member of our global communications team to help shape our communications strategies and approaches, working closely with the Global Head of Communications.

You will have the opportunity to contribute to our work to bring positive and lasting change in the lives of older people.

The role will involve a mix of:

• Working with the international media to tell the story of older people in low-and middle-income countries and how HelpAge is working to ensuring they can live in dignity and enjoy greater wellbeing.
• Leading on our humanitarian communications during major emergencies.
• Managing a global campaign that works in collaboration with the HelpAge global network to revolutionise the way older people are seen and treated around the world.

We are looking for talent which thrives in collaborating with others (inside HelpAge International and beyond) and who can work in agile ways and across boundaries. We are seeking individuals, with an entrepreneurial mindset, who can work across diverse areas of our work, who can leverage both their unique expertise and deploy a wider range of experiences and competencies.

About you

You are a creative storyteller and strategic thinker with a strong sense of what makes news and how to make a story interesting for our audiences around the world.

You are passionate about using the international media to tell the story of our work and the older people we work with.

You have a network of media contacts and ideas of different ways to tell stories – on our own platforms and with external media.

You have first-hand experience in communicating during a humanitarian crisis, ensuring the voice of those you represent can be heard in a crowded space.

And you are a campaigner who wants to use our communications to drive change, creating a strong and compelling narrative.

You are very hands on but also a great collaborator, within your team and with colleagues across a globally dispersed organisation. And you really want to use your skills to make a positive difference to the lives of older people.

What you will do

• Develop storytelling strategies and tactics that amplify the voice of older people in low- and middle-income countries, using traditional and digital media, including creating specific strategies for projects and campaigns.
• Deliver a HelpAge media strategy and lead on media outreach, finding stories that will interest journalists in the international media and working with them to bring that story to light.
  • This includes organising interviews, providing media briefings; writing press releases and op eds; and generating and responding to media requests.
• Lead on communications for humanitarian crises, responding to developing events and coordinating emergency communications in the event of a category 1 or category 2 humanitarian crisis.
  • You would hire local contractors who can support our reporting and content gathering in the field – but may deploy to the location of the crisis yourself.
  • You would work closely with colleagues in the Inclusive Humanitarian Action team (particularly our global advocacy adviser), HelpAge’s global network of partners, and the organisations that support HelpAge’s fundraising.
• Lead the development of communications content and stories for HelpAge’s global campaign – which launches on 1 October 2023, the annual International Day of Older Persons. This is a pro-ageing campaign designed to change the way we see and treat older people and brings a strong message to our global communications.
  • You would ensure that inspiring campaign messaging is embedded across our work.
  • You would lead on a programme to secure the visible support of high profile individuals with influence – in our sector and beyond.
• Work with photographers / videographers and other external agencies to secure new content to enable better storytelling.
• Work closely with the Business Development department to maximise opportunities that deliver an integrated approach to fundraising and communications.
• Provide training, mentoring and resources to build capacity of other staff and partners to undertake effective communications.
• Monitor the impact we achieve and use the results to make recommendations for future work to ensure continued impact.

This outlines the broad areas of responsibility in the role, but in collaboration with your colleagues you will be able to shape and design specific activities that are relevant at any point in time. We want you to work creatively to deliver impact and respond to relevant opportunities.

Let’s talk about your skills

You must have:

• Experience of working on communications at global, regional and national levels.
• Proven ability to devise and implement proactive campaigns or equivalent high-profile work, working as a journalist or communications specialist.
• Experience in working with the news agenda and a strong understanding of what makes news.
• Prior experience of working on a humanitarian crisis.
• An established network of media contacts in the international media.
• Track record of innovation and creativity in communications and an ability to deliver to tight deadlines.
• Excellent command of English and able to produce high quality written material.
• Strong working knowledge of online and digital media.
• Ability to handle multiple projects and a variety of work simultaneously.

It would be desirable if you also had:

• Ability to work effectively with a wide range of stakeholders across a variety of working contexts and environments.
• Line management experience.
• Skills in building colleagues’ capacity to generate content and use communications.
• Experience in managing high profile individuals who can act as an ambassador for your brand.
• Language skills.
• Technical skills in content production.

Key Behavioural Competencies

At HelpAge International, we believe in the importance of empowering our people to be change makers and leaders at all levels. We expect our people to embrace and live our values, challenging themselves every day to identify issues that are most important to older persons and their communities, and to make an impact that matters.

In addition, as an HelpAge employee you are expected to:

Work Collaboratively with Others: Work collaboratively, building mutual trust and respect, with external organizations and partners to achieve our strategic aims and objectives; being accountable for the work we do together.

Adaptability and Flexibility: Adapt to new directions or opportunities arising within the organisation and in our work area; being flexible in our role, constantly using the feedback to learn more and evolve further.

Support and Facilitating Change: Lead behavioural and cultural change through embracing a supportive, collaborative and highly inclusive environment where everybody feels supported, respected and engaged.

Extend HelpAge’s Reach and Impact: Extend HelpAge’s reach and impact by creating and identifying new business development opportunities and building relationships with new partners.

Diversity and Inclusion: Lead and promote a culture of including the voices of older people across our support, convening and thought leadership roles, in a way that is transformative, empowering and highly inclusive of those marginalised by gender, economic status, disability and other factors of discrimination.

Lead Others (for managers): Demonstrate strong leadership to own unit/department and manage people in a well and reputable manner. Create an atmosphere of trust and an enabling environment where staff can contribute their best and develop their potential.

Safeguarding

HelpAge International is committed to safeguarding the communities with which we work, our partners, staff and any others who we come into contact with. The post holder will also be responsible for:

• Preventing harm and abuse from our people, operations and programmes to anyone that encounters our work.
• Reporting all safeguarding incidents you see, hear, hear about or suspect, using our internal reporting mechanism.
• Complying with all safeguarding framework policies and practices.
• Completing mandatory training courses relating to our safeguarding policy framework and complying with HR vetting procedures.

Safer Recruitment

All employments at HelpAge International will be subject to satisfactory references and appropriate screening checks, which can include misconduct disclosure schemes and terrorism finance checks.

How to apply

To apply for this role at HelpAge International, please follow the link: https://www.helpage.org/work-with-us/how-to-apply-for-a-job-at-helpage/