Communications and Engagement Specialist, 1t.org

This is a fixed short-term role until March 31, 2025.

The World Economic Forum is committed to improving the state of the world and is the international organization for public-private cooperation. The Forum engages the foremost political, business, and other leaders of society to shape global, regional, and industry agendas.

The Forum’s Centre for Nature and Climate (CNC) has three strategic pillars: Net Zero, Nature Positive, and Better Living. The nature pillar is working for a global transition towards a nature-positive economy and healthy and resilient ecosystems with its work focused on the protection, sustainable management, and restoration of landscapes and seascapes.

1t.org is the Forum’s trillion trees platform set up to support the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030 with the vision to conserve, restore, and grow a trillion trees over this decade. 1t.org drives change by mobilizing the private sector to invest in forest landscapes, facilitating multistakeholder partnerships to accelerate restoration in key regions, and empowering a new generation of ecopreneurs and innovators.

Why We Are Recruiting

The 1t.org team is recruiting a Communications and Engagement Specialist who will manage internal and external communications, helping craft the communications strategy and promoting the priorities, initiatives, activities, and campaigns of 1t.org and forest restoration to demonstrate impact among target audiences. They will also manage engagement with critical communities and groups with a strong focus on youth. This will include supporting the build-out of the Global Youth Hub for #GenerationRestoration.

Reporting Lines & Interactions

The Communications and Engagement Specialist will report to the Communications Manager, Nature at the World Economic Forum. This person will also work closely with colleagues in 1t.org, the nature pillar, across the Centre of Nature and Climate, and the Forum’s Global Communications Group. Outside of the Forum, this person will work with a broad range of stakeholders including communications teams of partner and pledging organizations, external communications agencies, and members of the media.

Main Responsibilities

A key focus is to support the design and implementation of 1t.org’s communications strategy, including social media. This entails applying a savvy design approach to create impactful digital solutions spanning multiple content types and distribution, managing 1t.org’s social media accounts, liaising with the World Economic Forum’s Global Communications Group, and providing general communications support.

The successful candidate will have design knowledge and experience in nature themes, be able to keep abreast of social media trends and strategy, offer communications assistance and insight to 1t.org team members, be responsible for asset design, and build greater knowledge and recognition of global nature-positive efforts through the management of 1t.org social media channels.

In addition, this candidate will have an understanding of the youth climate movement and its needs and focus areas, be able to build and maintain trusted relationships with youth leaders and activists, and be responsible for supporting the activities and events of the #GenerationRestoration Youth Hub to accelerate and inspire youth-led solutions to conserve and restore nature worldwide.

Key Responsibilities Include:

• Creating and designing content for 1t.org: this includes collaborating with 1t.org and nature pillar team members to identify stories/content (with some from 1t.org pledging companies) that are best suited to support institutional goals and creating the corresponding text, image, animation, and video assets as appropriate.
• Managing the social media accounts and strategy of 1t.org: X, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, and possibly additional channels. This includes planning content around key days such as International Day of Forests, Earth Day, World Environment Day, and content featuring at least one youth hub member per month.
• Coordinating across the World Economic Forum’s digital ecosystem: working closely with other Forum digital team members to ensure content alignment and quality experience across platforms to guide user journeys; also coordinating press releases and media coverage with the Global Communications Group for key announcements.
• Ensuring all 1t.org project content and digital material (key messages, factsheets, websites, etc.) are accurate and regularly updated.
• Co-creating campaigns with partner organizations such as the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.
• Managing 1t.org event communications – covering project-specific (such as 1t.org regional chapter visits), Forum-led (such as the Annual Meeting), and external (such as climate COPs); editing content generated at global events and producing social media content.
• Supporting the ongoing build-out and activities of the #GenerationRestoration Youth Hub co-curated by 1t.org and the Global Landscapes Forum, such as implementing the communications strategy for the Hub’s activities and ecopreneurship programmes to ensure strong participation, supporting the youth outreach and convening strategy, and identifying key youth voices and stories to elevate.
• Monitoring and recording communications outputs, coverage, and successes to feed into impact measurement work and donor reporting.
• Contributing to effective and active internal communications to ensure visibility of the ocean work within the Forum.

Requirements and Experience

• Demonstrable experience with industry-leading content design tools for static image and video production – Photoshop, Illustrator, Final Cut, Canva, or similar.
• Visual design capabilities across layout, composition, information hierarchy, and color spanning text, image, and video content. Animation design experience is a huge asset.
• Knowledge of social media strategy, industry trends, key metrics, measurement, and user journey design.
• Ability to tell compelling stories about content and designs, presenting your own and others’ work with confidence.
• Comfort with ambiguity, multi-tasking, and context-switching.
• Strong communication, collaboration, and self-motivation skills.
• Experience building trust and maintaining positive relationships with stakeholders.
• Proven ability to question and help shape communications strategies.
• Microsoft (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), Salesforce, and Office 365 experience.
• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in design, communications, or a related field.
• 3-5 years’ experience as a designer, social media manager, or communications professional with a demonstrated ability in designing and bringing digital ideas to life.
• Background in social media/design for nature or environmental organizations is an asset.
• Portfolio of work available upon request.

The Successful Candidate Will Be Assessed On

• Communications: Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English; additional language proficiency in Chinese, Bahasa, French, or Spanish is preferred.
• Writing: Ability to write blogs, report summaries, talking points, and executive memos at short notice; ability to build compelling presentations and marketing documents.
• Analytical Skills: Strong problem-solving skills and ability to communicate complex information succinctly.
• Time Management and Prioritization: Ability to work on short deadlines, juggling competing demands without compromising quality.
• Interpersonal Skills and Emotional Intelligence: Ability to build effective relationships and work collaboratively in a multicultural environment.
• Motivation: Self-starter who enjoys working in a highly collaborative environment.

Why work at the Forum:

The Forum believes that progress happens by bringing together people from all walks of life who have the drive and the influence to improve the state of the world by building awareness and cooperation, shaping mindsets and agendas, and driving collective action. Join us and become a driver for positive change!