Communications Officer, Technical Excellence

London, UK: GBP 48,533.00 - 56,622.00 Annually

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Work Arrangement: Open to Remote

Job Description

Background/IRC Summary:

Over the past 80 years, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) has developed unparalleled expertise in responding to emergencies and helping uprooted communities to rebuild. Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, the IRC’s mission is to help people whose lives and livelihoods are shattered by conflict and disaster to survive, recover, and gain control of their future. The International Rescue Committee has headquarters in New York and London, and is on the ground in more than 40 countries, providing emergency relief and rebuilding lives in the wake of disaster. In addition, through 25 offices in cities across the United States and in four European countries, the IRC also helps refugees resettle in the US and Europe and become self-sufficient. The IRC is committed to a culture of bold leadership, innovation in all aspects of our work, creative partnerships and, most crucially, accountability to those we serve.

The Department (CRRD) and The Team (Technical Excellence)

The CRRD (Crisis Response, Recovery, and Development) department houses three pillars: (1) Program Delivery, which includes all of the IRC’s country offices (excluding the Europe and US resettlement programs), (2) the Emergencies & Humanitarian Action Unit, which oversees IRC's global emergency preparedness and response activities, and (3) Technical Excellence. Technical Excellence contains five thematic Technical Units (Health, Education, Economic Recovery & Development, Governance, and Violence Prevention & Response) as well as cross-cutting support units. These units are essential to ensuring quality both in emergency response and long-term programming worldwide. IRC’s strategic ambitions around increasing impact, scale and influence are translated by specialists who galvanize attention, build resources, and design and implement new initiatives across IRC’s programs. Technical Excellence teams are at the forefront of designing and supporting research and innovation to solve context-relevant challenges faced by people whose lives have been shattered by conflict and disaster. Most TUs have some sort of communications, policy, or advocacy function, and all are charged with raising the IRC’s profile in their respective sectors or domains of expertise.

Job Overview/Job Summary

The VP and Head of Technical Excellence seeks to appoint a strong communications professional to coordinate the communications efforts of the Technical Excellence pillar and wider CRRD department, in order to:

• Raise the profile of IRC’s programming and thought leadership with relevant external audiences (e.g. donors, both public and private; policy makers; think tanks)

• Streamline coordination and communication with IRC’s communications, fundraising, and policy & advocacy teams

• Improve internal communications to Technical Excellence and Crisis Response, Recovery, and Development staff and across IRC

Responsibilities

The person in this role will be a communications or advocacy professional who will provide support in several important capacities:

Communications Strategy

• Design and execute a communications strategy to highlight IRC’s technical leadership and insights across our major areas of programming both externally and internally

• Provide thought partnership to Technical Excellence leadership around sector-specific communications strategies

External-facing communications

• Support Technical Excellence leadership to develop content for relevant news and sector media, social media, blogs/vlogs/podcasts

• Work closely with the VP, Technical Excellence to ensure maximum impact at relevant external events with donors and policy makers

• Work closely with IRC’s communications, fundraising, and policy & advocacy teams to disseminate content

• Track and book relevant speaking events, manage engagements, and refine talking points

• Work closely with Award Management Unit’s Donor Relations team to organize relevant donor engagements, manage the engagement and refine talking points

Internal-facing communications

• Support Technical Excellence leadership to develop and repurpose content for internal audiences, to promote the visibility of key innovations, promising practices, new research findings and technical insights

• Provide guidance and support to Technical Excellence leadership in effectively communicating their messages and initiatives to their teams.

• Ensure consistent messaging and tone across all internal communications platforms and materials, maintaining a strong and cohesive organizational voice.

• Plan and coordinate internal events, town hall meetings, and employee engagement initiatives to foster a sense of community and enhance communication channels.

Job Requirements

Work / Educational Experience:

• 3-6 years in Policy, Advocacy, or Communications in the NGO or Non-profit sectors

• Experience working with technical professionals to translate technical writing or language into generalist language

• Experience standardizing processes to ensure a high-functioning, department-wide approach to advocacy and communications

• Experience managing blogs or newsletters, or a creative content strategy

• Experience/exposure to the humanitarian sector and humanitarian principles

Demonstrated Skills and Proficiencies:

• Excellent coordination skills

• Ability to synthesize and connect dots across different content areas to find common threads and less-obvious synergies

• Excellent writing skills, with a “common voice” that is intelligible for a lay audience and an ability to weave a compelling story

• Strong editing skills

• Ability to understand and digest humanitarian programming technical content

• Demonstrated success collaborating across different teams without managerial authority

• Fluency in English required; Proficiency in French, Spanish or Arabic desired

Key Working Relationships:

• Position Reports to: Director, Technical Excellence

• Indirect Reporting: Vice President, Technical Excellence

• Other Internal and/or external contacts:

o Internal: Work with Technical Unit policy, advocacy, and communications colleagues, global communications colleagues, global advocacy colleagues, Technical Unit and other CRRD Leadership, and likely others.

o External: Potential to work with communications colleagues from partner organizations or industry groups, but direct external engagement not certain

Working Environment:

This position is based at the IRC's headquarters in New York.

Compensation: Posted pay ranges apply to US-based candidates. Ranges are based on various factors including the labor market, job type, internal equity, and budget. Exact offers are calibrated by work location, individual candidate experience and skills relative to the defined job requirements. Commitment to Diversity and Inclusivity: IRC is committed to building a diverse organization and a climate of inclusivity. We strongly encourage applications from candidates who can demonstrate that they can contribute to this goal.

Gender Equality: IRC is committed to narrowing the gender gap in leadership positions. We offer benefits that provide an enabling environment for women to participate in our workforce including parental leave, gender-sensitive security protocols and other supportive benefits and allowances.

IRC is an Equal Opportunity Employer. IRC considers all applicants on the basis of merit without regard to race, sex, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability or any other characteristic. Professional Standards: The IRC and IRC staff must adhere to the values and principles outlined in IRC Way – Global Standards for Professional Conduct. These are Integrity, Service, Equality and Accountability. In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Beneficiary Protection from Exploitation and Abuse, Child Safeguarding, Anti-Workplace Harassment, Fiscal Integrity, and Anti-Retaliation.

Equal Opportunity Employer: We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation.

US Benefits: We offer a comprehensive and highly competitive set of benefits. In the US, these include: 10 sick days, 10 US holidays, 20-25 paid time off days (depending on role and tenure), medical insurance starting at $145 per month, dental starting at $7 per month, and vision starting at $5 per month, FSA for healthcare, childcare, and commuter costs, a 403b retirement savings plans with up to 4.5% immediately vested matching contribution, plus a 3-7% base IRC contribution (3 year vesting), disability & life insurance, and an Employee Assistance Program which is available to our staff and their families to support counseling and care in times of crisis and mental health struggles.

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