Senior Editorial Officer - Erbil

Job Description

The International Rescue Committee responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people to survive and rebuild their lives. Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, IRC offers life-saving care and life-changing assistance to refugees forced to flee from war or disaster. At work today in more than 40 countries and in 22 U.S. cities, IRC restores safety, dignity, and hope to millions who are uprooted by conflict or disaster. IRC leads the way from harm to home.

CONTEXTUAL BACKGROUND

The IRC established programs in Iraq in 2003 to address the overwhelming needs of displaced people in Iraq and the neighboring countries. Since re-establishing its presence in Iraq in November 2007, the IRC has been assisting thousands of internally displaced families in the northern, central, and southern governorates in the sectors of protection, gender-based violence (GBV), education, economic recovery, child Protection, and emergency humanitarian assistance. Working in coordination with the humanitarian community in Iraq, the IRC's assistance and emergency programs address the needs of war-affected Iraqi internally displaced persons (IDPs) and Syrian refugees from several operational bases in the country and include both camp-based and urban-based assistance. IRC operates throughout Iraq, with the main office in Erbil and field offices in, Baghdad, SAD, Anbar, and Mosul.

The IRC's Protection Team works to safeguard the human rights and well-being of those affected by several years of conflict and displacement in Iraq. Newly displaced Iraqis, as well as those who were formerly displaced, often lack access to critical documentation, basic social services, and key information about their civil rights.

Job Overview/Summary:

The IRC is launching the Signpost social media project, and under the direct supervision of the Editorial Manager, requires two Moderators to moderate the content on the platform. Signpost is an innovative digital initiative providing the humanitarian community with a platform to reach crisis-affected and displaced communities around Iraq with accessible information. It began in 2015 in Greece and is a collaboration between the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and Mercy Corps (MC) and has since expanded to include instances in Jordan and El Salvador. Each Signpost channel provides users context-specific, up-to-date information on vital needs such as legal rights, transportation, and medical services in multiple languages – empowering individuals to make informed decisions at the most critical moments.

Signpost harnesses social media to communicate directly with refugees and asylum-seekers, listen to their questions, and provide information. The Moderator will communicate directly with our users every day -- replying to their comments, messages, and questions.

Major Responsibilities:

The Senior Editorial Officer’s main responsibilities are developing and implementing content strategy through drafting, editing, and approving content for the social media site/app, blog, and Facebook page. S/he is tasked with ensuring content is accurate, complete, easy to understand, and engaging.

- Establish clear editorial guidelines and standards and ensure staff is trained in and able to use them. - Create, tweak, and maintain editorial and social media SOPs to ensure the project continuously shares accurate, timely, and relevant information across its channels. - Vet and edit all sensitive content for adherence to editorial standards. - Ensure all content is accurate, complete, easy to understand, and engaging. - Draft and create written and multimedia content and edit content created by staff, including moderators - Use the Zendesk or Contentful CMS to publish content. - Use social media tools (Facebook, Facebook Ad Manager, Page Manager) to expand reach. - Work with IT and IMS teams to resolve technical issues across platforms. - Maintain and develop deep knowledge of current digital and social media content best practices. - Provide input on, and draft language for, proposals and reports related to Signpost in Iraq. - Support frontline field staff in using information products to answer questions in the field by participating in the delivery of training and being a resource for clarifying questions.

Team Collaboration

- Collaborate with the Facebook moderators, IMS team, Protection monitors, and lawyers to manage content across all social media platforms. - Coordinate with IT and IMS team’s focal point to ensure smooth operation of the social media platforms, website, and other tools. - Use online tools and other modes of communication to consistently share information with other members of the relevant teams. - Participate in all team meetings, workshops, strategy sessions, and regular communications

Key Working Relationships:

Position Reports to: Signpost Editorial Manager Position directly supervises: Information officers and moderators

Indirect Reporting: Information management and Quality Assurance Manager Other Internal and/or external contacts: The Senior Editorial Officer will work closely with other IRC departments of IRC on developing social media content to support their mission on Signpost.

Internal: Moderators; IMS team, protection monitoring team, and legal team

External: n/a

Qualifications

- BA/BS in English, Journalism, Communications, or a field in the humanities desired but not required. - Minimum 3 years editing experience required; sub-editing/copy editing experience strongly desired. - Excellent level of Arabic and English required with expert-level knowledge of English grammar and usage - Native level English preferred - Knowledge of online content best practices. - Knowledge of social media strategy and content best practices. - Experience in a newsroom desired. - Experience in a humanitarian organization is a plus.

Skills and Interests

- Very strong content editing skills required. - Ability to edit content drafted by nonnative speakers into North American English. - Ability to work effectively with a diverse team in a sensitive environment. - Ability to work independently with remote management. - Strong interpersonal skills and high emotional intelligence. - Ability to handle pressure and ambiguity with grace and humor. - Proven organizational skills and a healthy respect for deadlines. - Strong interest in refugee/humanitarian issues. - Good news judgment. - Photo and video skills are a plus.

Travel

The position is based in Erbil but will require travel to other governorates (up to 10%)

Proficiency tests and trial period

Communication is at the heart of what we do and we pride ourselves on gold-star communication - between ourselves and with our audience. To uphold this standard, the Editor will have to take proficiency tests. These include:

English Proficiency

Our primary training materials and much of moderators’ communication with the Signpost global team takes place in English. We require them to be proficient in English to at least the following levels:

· Writing: C1

· Reading: C1

· Listening: B2

· Speaking: B2

Translation test

They need to mediate between the Signpost team and our audience. To do this, they need to translate questions from our audience (in their native tongue) to English, without losing any meaning or tone.

The translation test assesses your ability to translate between your spoken-dialectal language (the casual type used on social media) and English. We’re not looking for a professional translator, but your translation should be accurate, clear, and fast, whilst mimicking the tone of the original message (e.g. frustrated, distressed, light-hearted).

Typing speed

We require the Editor to have a typing speed of at least 30 Words per Minute. This is assessed through a typing test.

Working Environment: IRC office in Erbil. Occasional travel to Anbar. Constant daily contact with internal teams, and Erbil PROL Coordinator.

Standards of Professional Conduct:

The IRC and IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in IRC Way - Standards for Professional Conduct. These are Integrity, Service, 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.

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 maternity leave, gender-sensitive security protocols, and other supportive benefits and allowances. Qualified female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.

Attention Returning National Candidates:

IRC strives to attract, motivate, and retain qualified national staff in our programs. We strongly encourage national or returning national candidates to apply for this position. If you are a national of the country in which this position is based and are currently located outside of your home country and possess over two years of international work experience, IRC has introduced an attractive remuneration package. The package includes competitive compensation, return flight to post, shipping allowance, temporary housing, and a relocation allowance. Certain restrictions may apply.

Notice to all Job Seekers

IRC implements an equal employment opportunity policy and our recruitment process is based on merit.

Applicants and/or successful interview candidates (both internal and external) are not required to pay any fees at any stage of the recruitment process.

If anyone asks you for any financial or non-financial favors to help you secure a job at IRC, kindly report to iraq.hr@rescue.org****.

ملاحظة لكل الباحثين عن وظيفة

تعتمد لجنة الانقاذ الدولية سياسة فرص عمل متساوية وان عملية التوظيف لدينا تعتمد على الجدارة .

لايتوجب على المتقدمين لاي وظيفة او المؤهلين للمقابلات (سواء كانوا موظفيين حالين او متقدمين من خارج المنظمة) دفع اي مبلغ مالي خلال اي مرحلة من مراحل التوظيف.

اذا قام اي شخص بطلب اي خدمة مالية او غير مالية لقاء مساعدتكم في تأمين فرصة عمل داخل المنظمة ،يرجى الابلاغ عن ذلك الى iraq.hr@rescue.org