Strategic communication

Communications and Engagement Manager (UK Humanitarian Innovation Hub), Elrha – Deadline 27 November

By 14/11/2022

Communications and Engagement Manager (UK Humanitarian Innovation Hub), Elrha

Location: London or remote within UK
Salary: £40,000 – £43,500
Contract type: Full time, 35 hours per week
Closing date: Sunday, 27 November, 2022
Other: Any employment with Elrha will be subject to checks prior to your start date including a DBS check.

Are you a talented senior communicator, with a broad range of experience? Are you good at thinking creatively about the best ways to get our messages out to the right people at the right time, using a diverse range of events and media channels? Are you strong at making connections and someone who can help bring together special interest groups to work together on new ways to improve humanitarian responses across the globe.

We are looking for a Communications and Engagement Manager who is ready to apply their skills and experience in an exciting humanitarian initiative.

Launched in 2021, the UK Humanitarian Innovation Hub is bringing together the humanitarian sector and UK expertise to develop innovative new approaches and technologies that put communities facing humanitarian crises at the forefront of relief and recovery efforts. The Communications and Engagement Manager will play a key role supporting this work. By designing and managing our communications activities with organisations at the forefront of humanitarian policy and response, this role will be playing an important role in shaping the global humanitarian innovation landscape.

The post requires an individual looking for a busy and complex role, who is ready to take on this exciting and varied opportunity alongside an ambitious team. You will be skilled and experienced at coordinating multi-channel communication campaigns, media engagement, conference and event planning, stakeholder convening, as well as managing an online presence and producing high quality publications.

Our staff are key to our success, and we recognise this through investing in training, development and strong line management support. If you are passionate about communications and making a difference in the humanitarian sector, we’d love to hear from you.

The UK Humanitarian Innovation Hub is hosted by Elrha and is funded by the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).

If you are passionate about improving humanitarian response through research and want to be part of an organisation that creates positive change in the humanitarian sector then join us and we’ll give you every opportunity to succeed.

UKHIH works to:

  • Solve long-standing problems and explore transformational innovation opportunities (especially technological) – Initiating creative research collaborations to push boundaries where creativity is most needed.
  • Bring evidence and innovation to bear on new humanitarian crises – Generating emerging learning and evidence in real-time during critical and emerging humanitarian crises that informs strategic decision-making and supports adaptation and innovation.
  • Drive research, learning, convening and communication on systemic humanitarian innovation issues – Leading and facilitating learning, networks, and advocacy focusing on understanding, changing, and creating systems that strengthen humanitarian adaptation and innovation.
  • Invest in capacity in crisis-affected contexts to do research and innovation on humanitarian problems and opportunities (through the UKHIH Fellowship Scheme)

Current focus areas include satellite technology, collective crisis intelligence and AI, humanitarian surgery and vaccine delivery, alongside rapid response research on new humanitarian crises such as Afghanistan and Ukraine most recently.

Job purpose

The Communications and Engagement Manager leads processes and activities in support of the design and delivery of the UK Humanitarian Innovation Hub’s (UKHIH) global communications and engagement strategy under the direction and guidance of the Head of Operations.

Working closely with our partners, the role is responsible for promoting our research collaborations and humanitarian innovations – driving and delivering global communications activities through a wide range of media channels. The role also leads UKHIH’s convening work – bringing together stakeholders (e.g., humanitarian innovators, UKHH fellows, UK Government Departments, actors funded by the FCDO, and communities of interest in the UK and globally) through a range of mechanisms (e.g., new, and existing networks, events, workshops, etc) to promote and facilitate collaborations that focus on new and improved approaches, processes, and systems that make humanitarian action more effective.

As the Hub is funded by FCDO and hosted by Elrha, the role involves close co-ordination with our stakeholders, as well as supporting communications and engagement with a diverse portfolio of research partners.

Job accountabilities

Communications planning, delivery, and evaluation

  • Design and deliver UKHIH’s communications strategy and workplan in collaboration with the Head of Operations, with systems in place to leverage resources, develop shared communications objectives, and establish mechanisms for the co-ordination, monitoring, and risk management of communications activities with UKHIH’s partners.
  • Oversee the UKHIH brand management, generating assets and imagery that support brand consistency and ensuring all external publications, either by UKHIH or our partners, are on-brand and maintain consistent messaging about UKHIH.
  • Develop processes within UKHIH and with our partners to deliver high-quality content and publications, ensuring structured and timely approaches to co-creation.
  • Function in an advisory role for UKHIH research collaborations, supporting the design and delivery of shared communications and advocacy objectives.
  • Maintain a mechanism for monitoring and evaluating communications activities delivered by UKHIH and our partners. Update key UKHIH partners, including the FCDO and Elrha, on communications activities and results.
  • Ensure UKHIH’s communications are approached with principles around diversity, accessibility and decolonisation.
  • Support the procurement of communications expertise and manage relationships with relevant suppliers as needed.
  • Guide the work of the Programme Officer to support external communications and engagement activities through internal and external communications channels.

Convening and engagement

  • Facilitate UKHIH collaborations to identify and engage UK and global innovation networks and key stakeholders relevant to our focus areas. To also maintain a consolidated map of networks and stakeholders relevant to UKHIH activities and actively support engagement through a co-ordinated cross-team approach.
  • Lead the project management cycle (planning, co-ordination, and evaluation) of UKHIH-led convening activities, such as webinars, roundtables, and workshops, etc, bringing humanitarian actors together to debate challenges, explore ideas and solutions, and mobile humanitarian innovations.
  • Working closely with the UKHIH team, develop a schedule for attending and contributing towards external conferences and other appropriate networking events.
  • Take a lead role in creating a new network of UKHIH research and innovation fellows, supporting them to share learning, develop new skills and capacities, and to engage more widely with other networks and stakeholders relevant to their work.

Manage communications channels

  • Monitor media platforms for opportunities to pro-actively and reactively engage with UKHIH’s target audiences.
  • Design and deliver multi-channel communications campaigns to raise the profile of, and increase engagement with, UKHIH and our partners activities. This includes the management and mitigation of communication risks.
  • Develop and manage UKHIH relationships with key news and media outlets, pitching contributions to journalists and fielding media enquiries.
  • Steer and support the creation of high-quality content for publication, for example, research reports, policy papers, blogs, news articles, social media posts and press releases.
  • Manage the UKHIH website, building and refreshing content, with responsibility for technical updates and ongoing developments to the site.
  • Manage UKHIH’s website social media channels, Twitter and LinkedIn, generating content and building connections with our partners and target audiences.
  • Monitor and evaluate the performance of UKHIH communications channels.
    The principal accountabilities are not an exhaustive list of tasks. UKHIH is a new and expanding initiative and a degree of flexibility to contribute to team activities is required. The job holder is expected to carry out any other duties that may be required to assist the wider team if within the employee’s skills and abilities, whenever reasonably instructed.

Person specification

Essential
Qualifications and experience

  • Educated to degree level in communications/marketing or other relevant creative disciplines, or equivalent work experience.
  • In depth communications and convening experience including developing and delivering successful communication and engagement strategies, with
  • Proven experience of planning and delivering communications strategies, across a range of approaches and mechanisms.
  • Experience of working within the international development or humanitarian sector with established connections with the media.
  • Strong experience of strategically implementing brands.
  • Proven experience of content creation and production for multiple platforms including website and social media, both written copy and visual elements.
  • Experience using Content Management Systems and online meeting and events software (eg GoToWebinar, Zoom).
  • Proven experience of identifying media opportunities and working with the media and case studies.
  • Strong experience of producing publications — print or digital — including working with designers and printers to ensure quality and affordability.
  • Experience of managing external suppliers and agencies. • Experience of creating accessible communications that adhere to best practice.

Skills, abilities, and attributes

  • Proven ability to build stakeholder engagement plans and developing strategies for engagement using a range of mechanisms.
  • Very good design sense and judgement in dealing with sensitive editorial and communication questions.
  • Good general grounding in latest thinking, theory and best practice in PR, communications, and digital communications.
  • Excellent writing and editing skills, and the ability to summarise complex information in clear, non-technical language following brand style and tone of voice And to write, copywrite and copyedit to a very high standard.
  • Ability to work independently and autonomously, using own initiative to solve problems and generate new ideas and confident working in a constantly changing environment.
  • Good project management skills: taking a brief through to delivery, on time, within budget, and managing stakeholders’ expectations throughout.
  • Ability to demonstrate creativity to develop engaging ways to tell stories, promote events and interact with audiences.
  • Understanding of digital analytics and metrics, their importance and the tools to monitor, manage and evaluate them.
  • Proven track record for ensuring compliance with the General Data Protection. Regulation (GDPR) and good understanding of all associated regulations.
  • Strong organisational skills including the ability to plan, prioritise and ensure implementation of work to required standards and tight deadlines, often under pressure.
  • High degree of computer literacy, including knowledge and experience in the use word-processing, spreadsheets, email software.
  • Ability to travel overseas if required to attend conferences.
  • Demonstrated interest in humanitarian affairs, global health and research.
  • Ability to work inclusively, respecting a range of differences in working relationships and adopting culturally and linguistically appropriate ways of working that are accessible to all.
  • Ability to work ethically, always demonstrating ethical conduct.

Desirable

  • Good knowledge and understanding of the humanitarian system, humanitarian media, networks, and organisations.
  • Previous experience working within a ‘start up’ setting.
  • Experience of working within a charity.
  • Experience of working with a membership organisation / cross-organisational network.
  • Member of a communications/PR professional body e.g., CIPR or PRCA.

Child protection level

Level 1 – the responsibilities of the post do not require you to have contact with children or young people.
We are committed to the safeguarding and protection of children and vulnerable people in our work. We will do everything possible to ensure that only those who are suitable to work with children and vulnerable people are recruited to work for us. This post is subject to a range of vetting checks including a criminal records disclosure.

Applying

When applying you will be taken through the Save the Children recruitment system. Please ensure you complete the personal statement as part of the application process to explain how you feel you meet the requirements of the role and why you feel this is next career move for you.  Please note that we will assess your communication skills on the quality of your personal statement and CV as well as any presented achievements.

For more information, or to apply for this role, please visit the website.