Senior Communications Officer, Africa

The Foundation

We are the largest nonprofit fighting poverty, disease, and inequity around the world. Founded on a simple premise: people everywhere, regardless of identity or circumstances, should have the chance to live healthy, productive lives. We believe our employees should reflect the rich diversity of the global populations we aim to serve. We provide an exceptional benefits package to employees and their families which include comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage with no premiums, generous paid time off, paid family leave, foundation-paid retirement contribution, regional holidays, and opportunities to engage in several employee communities. As a workplace, we’re committed to creating an environment for you to thrive both personally and professionally.

The Team

The Africa Communications Team works to ensure that the foundation’s communications approaches in and on Africa are informed by the continent’s contextual realities and priorities. The team is responsible for developing and implementing the communications strategy in Africa, in close collaboration with the Africa team, the Communications Division in Seattle and various Program and Advocacy and Communications Teams. It is part of the Africa team, as well as the Communications Division in Seattle.

Your Role

The team is looking for a dynamic, creative, highly social media and content creation savvy Senior Communications Officer (SCO), Africa (Bilingual French and English) who will lead on developing foundation narratives and compelling digital and multimedia content to help tell the foundation’s story to a Pan-African and global audience. Within this, the individual will also devise and drive forwards the foundation’s communications across anglophone and francophone Africa.

Based in Johannesburg, the SCO will work closely with colleagues across Africa and in Seattle to position the foundation and effectively tell the story of its mission and work in Africa, as well as the stories of partners and grantees.

The responsibilities of the SCO will be broad, spanning storytelling and narrative development; digital and social media strategy and channel management; multimedia content development; influencer engagement; and digital analytics. The postholder will develop coordinated and innovative communications and media plans and approaches to help achieve the foundation’s communications, policy and advocacy goals in Africa, focusing on francophone countries and audiences. As a part of this, they will also manage francophone agency support, handle media enquiries and function as part of the foundation’s global communications newsroom.

The role will report to the Deputy Director Communications, Africa.

What You'll Do- Contribute to the overall strategy for positioning the foundation and telling the story of its mission and work in Africa, including curating compelling stories that speak to the work of our grantees and amplifies institutional priorities.- Develop and lead on a continent-wide digital strategy, including online audience engagement, content development, channel strategy, and digital campaigns.- Lead the development and execution of strong creative content to reach core audiences in Africa across social and digital channels by using best-in-class creative expressions and data-driven engagement models.- Collaborate with diverse agencies/contractors to develop brand campaign content, ensuring clear and timely feedback.- Lead inclusive processes to ensure strategic alignment, compelling storytelling, seamless cross-channel integration and timely execution of campaign deliverables and brand assets across the foundation’s Africa presence.- Use data to tell stories and frame information in a way that is accessible across all of our social channels. This will include developing storytelling initiatives that demonstrate our impact, broaden our influence, and highlight the work of our grantees.- Alongside leadership and colleagues, develop and implement communications plans for francophone Africa that deploy foundation assets and campaigns (e.g., Goalkeepers, annual letter, and annual calendar of events) in support of the foundation’s Africa strategy and its communications, programmatic, policy, and financing goals.- Lead and manage communications and media engagements around executive and foundation leadership visits to francophone Africa, in collaboration with various foundation teams.- Turn program and advocacy strategies in Africa into clear and concise creative briefs that result in high quality, compelling content.- Build and maintain relationships with African media partners, including in high-engagement countries across francophone Africa, and communications partners at other relevant government, donor, and civil society organizations - in coordination with internal colleagues.- Identify and form strategic alliances with diverse and credible opinion leaders and influential individuals and organizations