Senior Communications Manager at Mercy Corps

Program / Department Summary

• Mercy Corps has been present in Nigeria since 2012, focusing its interventions on humanitarian assistance, economic development, and conflict mitigation. With the ongoing insurgency in Northeast Nigeria causing the displacement of millions of individuals, Mercy Corps started its humanitarian response in 2014 to address the rising humanitarian needs.
• As the crisis has persisted, Mercy Corps’ strategy has also expanded to address the root causes of the conflict and seek to build the long-term resilience of communities with integrated programs focusing on governance, the recovery of markets and livelihoods, social cohesion and social protection, youth empowerment, and local conflict management.

General Position Summary

• The Senior Communications Manager plays a critical role in both driving and demonstrating program performance across the country portfolio. S/he designs new content, and maintains, strategies, tools and processes for routinely gathering information, and presenting it to a wide variety of audiences, including the production of a monthly country-level Mercy Corps Nigeria newsletter.
• S/he develops or guides strategic communications that not only showcase the ‘Impact’ of Mercy Corps Nigeria’s work but also demonstrate ‘Innovation’ and ‘Influence’ within all programming, reflecting and reinforcing the strategic and cross-cutting objectives for the country office.
• S/he will develop and maintain best practices and provide support and guidance to program communication leads in their efforts to demonstrate program achievements and integrate stories and research findings into their reports and communications.

Essential Job Responsibilities

Country Strategy Support:

• Maintain and implement a communications strategy and plan for the country office, ensuring that it aligns with and supports the achievement of Mercy Corps Nigeria's strategic objectives, Africa Regional Strategy, and the Mercy Corps Global Compass.
• Proactively optimize the visibility of the organization’s social impact and preposition the organization as a thought leader.
• Work closely with SMT, and coordinate with TSU focal points, to write and update the Mercy Corps Nigeria strategy and other key strategic resources (face sheets, PowerPoints) as required.
• Provide strategic guidance for program integration and sequencing in line with the country and global strategy, with a view of communications and learning priorities.
• Lead the development and design of high-level resources and activities to showcase the organization’s impacts and innovations.
• Provide liaison support with donor relations and communication, ensuring their representation in Mercy Corps high-level engagements.
• Support the development of the country-level advocacy strategy and activities with key stakeholders.
• As needed, assist with program design, start-up and implementation, for social behavioural change communication-related activities.

Agency Communications:

• Coordinate and support Mercy Corps Nigeria’s program communications colleagues to ensure project and donor communications obligations are met.
• Act as the lead brand manager, maintaining standards across materials, events, and other media engagement, website and social media pages.
• Ensure that Mercy Corps Nigeria’s work is accurately, regularly and compellingly represented on Mercy Corps Global internal and external communications platforms including relevant donor media platforms.
• Provide editorial oversight and/or design, create, and maintain portfolio, program, sector, and cross-cutting theme factsheets targeting external stakeholders.
• Serve as a resource person for agency-wide communications and global strategy reviews and documentation.
• Work with Regional communications focal points, program teams, security staff and SMT to facilitate visits from international journalists.
• Coordinate and plan the execution of dissemination for Mercy Corps Nigeria country research portfolio and strategic events for visibility with key relevant stakeholders in government, private sector and media and donors.
• Develops external communications materials, such as press releases, talking points for the country director, and positioning statements, in collaboration with the Regional Communications team.

Communications Training & Development:

• Participate in relevant communications-related working groups with local and international NGOs and associations in Nigeria.
• Convene and facilitate a quarterly country-level communications working group, which will gather timely and accurate information for capturing and sharing with our broad range of internal and external stakeholders and identify key communications objectives for the coming quarter.
• Build the capacity and performance of staff and partners in developing success stories and multimedia and visual resources, maximizing the use of internal communications platforms, increasing program and impact visibility, and any other areas of communication that are linked to donor branding/marking requirements.
• Track country office visibility and communication initiatives: advise the leadership team on the integration of communications plans into program work plans, and support program teams to develop communications strategies and plans as per donor requirements.
• Build the capacity of project teams to produce well-documented narratives and infographics that highlight program impact including information on lessons learned to inform programmatic adaptation or course-correction of activities and future program design.
• Inform and support learning activities, including field visits, focus groups, workshops, round-tables, and other events.

Research & Proposal Support:

• Support research activities, working with program, Regional and HQ teams to ensure timely and high-quality execution of projects.
• Support the dissemination of research findings, including the development of dissemination strategies for internal and external dissemination, summaries and factsheets.
• As needed, lead or support the development of concept notes and funding proposals, coordinating the process with relevant technical, finance and operational staff.
• Ensure that proposals and concept notes are developed in a timely manner and with realistic deadlines and that these are communicated and understood by the country, region, and HQ.

Supervisory Responsibility:

• Communications Officer.

Accountability:

• Reports Directly to:Country Director
• Works Directly with:Director of Programs, Senior Management Team (SMT), Partnerships & New Initiatives Manager, Program Directors/Managers and Teams, Program Communication Focal Points, Mercy Corps regional and HQ teams and TSU members.

Knowledge and Experience

• Master’s Degree or equivalent in Social Science, Journalism, Communications, International Development or other relevant field.
• A minimum of 8 years of experience in coordinating and producing written and audiovisual content for donor engagement, public advocacy, media, and community relations.
• Strong written and oral communication skills in English required, including report development, writing, and editing.
• Experience in staff development and training.
• Excellent computer skills, including experience with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Publisher.
• Experience with Adobe’s design suite is a plus.
• Demonstrated ability as a collaborator and facilitator.
• Demonstrated attention to detail, ability to follow procedures, meet deadlines and work independently and cooperatively with team members.
• Share portfolio of work in similar field.

Success Factors:

• A successful candidate will have a demonstrated ability to lead and communicate effectively with team members of varied work styles and cultures, follow procedures, and meet deadlines with flexibility and creativity in planning and problem-solving.
• S/he will have a proven ability to learn quickly, multi-task, prioritize, take initiative, be accountable for results, understand the larger picture while remaining focused on the details, problem-solving, work within a complex and sensitive setting and follow laws and security protocols.
• The most successful Mercy Corps team members have a strong commitment to teamwork and accountability, thrive in evolving and changing environments and make effective written and verbal communication a priority in all situations.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion:

• Achieving our mission begins with how we build our team and work together. Through our commitment to enriching our organization with people of different origins, beliefs, backgrounds, and ways of thinking, we are better able to leverage the collective power of our teams and solve the world’s most complex challenges.
• We strive for a culture of trust and respect, where everyone contributes their perspectives and authentic selves, reaches their potential as individuals and teams, and collaborates to do the best work of their lives. We recognize that diversity and inclusion is a journey, and we are committed to learning, listening and evolving to become more diverse, equitable and inclusive than we are today.

Equal Employment Opportunity:

• Mercy Corps is an equal possibility employer that does not tolerate discrimination on any basis.
• We actively seek out diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be collectively stronger and have a sustained global impact. We are committed to providing an environment of respect and psychological safety where equal employment opportunities are available to all.
• We do not engage in or tolerate discrimination on the basis of race, colour, gender identity, gender expression, religion, age, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin, disability (including HIV/AIDS status), marital status, military veteran status or any other protected group in the locations where we work.

Safeguarding & Ethics:

• Mercy Corps is committed to ensuring that all individuals we come into contact with through our work, whether team members, community members, program participants or others, are treated with respect and dignity. We are committed to the core principles regarding the prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse laid out by the UN Secretary-General and IASCand have signed on to the Interagency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme.
• We will not tolerate child abuse, sexual exploitation, abuse, or harassment by or of our team members. As part of our commitment to a safe and inclusive work environment, team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner, respect local laws and customs, and adhere to the Mercy Corps Code of Conduct Policies and values at all times. Team members are required to complete mandatory Code of Conduct e-learning courses upon hire and on an annual basis.