Head of Communications job at Restless Development

JOB DETAILS:
About the role
We know that young people are capable of changing the world – we see it every day! However, we need to convince the rest of the world, and that’s where you come in.

We are looking for a visionary communications leader who can help us celebrate the role that young people play in the world, in order to inspire other young people and decision makers to take action. This exceptional leader will work across the global agency to help us strengthen our profile and raise our visibility at a pivotal moment for Restless Development.

This role will lead a globally distributed communications team of 4 full time staff, a group of young power champions and a wider community of 5 junior comms staff based in our Africa and Asia offices.

Your responsibilities will be twofold:
Firstly, you will be a creative powerhouse who can lead the communications team to produce the best youth-led content. You will set and deliver a communications strategy that enables us to deliver, test, learn from new communications approaches, always putting strengthening youth power at the core. You will work with our global communications team, as well as youth power champions to create a steady stream of content that engages young people, as well as 2-3 big moments or creative projects a year that make some noise. Examples of these big moments / campaigns would be: the launch of our flagship “State of Youth Civil Society” research, Restless Development’s 40th anniversary celebrations and the Walking the Talk programme.

Secondly, you will lead our global team to develop and deliver against a communications plan for success. You will lead a team to deliver against varied targets and deliverables, growing a community of collaboration, learning and growing brand visibility and cut-through. Your people centred leadership approach will be key,setting up the team to thrive. You will build strong internal relationships (especially with the Global Leadership Group) and excellent external working relationships with communications partners and media.

In the next 12 months, once this new role and team is in place, this role will be responsible for recruiting a new digital engagement manager to write and update our digital engagement strategy, with the roll out of a new CRM that will revolutionise our contact engagement across Restless Development and the Youth Collective.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
Lead Global Communications for Restless Development:
• Lead a high performing and happy global communications team of 4. Leading by example and providing support and mentoring. Fostering a positive and productive work environment.
• Develop and deliver a Communications Strategy (that has organisational buy-in and excitement). Enabling us to strengthen our brand and recognition as well as cut-through for young leaders.
• Lead a comms culture change across Restless Development to enable us to meet our targets. Leading and supporting the global communications community across the agency.
• Annual and quarterly learning, planning and budgeting reporting into the Global Leadership Group and Trustees.
• Build and maintain strong relationships with key stakeholders, including media, donors, and the Global Leadership Group.

Strengthen Youth Powered Communications
• Work with Young Leaders to develop and deliver our Youth Powered Comms – growing content, cut-through, and celebration of youth power.
• Increase the volume and impact of youth-led content, working with our global network of young leaders – testing and using new channels to maximise our youth engagement.
• Secure media placements and amplify youth voices to influence decision-makers and inspire young people globally.

Building a Collaborative & Impactful Global Brand
• Develop a strong and consistent global brand identity for Restless Development.
• Foster collaboration among a geographically dispersed communications team, ensuring clear communication and streamlined workflows.
• Identify and capitalise on “Big Moments” for the organisation, maximising impact and brand awareness through strategic communications campaigns.

Other
• Work into the Strategy Partnerships Director to ensure the communications input and delivery against grants (managing consultants or others deliver the work) and deliver on time.
• Work into the Influencing Director on managing risk and crisis communications, ensuring our staff have annual training and support.
• Planning into the next 12 months, recruit and manage a new Digital Manager to develop a new global digital engagement strategy that enables us to strengthen our audience engagement, from the UK triathlons to the Youth Collective and across Hubs as we migrate to a customer relationship management software.
• You may occasionally be required to work on weekends and/or public holidays, for which time off in lieu will be granted.
• Other duties as required.

Skills and experience
Essential
• Significant experience leading and managing teams, including virtual and matrix management.
• Demonstrable track record in creating creative communications content, preferably aimed at or developed with young people.
• Experience leading risk management, crisis communications and safeguarding in communications processes.
• Experience leading a creative communications function at a nonprofit agency.
• A strong creative network, including good relationships with media outlets.
• Integrity and transparency: The ideal candidate should value honesty and accuracy in all communications.
• Strong ethical compass: Must demonstrate a strong understanding and commitment to ethical communication practices.

Desirable
• An understanding of international development, in particular the youth sector.
• A good understanding of the issues facing young people in the global south, preferably through lived experience.
• An understanding of power shifting in development, and how this applies to communications.

Education Requirement: No Requirements

Job Experience: No Requirements

Work Hours: 8

Experience in Months:

Level of Education:

Job application procedure

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