ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, MEDIA

As a UW employee, you have a unique opportunity to change lives on our campuses, in our state and around the world. UW employees offer their boundless energy, creative problem-solving skills and dedication to build stronger minds and a healthier world.

UW faculty and staff also enjoy outstanding benefits, professional growth opportunities and unique resources in an environment noted for diversity, intellectual excitement, artistic pursuits and natural beauty.

The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) is an independent research center at the University of Washington (UW). Its mission is to deliver to the world timely, relevant, and scientifically valid evidence to improve health policy and practice. IHME carries out a range of projects within different research areas including the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors (GBD); Future Health Scenarios; Cost Effectiveness and Efficiency; Resource Tracking; and Impact Evaluations.

IHME is committed to providing the evidence base necessary to help solve the world’s most important health problems. This requires creativity and innovation, which are cultivated by an inclusive, diverse, and equitable environment that respects and appreciates differences, embraces collaboration, and invites the voices of all IHME team members.

About the team
The Global Impact Group (GIG) serves IHME’s vision of all people living long lives in full health through innovative communication and collaboration. GIG explains, amplifies, and delivers research findings of the most critical health challenges across a range of channels to reach its target audiences, working with scientists and decision-makers to strengthen the evidence base of research, allowing them to take informed action. Within GIG, the Media team promotes IHME’s research, faculty, staff, and its products through media outreach, stakeholder engagement, and multimedia content that’s timely, newsworthy, and engaging to a broad range of audiences.

POSITION PURPOSE
IHME has an opening for an experienced Assistant Director, Media. The primary purpose of this position will be to manage the Media team, develop and execute strategies to drive global media coverage of IHME’s work, and create opportunities for data-driven storytelling.

The Assistant Director, Media works in close collaboration with IHME leaders and researchers to expand stakeholders’ understanding of and trust in IHME’s research and data by increasing earned media globally and maximizing the production of owned media, including IHME’s Global Health Insights (GHI) podcast, newsletter, videos, and blogs.

This requires strong people management skills and project management skills, knowing how to support and develop a high-achieving team and supervise work from idea generation through completion. The person in this role will direct strategic relationship cultivation with a wide range of journalists and media outlets covering local, national, and international topics to reach the public and audiences including policymakers and other leaders in government, the private sector, nonprofit organizations, health-related organizations, and donors. The Assistant Director, Media will also manage relationships with external communications firms and consultants as needed. This position oversees the development of owned media platforms along with earned media and should be comfortable coming up with creative ideas, approaches, and strategies to develop and expand those platforms. The Assistant Director, Media is responsible for overseeing the identification, creation, and dissemination of information that forms the basis of high-quality stories that demonstrate the policy-relevance of IHME’s research and data in clear and compelling ways. In collaboration with an agile team, they must strategize on creative tactics for media outreach and uptake and use analytics to measure and analyze the impact of that outreach and uptake. This position reports to IHME’s Director of Communications and manages a small team of media professionals.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Media strategy