Director, Strategic Communications and Partnerships

Position description

Are you looking to deploy your passion for communications and partnership development to advance democracy and peace globally? Are you excited to bring your creative talents and results focus to a fast-growing global organization with programming in every region of the world?

Join Democracy International (DI) as Director of Strategic Communications and Partnerships. If you’re ready to be part of a team that values your creative vision and encourages bold ideas, we want to hear from you! You will join DI’s senior staff to lead our efforts to drive our global engagement, tell our story, and lead our communications and partnerships team. You will work with experts and diverse leaders in every region of the world. This is a hybrid position, with regular office presence. We will only consider applicants who are based in the Washington, DC area or planning to move there. 
 

• Drive Our Global Engagement. Working closely with DI’s senior leadership, you will lead DI’s global communications and engagement strategy, prioritizing engagement with the democracy and development community, peacebuilding and stabilization communities, and private sector, including by:
   
  • Developing strategies for DI to contribute to pro-democracy, human rights, and related efforts within the broader democracy and development community;
  • Advancing DI perspectives in the global democracy and development communities, including in convenings, working groups, written products, etc., on today’s most pressing issues;
  • Integrating DI’s public profile, positions, and communications with other organizations’ efforts, such as public events, and fostering institution-wide collaboration to increase DI’s profile in partnership with like-minded organizations; and
  • Channeling organization-wide resources to forge new partnerships with diverse institutions, such as private sector (technology companies, social good companies, foundations, law firms, and other entities), educational institutions, and others to advance creative development solutions.
     
• Tell Our Story. You will lead DI’s global efforts to tell our stories well, including by:
   
  • Identifying, developing, curating, and sharing our stories and messages, including related to our core areas of democracy and peace, as well as related to programs, personnel, achievements, and learning;
  • Bringing your creative voice to tell our story in new ways, working closely with our teams and partners around the world;
  • Increasing DI’s visibility with key stakeholders, including by working with DI’s home and field office teams, to leading strategic outreach to reach: (a) USAID, U.S. State Department, and other U.S. Government personnel specializing in democracy, human rights, governance, conflict transformation, stabilization, peacebuilding, learning, and related sectors; (b) allies in countries where we work, including civil society leaders, officials, human rights defenders, and others; (c) policymakers, donors, and other diverse stakeholders; and
  • Upholding DI’s high standards for written and visual products, including overseeing DI’s internal writing and style guidelines, maintaining quality control of products, and ensuring pride in all materials.
     
• Lead Our Communications & Partnerships Team. Expand DI’s global communications and oversee team responsible for executing organizational-level communications and marketing, including by:
   
  • Identifying, curating, producing, and sharing diverse, engaging content—working closely with staff members in DI’s U.S. and global offices;
  • Overseeing DI’s web and social and traditional media presence, including by leading the team to produce dynamic visualizations, videos, and other content;
  • Leading the team’s strategic approach to providing project-specific and bid-specific communications services, including (a) to ensure quality control and consistency of DI’s branding, writing style, and visualizations; (b) to develop and adhere to USAID-specific requirements (e.g., Branding and Marking Requirements); and (c) to apply Do No Harm principles and ethics and safeguarding practices in communications processes; and
  • Overseeing the development and delivery of internal efforts to enhance communications skills and ensure consistent application of standards across the organization, including through staff training.

Qualifications

• Master’s degree in related field preferred (e.g., communications, journalism, media studies, international affairs, political science, conflict resolution, behavioral economics).
• 10+ years of relevant professional experience.
• Demonstrated experience leading, planning, and developing strategies for high-level engagement in international development, democracy support, peacebuilding, security, stabilization, think tank programming, or related areas.
• Demonstrated experience telling compelling stories and crafting messages related to advancing democracy and peacebuilding for audiences including U.S. government stakeholders, local and international development organizations, and diverse audiences around the world.
• Proficiency in tailoring content as proven ability to effectively convey complex ideas in a clear and concise manner.
• Understanding of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and/or U.S. Department of State, required (preferably in the democracy, peacebuilding, conflict prevention, peacebuilding, stabilization, or related sectors)
• Experience leading, designing, and/or implementing international development programming preferred.
• Experience engaging private sector actors or leading private sector teams desired.
• Exceptional communication, negotiation, and partnership development skills.
• Existing networks, or demonstrated ability to build networks, in the democracy and peacebuilding communities OR in the private sector upon which to build.
• Demonstrated experience leading teams to achieve results together. 
• Demonstrated analytical and editing skills.
• Experience using a variety of mediums to convey complex concepts.
• Experience developing new partnerships using creative approaches.

Location and Travel:
 

• This role is based in DI’s home office in Bethesda, Maryland, with occasional travel (10-15% based on business needs).

Reporting and Supervision:
 

• This position reports to the Vice President, Strategy and Technical Leadership
• This position has supervisory responsibilities.

  Environmental Conditions:

  The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
   

• Moderate noise (i.e., business office with computers, phone, printers, and moderate traffic).
• Ability to work in a confined office space/area.
• Ability to sit and/or stand at a computer desk for an extended period of time.
• Ability to travel on long plane flights across several time zones and at irregular hours.

Physical Requirements Required to Perform Essential Responsibilities:

While performing the duties of this job the employee is regularly required to;
 

• Stand, sit; talk, hear, use of hands and fingers, and perform repetitive motions to operate a computer and telephone keyboard.
• Reach, stoop, or kneel, to adjust computer and/or telephone equipment.
• Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision requirements due to computer work.
• Hearing abilities required due to telephone.
• Light to moderate lifting is possible.
• Travel will require moderate lifting, sitting for extended periods of time, overnight flights across multiple time zones.
• Regular, predictable attendance is required; as business demands dictate.

Democracy International is committed to providing access, equal opportunity and reasonable accommodation in its employment process for individuals with disabilities to meet any and all physical requirements of our jobs.

Application instructions

Please be sure to indicate you saw this position on tendersglobal.net