Communications Specialist

Chemonics seeks a Communications Specialist the USAID Empower Southern Africa (ESA) project. ESA is a 5-year regional program that covers South Africa, Lesotho, Eswatini, Botswana, Namibia, Angola, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Madagascar, Comoros and Sao Tome and Principe. The primary purpose of ESA is to increase the availability of, access to, and use of affordable, reliable, sustainable and clean energy in Southern Africa in order to reach measurable development outcomes. Measurable development outcomes include economic growth, reducing poverty, improving livelihoods, and increasing inclusive access to electricity-enabled services in such areas as health, education, sanitation, and food security. This position will be based in Pretoria, South Africa. We are looking for individuals who have a passion for making a difference in the lives of people and communities around the world.

Responsibilities:

• Develop and implement a project level communications strategy, including leading on stakeholder mapping, and other strategic communication activities
• Lead project communications and outreach activities targeted for key stakeholders
• Produce high-quality reports, press-releases, social media posts, and other communication materials related to project success and activities
• Provide high-quality writing and/or editing services for technical materials throughout the project life cycle, including reports, deliverables, and outreach materials
• Work closely with Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning Director to translate M&E performance data into communication deliverables and narratives of project performance
• Develop effective and collaborative working relationships with key stakeholders and continually promote outstanding client service and technical leadership
• Support development of presentations, briefers, etc. for senior staff
• Managing USAID branding strategy and marking of all communication materials and ensure they comply with the USAID requirements
• Provide support to subrecipients in developing branding strategies and marking plans, specific to their subaward activities and consistent with the larger ESA branding and marking plan
• Provide capacity building to subrecipients on items related to communications, such as development of success stories
• Perform other duties as assigned by the Deputy Chief of Party-Program Support

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in communications, environmental science, international development or relevant field, required, Master’s preferred
• At least 4 years of experience working in strategic communications planning and implementation on donor funded programs
• Minimum three years’ experience with a USAID-funded project is strongly preferred
• Strong writing skills, with a demonstrated ability to write story-driven content about complex technical subjects
• Experience creating, or overseeing the management of, multimedia products such as video, animation and podcasts
• Experience of developing and implementing digital communication strategies and campaigns across a range of channels (including social media)
• Ability to work under deadline pressure with diverse teams and manage production schedules
• Demonstrated leadership, versatility, and integrity
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English