Position Title: Communications Officer
Position Status: Full-time
Vacancies: 1
Salary: Commensurate with experience. PartnersGlobal offers a competitive salary and benefits package.
Supervisor(s): Deputy Chief of Party
Location: This position will be based in Belgrade, Serbia, and may require travel throughout the country. Candidates must have independent work authorization in Serbia.
ORGANIZATIONAL BACKGROUND:
PartnersGlobal (previously Partners for Democratic Change), established in 1989, is an international, non-governmental organization committed to building sustainable capacity to advance democratic institutions, civil society, and a culture of peaceful change and conflict management worldwide. PartnersGlobal specializes in organizational development and social entrepreneurship, having provided the seed capital and technical assistance to establish 21 independent, local Centers around the world.
PartnersGlobal adheres to the values of participatory decision-making, collaboration, and consensus-building as the fundamentals of an inclusive, democratic society; and, we promote the application of these skills in all aspects of our work. The PartnersGlobal team includes process and technical experts, facilitators, and trainers who apply those collaborative skills to achieve concrete results in technical areas such as rule of law development, women’s empowerment, security sector reform, and natural resource management. Our network of local Centers is renowned for undertaking cutting edge work and applying our process expertise to convene disparate parties to jointly tackle some of the most complex development challenges.
POSITION DESCRIPTION:
The Communications Officer will be responsible for collaborating with the internal CSRA project team and communication experts within the consortium to drive the development, management, and implementation of communication strategies for CSRA per USAID guidelines. The Communications Officer will be responsible for overseeing editorial and design services of all project deliverables and external communications and will work with partners/vendors to ensure the compliance of media materials with USAID regulations.
The Communications Officer is Belgrade-based and reports to the DCOP.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities
- Guide, shape, develop, update, and execute the project’s communication priorities and strategy, including key message development, risk communication, strategy and branding, and web content refinement, in line with USAID standards.
- In collaboration with the DC-based Communications Manager, lead the development and manage the content of the project’s website and social media presence (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.) to increase outreach to stakeholders and access to program resources.
- Propose innovative ways to formulate and share targeted messages about the project to the civil society sector.
- Contribute to project activities in building the capacity and skills of counterparts and beneficiaries in the government, civil society, and the mass media to develop and implement effective public communication activities.
- Support partner organizations, grantees, service providers and consultants in implementing communications activities towards reaching project objectives and targets.
- In close collaboration with the DCOP and MEL Manager, identify key accomplishments, learning opportunities, and findings of project activities and deliverables to highlight through communications channels and products to increase the accessibility and utilization of project information.
- In close partnership with project leadership, support in writing, production, or editing of project materials including visuals and infographics for reports, fact sheets, PowerPoint presentations, and success stories related to project activities and accomplishments.
- Facilitate the production of or take the lead in developing customized products such as data visualizations and infographics, videos, and other communication products related to project activities.
- With supervision of the MEL Manager, organize and support workshops, trainings, and events based on findings and lessons learned for stakeholders, to facilitate collaborative learning.
- Contribute to monitoring and reporting on achieved results and reached targets.
- Contribute to the development of project-wide branding, strategy, and marketing plans and policies and review content to ensure it is on-brand, consistent in style, quality, tone of voice, and in compliance with PartnersGlobal and USAID’s branding, strategy, and marketing policies and requirements.
- Fulfill other tasks as assigned by project leadership.
QUALIFICATIONS:
Required Experience
- A bachelor’s degree in communications, business, or marketing and five years of experience in media, journalism, public relations, advertising, corporate communications, or project management or a related field, OR an equivalent combination of education, training, and experience.
- Proven management skills and demonstrated success leading a team of communications professionals.
- Proven success at developing and executing strategic communications strategies and deploying and leveraging various media and digital communication channels and tactics to reach and engage key audiences, including media, policymakers, and influencers.
- Demonstrated experience in developing compelling communications content relevant to civil society in general.
- Strong graphic design skills including document layout and producing social media graphics and PowerPoint slides strongly desired.
Preferred Experience
- Communications experience working on USAID-funded programs and familiarity with USAID rules and regulations governing branding and marketing.
- Experience with Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, and knowledge of Sprout Social or similar social media management platforms to manage online postings on different platforms.
- Experience with Canva, Lumen5, or other graphic design and video editing programs.
- Basic knowledge of WordPress.
- Basic knowledge of social media compliance (privacy & data protection, content ownership, intellectual property infringement, etc.)
Required Competencies
- Advanced professional proficiency in English and local language proficiency (Serbian), both oral and written, is required.
- Strong writing and presentation skills, with demonstrated ability to prepare succinct and effective executive communication.
- Experience supporting sector outreach and communications to share knowledge, industry best practices, and lessons learned.
- Excellent interpersonal and communication skills to develop and communicate a common vision to activity team and partners from different nationalities and cultural backgrounds.
- Demonstrated commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
- Ability to foster two-way knowledge exchanges: collect and share best practices with diverse, often highly technical audiences.
- Adept at working in a team and multi-stakeholder environment.
- Flexible and adaptable to changing priorities.
- Experience working in an international context and communicating and working across time zones.
PartnersGlobal is an EEO Employer
At PartnersGlobal, we have a clear vision: to be the place where a diverse mix of talented people want to come, to stay and do their best work. Diversity is more than a commitment at PartnersGlobal—it is the foundation of what we do. We are fully focused on equality and believe deeply in diversity of race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, national origin and all the other fascinating characteristics that make us different.
As an equal opportunity employer, PartnersGlobal recruits, employs, trains, compensates and promotes regardless of race, color, age, religion, national origin, sex, marital status, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, genetic information, HIV/AIDS status, political affiliations or belief, pregnancy, or any other characteristic protected by law.
Reasonable accommodations are available to persons with disabilities during application and/or interview processes per the Americans with Disabilities Act. Please contact our Director of Human Resources and Talent Management, Edith Kardouni, at ekardouni@partnersglobal.org for assistance. We welcome the opportunity to discuss accommodation of your disability and ensure fairness in our hiring process.