Communications Manager at Girls Not Brides

INTRODUCTION TO THE ROLE

• The Communications Manager at Girls Not Brides plays a crucial role turning organisational priorities and communications vision into coordinated, impactful, and audience-focused communications delivery.
• The Communications Manager ensures that communications operates as an integrated function, connecting strategic direction with day-to-day implementation across media, editorial, digital and storytelling. The role will provide leadership across communications planning, messaging, and quality assurance, ensuring outputs are consistent, impactful, and aligned with Girls Not Brides’ strategic objectives.
• Working closely with the Head of Communications and colleagues across the organisation, the Communications Manager will ensure communications approaches support organisational influence, fundraising, partnership development and engagement with priority audiences.

ABOUT YOU

• We are seeking an experienced communications professional who combines strategic thinking with strong operational leadership. You will enjoy translating organisational priorities into practical communications approaches and bringing together different teams, perspectives and disciplines to achieve shared objectives.
• You will have excellent judgement, strong organisational skills and the ability to manage multiple priorities while maintaining quality and consistency. You will be confident working across teams, building trusted relationships, and supporting colleagues to use communications effectively to achieve goals. You will be a collaborative and supportive manager who is committed to developing others and creating a positive, accountable and high-performing team culture.
• You will share Girls Not Brides’ values and demonstrate a commitment to ethical, inclusive and audience-focused communications.

Salary range           

• Market competitive based on a detailed survey by the Birches Group of comparable national NGO salaries in selected location. Payments will be made in local currency of where it is located.

Contract

• This is a fixed-term contract for 2 years
• The successful candidate must have the right to work in Kenya at the time of applying, and for the full duration of the two-year initial contract 

KEY RESPONSIBILTIES

Communications strategy operationalisation and delivery leadership

• Translate organisational strategy, influencing priorities, and audience needs into integrated communications approaches for priority engagements, and moments.
• Support the Head of Communications to turn strategic priorities into coordinated approaches and delivery across the Communications Team.
• Lead collaborative and impactful communications planning for organisational priorities, publications, events and influencing moments, bringing together the right communications expertise, channels and products to achieve the intended outcomes.
• Coordinate delivery across the communications functions, overseeing workflows, timelines, dependencies and priorities to ensure communications activity is integrated, strategically aligned and delivered to a high quality.
• Provide coordination and oversight across strategic communications and corporate communications workstreams, ensuring alignment, identifying dependencies and risks, and ensuring high-quality delivery.
• Strengthen communications processes, workflows and ways of working to improve team effectiveness and responsiveness.
• Build and maintain strong working relationships with colleagues and external partners, supporting the operational delivery of strategic communications partnerships and initiatives.
• Support the Head of Communications to identify and prioritise opportunities to strengthen Girls Not Brides’ profile and external positioning, ensuring these opportunities are appropriately translated into coordinated team activity.

Messaging, quality and consistency

• Develop and maintain messaging and narrative approaches, with the Head of Communications, ensuring they are applied consistently across communications.
• Ensure communications outputs are accurate, consistent, high-quality, audience-focused and aligned with organisational positioning and priorities.
• Provide editorial and brand oversight, review and sign-off across written, creative, and storytelling outputs, ensuring quality, consistency and alignment with organisational positioning and visual brand identity.
• Support colleagues across the organisation to communicate effectively with external target audiences.
• Work with the Head of Communications to strengthen organisational narratives and ensure key messages are reflected across communications channels and products.

Communications Team management, integration, and organisational support

• Manage, support and develop line-reports, providing clear direction, prioritisation, feedback and support for effective workload management and performance.
• Foster effective collaboration across communications disciplines, ensuring expertise is connected, duplication is minimized, and the team operates as an integrated function.
• Coordinate strategic communications, media, editorial, digital and multimedia expertise to ensure specialist inputs contribute to integrated communications approaches.
• Work with internal teams to understand organisational, national and influencing priorities, identifying communications opportunities, and ensuring communications is is built into key initiatives from the outset.
• Work collaboratively as part of cross-functional project teams, partnering with colleagues to develop communications plans, approaches and outputs that support organisational objectives, engage priority audiences and contribute to outcomes.
• Oversee communications monitoring and evaluation using performance and audience insights to strengthen future planning and delivery.
• Contribute to other communications activities as required.

Wider Organisational Responsibilities

• Support copywriting, proofreading and translation of communications outputs across our core languages as required 
• Commit to the mission and vision of Girls Not Brides, putting these at the forefront of all planning, work and actions. 
• Uphold the core values of Girls Not Brides in all areas of work and interactions with colleagues, members, partners, and other stakeholders. 
• Comply with Girls Not Brides’ policies and processes, including for safeguarding, diversity and inclusion, the code of conduct and data protection. 
• Ensure that internal databases and monitoring information are kept fully up-to-date. 
• Commit to ongoing personal development and learning. 
• Fulfil any other reasonable requests for the advancement of Girls Not Brides.

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE

Essential 

• Significant professional experience in communications, strategic communications, advocacy communications, public affairs or related roles in the not-for-profit sector, an international/intergovernmental organisation, a social movement, or social enterprise.
• Strong ability to translate organisational and influencing priorities into clear communications approaches, plans and activity that achieve defined audience outcomes.
• A proven track record of developing and delivering successful integrated, multi-channel communications approaches that effectively engage and influence target audiences.
• Experience coordinating complex communications projects or campaigns, managing multiple priorities, deadlines, dependencies and stakeholders.
• Significant professional experience managing, developing and coordinating teams, including providing direction, feedback, mentorship and support, delegating effectively, and fostering a collaborative, inclusive and high-performing team culture across remote-working, cross-cultural and international environments.
• Experience working across communications disciplines, bringing together editorial, digital, media, multimedia or other specialist expertise to deliver integrated communications.
• Strong organisational, project management and coordination skills, with the ability to work independently, identify risks and dependencies, solve problems, manage workflows, manage competing priorities, and coordinate people and projects to deliver shared objectives.
• Strong leadership, interpersonal and relationship-building skills, with the ability to work collaboratively as part of a team, build trusted working relationships across an organisation, and effectively liaise with colleagues and stakeholders to translate priorities into coordinated action.
• Strong editorial judgement and writing skills, with experience reviewing and quality-assuring communications across different formats and channels.
• Ability to prioritise effectively and manage multiple competing deadlines.
• A strong commitment to the mission and values of Girls Not Brides. 

Desirable 

• Experience working within thematic areas of child marriage, girls’ education, sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), and related fields. 
• Proficiency in additional languages, especially French and Spanish.
• Experience supporting organisational influencing or fundraising objectives.
• Experience managing communications transformation or change processes.