Corporate Reputation Manager at Rainforest Alliance

Position summary:

At the Rainforest Alliance we are looking for a highly collaborative and organized Corporate Reputation Manager to join our Corporate Affairs team, as part of our global Marketing & Communications team. The focus of this role will be on proactive and reactive reputation management and developing targeted solutions, strategies, and processes for supporting the structural, long-term health of the Rainforest Alliance brand and its mission. This person will serve as the primary contact and internal point person for all reputational risks as well as issues that may have an adverse effect on the public perception of the Rainforest Alliance and our external stakeholders including companies, NGOs and other key partners. They will collaborate across the organization to gather, analyse, and address reputational risks, build structures for integrated risk management, project-manage reputational risk response and support transparent, clear communications strategies to ensure staff and partners understand how they can best communicate about the Rainforest Alliance and our collective work to reach sustainability goals.

 Responsibilities:

This role is key to positioning the Rainforest Alliance as a resilient and trustworthy organization and ensuring our communications across stakeholders is transparent about the challenges and opportunities presented throughout our work. This role also leads on highlighting potential reputational and other risks which may affect the Rainforest Alliance’s ability to carry out its mission. They must have a basic understanding of sustainable agriculture certification and sustainability challenges and be able to translate highly technical information into accessible messaging for businesses, civil society, and the environmental/sustainability community at large.

Reputation Risk Management and Crisis Leadership 

• Handle end-to-end rapid response for all reputational risks by mobilizing relevant staff and cross-functional teams to quickly and effectively ascertain risk level; develop and implement context-specific response plans across all internal and external channels.
• Develop and implement comprehensive communication response plans, drawing relevant insights from our programmatic response to various environmental and social issues pervasive in the environmental sustainability space. This includes the drafting, editing, and publication of organizational statements, internal/external FAQs, talking points, proactive social media, and other relevant communications as necessary.
• Work with global media and social media teams to help provide monitoring, assessment, and potential rapid response to critical engagements globally.
• Gather and analyse new and existing reputational risks based on continuous data gathering and deep collaboration across cross-functional teams, regions and disciplines.
• Monitor and follow-up on activities related to reputational risk response by maintaining active connection with relevant internal/external stakeholders and disseminating timely communication to affected stakeholders
• Work with internal and regional teams to build strong relationships and establish a professional rapport to help handle and mitigate risks effectively and efficiently.
• Provide ongoing training programs for global teams, equipping them with relevant resources to engage effectively and protect against reputational risks in the field. Advise staff and key stakeholders on best practices for risk-mitigating communication strategies, while maintaining transparency on our collective work, and solving deeply complex issues within agriculture supply chains.
• Continuously build on stakeholder communication tools by building repositories of evergreen messaging to address critical and complex matters that may impact our work in certification and other areas of intervention.

Strategy Development: 

• Handle organizational Reputational Risk Protocol and continuously gather input and data to evolve the protocol when necessary, and to more accurately and efficiently address emerging challenges.
• Maintain Corporate Reputation adherence to internal policies and due-diligence procedures to better mitigate against potential reputational risks including those related to misinformation, partner communication, and human-rights related topics, focusing on cross collaboration across channels.
• Participate in various task forces and internal committees in developing action plans to address ongoing issues and challenges, provide insight and solutions in best practices and reputation risk management.
• Bringing together relevant staff and external stakeholders to proactively address reputational risks on a continuous basis through various strategies including internal and external communications, provide education on trends and pervasive issues, due diligence, and international policy changes, which can collectively safeguard the market strength of the organization and its valued partners.
• Reporting to Director Corporate Affairs, develop regular reports to update senior leadership on current reputational challenges and to highlight emerging risks which may have a negative impact on our global reputation.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience in Communications or related field.
• Demonstrated ability (5 years) in reputation management, communications, or environmental sustainability.
• Proven ability in development and delivery of effective crisis management plans.
• Experience in sustainable agriculture certification, international development or CSR is a plus.
• Must have a working knowledge of certification schemes and agricultural supply chains as well as key environmental and social issues including human rights, climate change, deforestation, and corporate responsibility.
• Must be able to adhere to tight deadlines and maintain ability to shift priorities based on urgent and changing needs of the organization.
• Excellent verbal and written communications skills in English. Other language(s) are a strong asset.
• Exceptional planning and organizational skills.
• Ability to work under pressure, manage competing priorities and deadlines.
• Ability to work independently on a wide range of tasks and projects.
• Strong relationship management skills, effective at negotiating and influencing.