Summary

UNICEF is seeking a Communications Lead to join Giga, a UNICEF-ITU initiative to connect every school in the world to the Internet. The successful candidate will oversee Giga’s external communications to help attract new partners to the initiative, and keep existing donors and partners informed of its progress. They will oversee Giga’s digital channels, managing a social media manager, a content manager and an events manager. The primarily role of the Communications Lead is to actively seek out opportunities to promote Giga in the media and at public events, ensuring that the image, brand, and visibility of Gigas’ work is amplified to its target audience.

Your main responsibilities will be…

Crafting Giga’s Narrative and Maintenance of Communications Portfolio

• Make Giga’s narrative even clearer.  Drive the creation of stories that show our work in action.  Help get them exposed to the light.
• Supporting the communications team as they build up a set of resource from across UNICEF’s Country Offices that magnify the effects of connectivity on children so everyone can see.
• Situate Giga’s narrative across key public and private partners.
• Refine it with audience testing and quantitative metrics.

Team building and Partner Coordination

• This role will lead a global team, composed of the social media manager, events manager, and content manager, and other service providers to execute the existing communication strategy and work plan, as well as offering guidance on updating and advancing the strategy.
• The communications team manages Giga’s communications (often in collaboration with the Design Team and Design Lead) including presentations, talking points for senior team members, promotional materials, public-facing reports, online content, social media updates, and media inquiries.
• This role involves working with the UNICEF Office of Innovation and ITU’s Telecommunication Development Bureau to ensure coherence of communications strategies, channels, and messaging about Giga.
• This role involves working with UNICEF Country Offices, ITU Regional Offices and other partners to identify and seize opportunities to collect content and tell stories that capture the essence of Giga’s work and mission.

Media and External Relations 

• In coordination with UNICEF’s Media team, ITU’s Executive Comms team and UNICEF’s National Committees, this role will help to build and maintain relationships with various international and national media outlets to promote Giga’s work.
• This role will identify opportunities to promote Giga and influence audiences at public events, providing briefing material for senior representatives and amplifying event-related content.
• This team will also be responsible for keeping a finger on the pulse of Giga-related news, and providing regular updates/briefings on relevant news stories, trends, and technology / government partners’ work.

Please click here to access the full TOR and related information.

To qualify for this position, you will have…

• A Master degree in a relevant field (Communication, Journalism, Public Relations or related areas).
• A minimum of 8 years of professional experience in communications, journalism, public relations or related fields, with a focus on science or technology communications.
• A strong track record of crafting clear, inspiring, and persuasive stories about complex concepts. Excellent verbal communication, and perfect (error-free) writing and editing skills are required.
• Significant experience working with international print and broadcast media, preferably with a tech/innovation perspective. Experience in crafting and/or implementing communications strategies in either public or private sector.
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced and dynamic environment. Proven track record leading a global communications team.
• Outstanding communication, teamwork, and interpersonal skills; team-first mentality.
• Experience with ChatGPT or other language learning models (LLMs) is an asset.
• Graphic design and video editing skills are an asset.
• An appetite to work in connectivity, technology, innovation, and ICT.
• Experience working with technology, NFTs, data, telecommunications, and innovative solutions is an asset.
• A demonstrable history in taking initiatives especially in engaging partners and collaborators.
• Fluency in English. Competence in another UN language is an asset.
• Experience working in regions where Giga is active (Sub-Saharan Africa, Central Asia, Latin America & Caribbean) is considered an asset.

Payment details and further considerations

• Payment of professional fees will be based on the submission of agreed deliverables. UNICEF reserves the right to withhold payment in case the deliverables submitted are not up to the required standard or in case of delays in submitting the deliverables on the part of the consultant.   
• Consultant is responsible for his/her own health and travel insurance.
• Consultant is responsible to arrange his/her own travel, including visa.

How to apply

• Interest applicant is required to submit a financial proposal with all-inclusive fee. 
• Financial proposal must include travel costs (economy class) and daily subsistence allowance, if travel is required as per TOR and any other estimated costs: visa, travel/health insurance. 

Applications without a financial proposal will not be considered. Please find attached the financial proposal template.

About Our Team

We are a fast-paced, multi-disciplinary team of software engineers, finance specialists, data scientists, policy experts, and much more. Our team is a distributed workforce and plans to remain distributed into the foreseeable future. We are growing fast. Our team has grown by over 400% in the last 6 months as we rapidly scale to meet our stated mission.