Senior Associate, Communications

Job Description

Overview

Senior Associate, Communications

Based in PSI registered states or a country where PSI is registered (Eastern US, Nigeria, Ethiopia, or Kenya preferred)

10-20% international travel

Work From Almost Anywhere Status = Eligible for US locations

Reports to Project Director, Adolescents 360

Who we are

Population Services International (PSI) is the world’s leading non-profit social marketing organization. We are a diverse group of over 4,500 entrepreneurial development professionals located in over 35 countries committed to making it easier for all people to lead healthier lives and plan the families they desire. PSI is using its global presence and 50+ years of experience to help reimagine healthcare. We are working to shape market systems, shift policy and funding, and strengthen global capacity to better support consumer empowered healthcare.

Join us!

PSI seeks a Senior Associate, Communications that will support the development of communications and advocacy strategies while leading the execution of strategic communications and advocacy activities. This position will be embedded in and report to A360 – PSI’s flagship adolescent sexual and reproductive health project – with a dotted line to PSI’s External Communications department.

With funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, A360 has partnered with young people and government health systems to design, pilot, and scale adolescent sexual and reproductive health (ASRH) interventions which position contraception as a tool to achieving girls’ self-defined goals. It operates across Ethiopia, Kenya, and Nigeria. In late 2020, A360 embarked on an ambitious new 5 year follow on which is focused on: i) strengthening the existing interventions; ii) supporting host government to adopt A360’s approaches; and iii) generating evidence, learning and global goods to support the adoption and replication of A360-inspired approaches by others.

Responsibilities

Your contributions

- Develop key messaging and thought leadership content with technical and program leads. Draft messaging for presentations, briefing materials, talking points and speeches, and ghost write blog posts. Keep stakeholders apprised of updates through email marketing, social media campaigns, brown bags, webinars, and other vehicles for direct communications. 40% of Time

- Support in the development of communications strategies, work plans, targets and milestones for advocacy campaigns and projects in close consultation with senior team members and technical and program leads. Monitor deliverables and progress against strategy, providing regular updates to leadership. 20% of Time

- Advise program leads at the global and country level in the development and implementation of advocacy strategies and workplans. Provide ongoing support and help build local staff communications and advocacy capacity. 20% of Time

- Work closely with technical and program leads and the Manager to identify online and offline events and conferences where PSI can promote its work and impact. Help determine PSI’s role as speaker, exhibitor and/or sponsor. Work with internal and external partners to craft panel agendas, secure speakers, and promote discussions. Identify and/or create the appropriate materials to support PSI’s presence at events including speaker remarks and presentations, and other collateral. Coordinate event logistics and speaker support. 10% of Time

- Oversee the implementation of social and digital communications campaigns. Write and edit copy for the website and social media and oversee web maintenance. Develop and monitor digital channel results and report analysis to Manager and technical and program leads for use in adapting content and approach for greater impact. 10% of Time

Time percentages listed above are not exact. They are estimates and may change. This is also not an exhaustive list of all tasks that an incumbent is expected to perform but is instead a summary of the primary responsibilities and requirements of the job. The incumbent may be asked to perform duties not included above. PSI reserves the right to revise job profiles at any time based on changes to the required job responsibilities.

Qualifications

What are we looking for?

• Bachelor’s Degree (or international equivalent) in communications and/or advocacy; journalism; public health, international development, or related field.
• At least 5 years of related experience. Equivalent combination of relevant education and experience may be substituted.
• Excellent organizational and administrative skills with keen attention to detail. Able to balance multiple projects, wear multiple hats, and manage competing deadlines in a fast-paced and at times ambiguous environment.
• Excellent collaboration, customer service, relationship building/management and consensus building skills. Able to respond calmly and confidently in any situation.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills. Able to think creatively and approach tasks or problems in a new or different way.
• Excellent writing and editing experience in English, and the ability to translate complex issues for a variety of audiences. Proficient in AP style.
• Demonstrated ability to work in a multi-cultural environment.
• Knowledge of or demonstrated interest in the global health and development landscape. Global family planning and/or adolescent and youth sexual and reproductive health programs, malaria, HIV, and sanitation preferred.
• Working knowledge of content creation and promotion on a variety of digital platforms including WordPress, YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter
• Excellent research and investigative skills. Able to find, evaluate, and present useful information related to a specific topic
• Advocacy experience, preferred.

The candidate we hire will embody PSI’s corporate values:

Measurement:You use hard evidence to make decisions and guide your work. You set clear goalposts in advance and explain clearly if you need to move them.

Pragmatism: You’ll strive to deliver the best possible result with the resources available. You won’t be paralyzed by a need to make things perfect.

Honesty:You own your mistakes and are open about your shortcomings – it’s the only way you’ll learn and improve.

Collaboration:You’ll quickly establish a mental map of whom you can rely on for what, on your team, at headquarters, and in our country offices – if you try to do it all yourself, you won’t succeed.

Trust:You accept limits to your sphere of control and give colleagues the benefit of the doubt.
Commitment:You are in it for the long-haul and want to grow with the organization, just like PSI serves its consumers and partners with host-country governments through thick and thin.

References will be required. The successful candidate will be required to pass a background check. For domestic positions: Must be authorized to work in the United States or selected PSI country office. PSI will not consider work visa sponsorship for this position.

PSI has implemented a COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate to provide a hazard free employment and work environment in our commitment to our employees. Candidates offered a position will be required to provide proof of vaccination prior to their start date and their employment will be contingent on this. Candidates needing a medical or religious accommodation should let their recruiter know.

PSI is an Equal Opportunity Employer and encourages applications from qualified individuals regardless of actual or perceived race, religion, color, sex, age, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, marital status, personal appearance, matriculation, political affiliation, family status or responsibilities, gender identity or expression, pregnancy, childbirth, related medical conditions or breastfeeding, genetic information, amnesty, veteran, special disabled veteran or uniform service member status or employment status.

ACCESSIBILITY NOTICE: If you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the employment process due to a physical or mental disability, please send an email to: newhiresupport@psi.org or call (202)785-0072.

Apply Here
PI175289811

About the Organization

About PSI: PSI is a leading global health organization with programs targeting malaria, child survival, HIV and reproductive health. Working in partnership within the public and private sectors, and harnessing the power of the markets, PSI provides life-saving products, clinical services and behavior change communications that empower the world's most vulnerable populations, in over 65 countries to lead healthier lives. Over 150 staff in the Washington D.C headquarters, 100 overseas expatriate staff and almost 8,000 local staff work to execute PSI’s critical and innovative programs worldwide. Health Impact and Donors: PSI has a unique focus on measurable health impact much like successful corporations measure profitability. Measuring the results of PSI’s health interventions isn’t as simple as counting lives saved. PSI employs an entire team of researchers to continuously evaluate PSI performance against evidence-based objectives and verifiable indicators. Such strict measurement of PSI performance is what sets the organization apart from others in the field and feeds into the design of innovative, targeted and cost-effective interventions. By utilizing the DALY (Disability Adjusted Life Year) system, PSI estimates that in 2009 alone, its programs directly prevented more than 156,000 HIV infections, 2.6 million unintended pregnancies, almost 150,000 deaths from malaria and diarrhea and 19 million malaria episodes. In addition, roughly 25,000 patients were treated for TB. With a focus on decentralized management and local experts, innovative programs and successful benchmarking, PSI is proud of its long term commitment to serve those most in need. PSI is supported by several major donors including: governments of the United States, United Kingdom, Germany and the Netherlands; the Global Fund, various United Nations agencies, private foundations, corporations and individuals. Areas of PSI focus: HIV: PSI has HIV programs in over 60 countries around the world. Interventions, which include social marketing of HIV products and services and targeted HIV communications, are based upon a commitment to produce measurable health impact and an emphasis upon rigorous research and evaluation. Although condom social marketing and targeted communications remain the cornerstones of PSI's work to address the HIV pandemic, country programs also implement an increasingly comprehensive range of interventions in response to the changing needs of specific country contexts and populations. PSI is increasingly implementing innovations such as male circumcision services and targeted communications for concurrent sexual partnerships and injection drug use interventions. TB: Tuberculosis (TB) is a curable and preventable illness, yet it remains a major cause of death worldwide. It is one of the biggest killers of women of reproductive age and the most common cause of death among people living with HIV/AIDS. PSI provides a variety of innovative TB and TB/HIV-related services, engaging private providers in diagnosis and treatment and integrating HIV counseling and testing with TB services. It also creates innovative behavior change communications campaigns to increase awareness of TB and TB/HIV and to promote healthy behaviors. Child Survival: Vulnerable children are one of PSI’s most important target groups. According to the WHO, nearly 10 million children under the age of five die each year – more than 1,000 every hour. Tragically, about two-thirds of child deaths are preventable through practical, low-cost interventions. PSI works to improve child survival by helping developing countries address water-borne diseases such as diarrhea, malaria, pneumonia and HIV with prevention and treatment education and products. PSI’s child survival programs improve the health and save the lives of children under five in more than 30 countries. Reproductive Health: In over 30 countries throughout the world PSI empowers women and couples to lead healthier lives by providing access to innovative family planning and maternal health products and services. Every year, there are more than 60 million unintended pregnancies and more than 500,000 women die from pregnancy-related causes. In 2008 alone, PSI prevented an estimated 3.1 million unintended pregnancies and 15,000 maternal deaths, and enabled millions of couples to plan their families. Over the past three decades, PSI has expanded the contraceptive methods in its portfolio from male condoms and oral contraceptives to include injectable contraceptives, intrauterine contraceptive devices (IUD), emergency contraception pills, implants, female condoms, voluntary sterilization, and fertility awareness methods such as the Standard Days Method using Cyclebeads®. PSI’s RH platform has also grown to address maternal mortality through the prevention of post-partum hemorrhage and sepsis, and the prevention of unsafe abortion. Clean Water: Access to clean water is a challenge in almost all of the countries PSI operates in. Increasing awareness of water borne diseases and accessibility to treated water are a core part of PSI’s efforts across its health areas. PSI and its many partners are working together to promote the Safe Water System, a water quality intervention that employs proven, easy-to-use and inexpensive solutions such as household water treatment appropriate for the developing world. Household water treatment and safe storage ensures that each sip of water is safe to drink. Household water treatment can be adopted quickly, inexpensively, at national scale in both development and emergency situations, making an immediate difference on the lives of those who rely on transporting to and storing water in their homes. Malaria: PSI provides malaria control support to national Ministries of Health in over 30 countries worldwide. PSI tailors its malaria control programs to the unique environment in each country and the needs outlined by the Ministry of Health to achieve the Abuja Targets and MDGs. PSI’s malaria control programs include delivery of insecticide treated mosquito nets, pre-packaged malaria treatment, behavior change communications and operational research.