About Proforest
Proforest has a 20 year track record of supporting the transition to sustainable production and sourcing of agricultural and forest commodities. We are a not-for-profit group with a global presence across Europe, Asia, Africa and South America. We work with governments, the private sector and civil society to deliver positive social and environmental outcomes in the places agricultural commodities are produced, ranging from protecting forests to recognising the land rights of indigenous peoples. Our clients are well-known consumer brands and the many initiatives that support them, and our partners are institutional funders and global and local civil society organisations.
Position summary
We believe that positive change only happens when people understand the issues and have the capacity and tools to take action. In Proforest, we have two decades of experience supporting companies, governments and civil society to understand the sustainability issues around commodity production and how they can have more positive environmental and social impacts. We need to build on this experience, consolidate our own knowledge and share it better with our clients and partners.
This means we need to be better at integrating our communications and knowledge sharing activities including training and capacity building and managing and visualising data.
We are looking for someone to lead this work. This person will be interested and competent in taking oversight across multiple strands of work, including communications, visualisation and information management, and have the ability to lead a communications team as well as support colleagues from technical teams in delivering a range of outcomes. As a small and practical organisation, we also need someone who can move from strategic oversight to hands-on delivery where needed.
This is an exciting opportunity for an experienced and passionate communications leader to take our communications and knowledge management strategies and delivery to a new level. This person will be instrumental in helping us transform the way we work, allowing us to make a greater positive impact.
The successful candidate will oversee our communications team and our external communications and outreach activities, and provide leadership on integrating our training and capacity development and our work on managing and visualising data and information. There will be significant scope to help shape the strategy and actions in close collaboration with the directors and existing team members.
Requirements
Strong leadership skills are a given for this role, accompanied with a proven track record in developing and executing communications and knowledge management strategies for a global organisation. Success will also require outstanding interpersonal skills to influence a wide range of internal and external stakeholders from different backgrounds, excellent communication and writing skills and the ability to articulate complex issues to a variety of audiences. Proforest is a multi-national, multi-cultural organisation and the successful candidate will be able to work across cultures and regions through both face-to-face and remote contact.
Skills
The successful candidate will work both with the direct communications team and extensively with the wider Proforest technical team. You will need an ability to:
• Understand Proforest’s work, across both consultancy projects and donor-funded programmes. This will require some previous experience of sustainability issues in agricultural commodity production (such as forest conservation and rural development) in Africa, Southeast Asia or Latin America.
• Develop and drive the overall strategy bringing together communications, knowledge management and capacity building. Previous experience in developing communications and/or capacity building strategy will be an asset.
• Manage a communications team to produce a range of products including publications, on-line communications, website, social media and infographics.
• Support staff to communicate clearly about their work in writing, infographics and visualisations, through training, mentoring and feedback.
• Support the technical team in the development and roll-out of on-line and physical capacity building and training.
• Collaborate closely with colleagues from other teams who are developing communications materials, data visualisations, training courses, mentoring processes and knowledge resources.
Qualifications & Experience
Degree or higher degree in Communications or other relevant topic.
• Excellent written English and strong oral communication skills
• A minimum of 5 years’ relevant work experience
• Demonstrable ability to lead the development and implementation of a communications strategy to support engagement with partners and business development
• First-hand experience of communication for not-for-profit organizations, large commercial organizations, international development donors or government organizations
• Ability to manage and negotiate with external service providers
• Strong project and team management skills
• Proficiency in website content management systems; social media, Microsoft Office
• Proficiency in another Proforest working language (Portuguese, Spanish, French, Bahasa Indonesia, Bahasa Malaysia) is very welcome though not essential.
Terms and conditions
Salary: £45-55,000 dependent on experience
Full-time, permanent position based in Oxford, UK
Benefits include flexible working, company pension, life insurance
To apply
Please send your CV, a cover letter to personnel@proforest.net
Closing Date: 24th May 2020
