The European Environmental Bureau (EEB) is looking for a Communications Officer (Agriculture and Food Systems)
Are you passionate about making a difference at a crucial time for protecting people and the environment from industrial agriculture and unsustainable food systems, and help guarantee health and sustainability in food production for everyone? Do you subscribe to our values? Then we might have just the right job for you.
The opportunity
Intensive agriculture is driving biodiversity loss and contributing to climate change, as well as air, soil, and water pollution. It also underpins an industrial food system that exploits seasonal farm labour, promotes unsustainable consumption habits and ultimately harms our health.
EU policies, and most notably the Common Agricultural Policy, have so far failed to tackle these considerable threats. Encouragingly, the European Green Deal has set a new tone in the Farm to Fork Strategy. Our advocacy efforts aim to see EU institutions and Member States raise the ambition of existing and new EU laws and subsidies. This is vital in order to drive a transition to sustainable food systems that protect the health of people and the planet.
We are therefore seeking a talented and committed Communications Officer to join the European Environmental Bureau (EEB) who will, COVID-19 permitting, be based at the EEB office in Brussels and be part a dynamic and expanding communications team. The selected candidate will be thematically anchored in the policy team working on agriculture and food systems.
About us
The European Environmental Bureau is the largest and most inclusive European network of environmental citizens’ groups – and the only one that works on such a broad range of issues. We advocate for progressive policies to create a better environment in the European Union and beyond.
About you
You are a creative, resourceful, and self-motivated professional, with excellent communications and interpersonal skills, eager to help build a better future for people and nature, and to promote stronger laws and environmental and climate governance. You are able to clearly communicate conceptual topics and make them relatable to your audience. You are organised, attentive to detail, self-driven and happy to work autonomously or as part of a team, in what is currently a largely virtual set-up.
Key Responsibilities
Press
- Draft, edit and deliver press releases and other relevant materials for national and international media (with agriculture and food systems being your primary focus)
- Respond to/ coordinate media inquiries by journalists and other stakeholders
- Proactively identify opportunities, develop and pitch stories to media outlets
- Build a lasting relationship with the media, monitor and report on press coverage
Content development
- Write attention-grabbing articles and punchy opinion pieces for media outlets, the EEB news channel META
- Edit documents (e.g., policy papers, letters, reports) written by non-professional writers and improve their readability
- Develop core messages for the team/ policy area/ project communication
Digital communication
Following the framework provided by the communications’ team’s digital communications lead, support our work by:
- Effectively using social media to push campaign messages and promote events
- Preparing social media toolkits to broaden reach, engage audiences and achieve advocacy goals
- Updating, maintaining and developing EEB’s web presence, online tools and social media
Other
To help the policy colleagues working on agriculture achieve their objectives, you will:
- Develop and implement communications concepts and plans for projects
- Deliver on campaign and advocacy objectives, in collaboration with policy and communications colleagues, and where applicable project partners
- Contribute to strategic discussions within the policy and communications teams
- Coordinate work of external communications service providers
- Offer communications support for events, e.g., develop key messages, plan promotion and dissemination, elaborate post-event report etc.
Skills and experience
- A degree in a relevant field
- A minimum of three years of experience in communications with a good command of social media, preferably in an international or European environmental NGO
- Competency in CMS (WordPress), Mailchimp, social media and other relevant communications tools
- Understanding of EU environmental policies and decision-making processes
- Familiarity with Brussels-focused EU media landscape
- Interest in and commitment to sustainable food systems and nature- and climate-friendly farming
- Ability to communicate persuasively and explain complex and technical information clearly and succinctly
- Ability to work both autonomously and as part of a team
- Strong organisational and project management skills
- Ability to build productive working relationships with people from different cultures and backgrounds
- Native-level command of English required, other EU language(s) an asset
What we offer
- A monthly pre-tax salary of between €2.700 and €3.300, depending on experience, coupled with various benefits (holiday bonus, 13th month, pension scheme, luncheon vouchers)
- A two-year contract, with the possibility to extend, subject to funding
- A pleasant working atmosphere in an international working environment
- A worthy cause to work for
How to apply
Please send your CV, a cover letter explaining your motivation to apply for this position and the responses to the two tasks below to personnel@eeb.org by 20 March 2022. The subject line of your email must clearly state: ‘Communications Officer (Agriculture and Food Systems)’.
Tasks
- Write a blog post (max. 300 words) for our META news channel about how transitioning to sustainable food and farming systems can help Europe tackle the climate and biodiversity crises. Feel free to use visual elements and embedded content to support your message.
- Draft social media posts to promote your article on Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.
Location
During COVID-19 times, the EEB is following government recommendations to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all its staff. As our contracts fall under Belgian law, the candidate must commit to being officially registered in Belgium and working most of the time from our office in Brussels. This currently entails a maximum occupancy for the office and a largely work-from-home arrangement.
Note:
- Incomplete applications will not be considered
- Due to limited staff resources and numbers of CVs anticipated, only candidates selected for interviews will be contacted
- We will ask shortlisted candidates to provide two references
- The EEB is an equal-opportunities and family-friendly employer
- We encourage applications from a diverse range of candidates. Before applying, please read our recruitment privacy statement
