Corporate Communication Officer Job in Nairobi, Kenya

Action Africa Help International (AAH-I) is an African-led, regional organisation, working in East and Southern Africa to improve the quality of life in livelihood challenged communities. AAH-I has country programmes in Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Uganda, and Zambia.

It brings over 20 years’ experience working with communities in conflict and post-conflict situations, including refugees, internally displaced people and host communities.

More recently, it has expanded its activities to work with other marginalised communities, including pastoralist communities and communities in urban slums.

With the current growth in AAH-I and to facilitate the implementation of our 2014-2018 strategy, we wish to recruit for the following positions in January 2015:

Job Title: Corporate Communication Officer
 
Department / Section: Communication , AAH-I
 
Reports to: Communication Manager
 
Staff reporting to this post: None
 
Liaises with: Communication Officer, Partnership Manager, Partnership Officer, M & E Manager
 
Duty Station: AAH-I, Nairobi 

Job Summary: The Corporate Communications Officer will contribute to building AAH-I’s corporate image through effective public relations among external constituents and will play a key role in strengthening relationships with media across AAH-I’s spheres of influence and ensure development of key partnerships with media outlets. 

The incumbent will support in the production of high quality content for multimedia communication materials aimed for an array of internal and external audiences to ensure the wide dissemination of AAH-I’s work and achievement of its vision and mission.

Responsibilities

1. Media and Public Relations
  • Contribute to designing an AAH-I media strategy to develop support and engagement with local, regional and global media to highlight AAH-I’s work
  • Build capacity of project teams and other spokespersons at AAH-I to engage with media and identify opportunities and new story angles and come up with creative ways to generate media interest
  • Maintain relationships and partnerships with journalists, media outlets and respond to media enquiries
  • Produce high quality materials including press releases, opinion pieces, news reactions, photos, video and multimedia content and ensure materials are properly signed off
  • Organise trips for media, donors and other high-level visitors and partners
  • Manage risk and brand reputation to ensure that media work benefits rather than harms AAH-I’s strategic objectives and does not endanger staff, programmes, partners and the communities we work with
  • Participate in developing and delivering training for AAH-I staff on media and communications skills
  • Monitor and evaluate the impact of media projects and provide regular reporting
2. Writing and Production
  • Research, write and edit a variety of publications including newsletters, annual reports, blogs, speeches, report summaries, case studies and human interest stories for a wide range of audiences including donors, supporters, the private sector, policy makers, and the general public, at global, regional and national levels
  • Support country teams and programme staff to ensure production of high quality communications products through writing and editing tasks
  • Work with outsourced professionals to produce photos, videos and creative design concepts for AAH-I’s communications collateral
  • Make available content on  social media, online platforms and mobile technology, and supporting country teams to develop and maximise their use of digital and multimedia technology
  • Generate high-quality content for use by the partnerships team for marketing purposes
  • Assist to produce communication products (newsletters, videos, talks etc) to enhance internal communications by meeting the information needs of AAH-I staff and increasing their understanding of the vision and mandate of the organisation
  • Develop guidelines and standards for producing communications content and ensure its being followed
Professional Qualifications
  • A first degree in Communications, Public Relations, Journalism or related field; a Master’s degree will be an added advantage
  • At least five (5) years of post-qualification, increasingly responsible work experience in communication, writing and content creation, public relations and media relations
  • Excellent written and spoken English and the ability to communicate complicated and technical issues in a concise and clear way, to a wide range of target audiences
  • Demonstrable skills and experience in writing strategic and consistent messaging, editing, proof-reading and writing engaging copy
  • Networking, interpersonal, analytical and organizational skills coupled with resourcefulness, initiative and maturity of judgment
  • Excellent knowledge of essential computer applications
  • Ability to manage time effectively, excellent at multi-tasking, able to focus and fulfil a range of undertakings
  • Innovative and finder of creative and new ways of communicating messages to diverse audiences
  • Demonstrable knowledge of working with digital media and mastery of social media as a tool for rallying development/social support
  • Experience of working in regional media, communications or public relations roles
  • Excellent analytical and critical thinking skills, including ability to find, absorb, analyse and prioritise information from many different sources
  • Valuable and receptive team-player, able and willing to travel frequently to support AAH-I’s  country-level staff
  • Excellent inter-personal skills and ability to work in multi-national, multi-cultural teams
Skills & Competence
  • Personal contacts/networks with regional and global media
  • Experience working in a development or humanitarian context and working on programmes funded by international donor agencies
  • Experience in news media work including generating press materials, organising media events, responding to media enquiries and good dealings with journalists especially in East Africa.
  • Deep and hands-on knowledge of working with social media with regular professional use to serve the organisation’s interests and to garner support for it
  • Knowledge of publishing software especially the Adobe Creative Suite applications
  • Experience in handling photography and video work and good judgment of quality productions
  • Experience with managing a content management system
Application Instructions

Interested candidates should email application letters and CVs (with 3 referees) addressed to recruitke@actionafricahelp.org to be received by Monday, 5th January, 2015 at 5:00 pm.

The email Subject Line must show the job title of the position applied for.

AAH-I is an equal-opportunity employer.


Only those selected for the interviews will be contacted.