Director, Office of Communications (D-1/D-2)* - New York

New York, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Duration of Initial Contract :

Effective and targeted communications is imperative for any organization. It is paramount in advancing UNDP’s image and relationships with its constituencies, as well as the public at large. Strategic communications –at the country, regional and global levels – helps UNDP demonstrate both development results and business goals.

On the development side, effective communications increases policy influence and impact, builds and strengthens networks and partnerships, and facilitates change via social marketing. On the business side, communications supports partnership building, increases delivery. At UNDP, while communications is everyone’s business, the Office of Communications (OC) performs corporate-level functions (i.e. speaking on behalf of UNDP) and its mandate is to help UNDP communicate effectively and robustly.

The Director leads the Office of Communications (OC), Bureau of External Relations and Advocacy (BERA), and is responsible for developing UNDP’s global communications strategy and related policies, providing strategic leadership and overall direction and guidance to build appropriate communications capacity within UNDP. The Director leads on strengthening UNDP’s external positioning, and effectively managing the organization’s reputation. The Director reports to the Assistant Administrator, BERA. He/she helps shape UNDP’s corporate branding and messaging, and advises Senior Management on high-level advocacy, providing support to all UNDP organizational units including country offices.The following are the duties and responsibilities of the Director:

Advocate for Human Development, Internationally Agreed Development Goals and other leading development issues: Designing  and implementing external communications strategies that directly support UNDP’s 2014-2017 Strategic Plan and the strategic outputs and deliverables of BERA; Leading UNDP’s corporate advocacy efforts promoting key development issues, including the launch of flagship reports (e.g. annual Human Development Report) and programmes and campaigns in OpEds, and traditional and new media outlets; Representing UNDP within inter-agency communications fora, including in the evolving context of “One UN”; Engage journalists and other opinion leaders.

Position UNDP:

Strengthening UNDP’s position amongst key stakeholders, including the media, sister organizations and the wider development community, by highlighting the positive UNDP’s development impact on people’s lives globally;Monitoring emerging issues that could affect UNDP’s corporate reputation and prepare proactive communication strategies to address them (reputational risk management); Develop clarity and focus on UNDP’s mandate, branding, build and leverage constituencies.  

Increase UNDP’s Capacity to Communicate:

Advocating for a ‘culture of communications’ within UNDP, such that external perceptions are increasingly taken into account on issues of strategic importance to UNDP, at the corporate, regional and country levels; Ensuring that comprehensive training and relevant and innovative tools (e.g. templates, photos, toolkits, ‘how to’ examples) covering  all aspects of communications is available and administered at all levels within UNDP.

Ensure Effective Online Communications:

Promote a culture of active bottom-up, top-down and peer-to-peer communications within UNDP; Oversee the corporate Intranet and other tools including transparency initiatives and products;Oversee the corporate website (http://www.undp.org/) and provide coaching and guidance to UNDP organizational units including country offices, in enhancing the quality for the worldwide network of UNDP websites.

Ensure Effective Management of the Office of Communications, BERA:

Directly manage OC Headquarters and communications personnel in regional centers (matrixed reporting);Provide leadership for the worldwide network of country level communications officers;Ensure Office plans and activities support the UNDP Strategic Plan and the strategic objectives of BERA; Ensure financial and administrative integrity of all OC operations;Ensure inter-Bureau communications coordination and leadership.

Impact of Results:

Issues advocated by UNDP more strongly positioned in the overall development agenda (e.g. strategic plan outcomes, MDGs, expanded partner base in development, post-crisis recovery); UNDP positioned as an effective, accountable, transparent UN development organization, making positive impact on people’s lives worldwide, and with improved media coverage of UNDP; More UNDP personnel at all levels undertaking communications training and tools offered by OC; Effective OC management, as assessed by relevant corporate performance and results tools.

Key interactions with:

UN press corps and wider community of journalists covering development issues or issues of concern to particular regions, countries or areas of work;UN-DPI and wider system; All UNDP organizational Bureaus, hubs and units, including country offices;UNDP senior management especially regarding risk management.

Functional Competencies:

Demonstrated ability to think strategically, and to provide credible leadership that includes intellectual leadership, a track record of mature judgments, and the proven ability to lead the drive for results; Excellent and effective communication skills, including ability to make and defend recommendations;Diplomacy and tact; Ability to persuade people with varied points of view;
Present information in a concise and accurate manner;Ability to convey difficult issues and positions to senior officials;Understanding of the multilateral system; Networking and relationship building skills; Effective negotiating skills and ability to work with others to reach mutually benefiting and lasting understandings; Demonstrated sound judgment in resolving issues/problems;
Ability to proactively seek and recommend sound policy initiatives to senior management; Ability to deliver on deadlines and perform in a high pressured environment.

Core Competencies:

Demonstrates integrity and fairness, by modeling the UN/UNDP’s values and ethical standards; Promotes the vision, mission and strategic goals of UNDP; andDisplays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;Excellent inter-personal skills with an ability to work and foster multi-cultural teamwork, integrity and strong inter-personal skills and  effective multi-cultural team-building skills.Advanced University Degree (Masters) in Communications, Social Sciences or related fields or equivalent relevant professional experience.15+ years of senior media relations experience, with in-depth knowledge of strategic communications planning and implementation;Proven experience with cutting edge communications and media approaches, outlets, and tools, including social media;Experience in managing global communications staff; Experience working with top-level media from media centers around the world, specifically on development issues; Experience in all the tactics of media relations – press conferences, feature stories, broadcast, OpEDs, risk management;Experience with use of a range of communications tools, including publications, Internet and public relations and proven ability to create successful interface among these tools for global communications initiatives; Senior level management experience and ability to work well with decision makers Ability to lead and work effectively with a diverse team of people of different national and cultural backgrounds in an international setting.Fluent in written and spoken English required;Working knowledge of other official UN languages is an asset.

*Final level of selected candidate will be based on profile and experience.

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence.

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