Senior Media Adviser to the Secretary General - Head Office

The Norwegian Refugee Council is receiving growing international media attention, and with this the need for a more professional and strategic media and communication approach. In particular, NRC needs to strengthen its senior management’s presence in both the external media and internally across the organisation. For a strategic communications programme to be effective, senior leaders must know how to embrace NRC’s communication strategy, rationale and core messages.  Along with the Secretary General, NRC senior leadership must become champion storytellers for communicating the organization’s messages with authenticity, purpose and consistency.

The Senior Media Adviser will provide communications and media support to the Secretary General in particular, and to the Country Directors and NRC’s senior management.  

Job description    

Responsibilities:

• Develop and implement a communications strategy and an action plan for the Secretary General and the NRC Senior Management Team in line with the Global Communication Strategy. Monitor the impact of the plan and adjust it accordingly. 
• Develop country communication strategies and crisis plans for Country Directors.
• Manage high-level press trips by the Secretary General to the field, including drafting media plans, proactively pitching media interviews and organising press conferences for each visit, to draw attention to the humanitarian situation in these countries and NRC’s work.
• Develop and maintain a strong international media network, including building relations with journalists that would like to interact directly with the Secretary General.
• Produce regular public talking points for the Secretary General and the senior management team on relevant issues, and support NRC’s contingency communications plans.
• Explore, initiate and develop better systems, processes, methods and tools used by NRC media and communication staff globally.
• Develop and implement NRC global media policies and guidelines.
• Manage the Secretary General’s social media platforms by producing, collecting and editing material from the countries in the region. Organise live social media events for the Secretary General and other NRC senior.
• Establish good working relations with communication counterparts in other organizations and the UN, with a view of doing joint communication work to amplify humanitarian issues.
• Prepare periodic reports and summaries for the NRC management team on media activities.
• Represent NRC on behalf of the Head of Media and Communication.
• Mentor, train and support senior NRC staff on media and communications.

Qualifications

• Master degree in a related field, such as journalism or communications.
• Minimum 5 years work experience as a media/communications adviser or journalist - preferably related to development/humanitarian crises/foreign affairs.
• Experience managing the media relations for the ehad of an organisation, preferably from an INGO or the UN.
• Experience from developing and implementing strategic communication plans on senior management level, preferably for an INGO or the UN
• Experience from doing live TV and radio interviews. Spokesperson experience is desirable.
• Demostrated communication and media performance high strategic levels.
• Demonstrated ability to write and publish op-eds in international media.
• Experience in crisis communications
• Experience in managing the social media accounts for high profile figures
• Experience in training and coaching senior management.
• Field experience from complex emergencies

Personal qualities

• Good communicator and strong networking skills.
• Ability to handle a large workload, to cope with stress and work under pressure, independently and with limited supervision.
• Well-structured and with an ability to deliver on short deadlines.
• Patient, flexible and creative, and it helps to have a sense of humour.
• Professional, diplomatic and ability to communicate openly and with respect.
• To work effectively with others across a broad range of topics and contexts.

We offer

• Contract: 12 months, preferred start date 01.12.2017
• Salary/benefits: According to NRC’s general directions.
• Duty station: Oslo, Norway
• Application procedures and CV registration: Please note that you are required to enter the geographical location for all your previous positions while registering your CV. There is no specific field for this information in our CV form, but you can use the "Company name" field for both company and location. 
• NRC reserves the right to conduct a full background check on shortlisted candidates