Creative Lead and Copywriter (Open to Tier 0, 1 & 2 applicants)

Tiered Approach

In line with the commitment to safeguard capacity and support personnel already in the Organization, a majority of UNDP UNCDF/UNV vacancies are advertised using a tiered application process whereby:

• Tier 0: UNDP/UNCDF/UNV IP staff holding permanent (PA) and fixed-term (FTA) appointments, whose posts will be abolished, or contracts will be terminated or not renewed during 2026.
• Tier 1: Other UNDP/UNCDF/UNV staff holding permanent (PA) and fixed-term (FTA) appointments
• Tier 2: UNDP/UNCDF/UNV staff holding temporary appointments (TA), personnel on regular PSA contracts, and Expert and Specialist UN Volunteers
• Tier 3 or no tier indicated: All other contract types from UNDP/UNCDF/UNV and other agencies, and other external candidates

Please make note of the Tier(s) indicated in the vacancy title, if any, and ensure that you satisfy the eligibility to apply.

Background

As the lead United Nations agency on international development, for six decades, UNDP works in some 170 countries and territories. UNDP has shaped the progress of human development, providing integrated support at scale to improve lives for millions of people worldwide. UNDP’s Strategic Plan 2026-2029 helps countries and communities in their progress towards high human development while protecting the planet through four strategic objectives – prosperity for all, effective governance, crisis resilience, and healthy planet. The plan is powered by three accelerators: digital and AI transformation; gender equality; and sustainable finance. All are underpinned by a commitment to human rights and to leaving no one behind.

The Bureau for Advocacy and External Relations leads and supports UNDP to build and deliver essential strategic relationships and alliances. It creates and delivers a strong public narrative about the organization, impact of our work, and how we align with partners to identify and build solutions towards achieving sustainable development. The Bureau also leads UNDP’s work with traditional donors, as well as building innovative and diversified funding relationships.  BERA communications enable strong political and financial backing by providing partners and supporters with a clear understanding of what UNDP does and how our mission, capabilities and services reinforce global, regional, and national development priorities. BERA leads efforts to optimally position UNDP within the UN Development System, with Member States and in the inter-governmental and inter-agency fora. It identifies strategic opportunities to partner with agencies through multi-stakeholder and bilateral platforms. It provides intelligence, advises on relationships with key political constituencies, incl. UN Member states, G77 and China, WEOG, EU, Executive Board and develops strategies. BERA coordinates and sets corporate standards across the functions of political positioning, partnerships, marketing and communications within UNDP and leads on internal communications.

The Brand and Marketing team develops and promotes UNDP’s global brand. It leads marketing initiatives, campaigns and flagship products; provides advice and services across the organization; supports brand consistency and capacity; and manages platforms including the Marketing Services Hub and UNDP Shop. 

Position Purpose

Under the guidance of the Team Leader of the Brand and Marketing team, the Creative Lead and Copywriter provides creative oversight of UNDP’s corporate brand and marketing initiatives, leading the development and execution of integrated creative concepts across copy, design and other visual content. The role combines hands-on copywriting with responsibility for guiding designers and other creatives, ensuring outputs are audience-centric and coherent.

UNDP adopts a portfolio approach to accommodate changing business needs and leverage linkages across interventions to achieve its strategic goals. This is a recognition of interconnected nature of development risks & crises that the world is facing and that call for assembling of multidisciplinary teams for an integrated & systemic response. Therefore, UNDP personnel are expected to work across issues, units, functions, teams and projects in multidisciplinary teams in order to enhance and enable horizontal collaboration

Duties and Responsibilities

Creative leadership and quality oversight

• Provide creative oversight for UNDP’s global brand and marketing outputs ensuring all marketing, communications and advocacy materials consistently reflect the organization's values, identity and positioning. 
• Ensure consistency, audience relevance and creative excellence across all copy, design and visual content, in alignment with UNDP's brand standards and communications objectives.
• Support the implementation of brand guidelines and contribute to maintaining brand integrity across digital and print channels.
• Collaborate with designers, content creators and communications colleagues to produce engaging and impactful content.
• Collaborate with communications, marketing, partnerships and programme teams to ensure creative outputs effectively support organizational priorities and strategic objectives.
• Monitor brand performance and audience response, using insights and analytics to continuously improve creative effectiveness and impact.

Lead integrated marketing campaigns and flagship products

• Conceptualize, develop and lead integrated marketing campaigns and creative products that increase the reach, understanding and engagement of UNDP’s priority audiences.
• Design creative campaign strategies that combine storytelling, content marketing, digital engagement, social media, partnerships, events and paid media approaches.
• Lead campaign planning processes, including audience segmentation, messaging architecture, creative development, content production, launch planning and performance measurement.
• Oversee the development of flagship communications and marketing products, ensuring they are audience-centered, innovative and aligned with UNDP's global brand positioning.
• Coordinate with internal stakeholders, regional and country offices, external agencies and production partners to ensure cohesive and effective campaign execution.
• Establish campaign objectives, key performance indicators and evaluation frameworks, analyzing results and translating findings into actionable recommendations.
• Identify opportunities to expand campaign reach, strengthen public engagement and increase awareness of UNDP's impact and initiatives.

Lead in creative copywriting and content 

• Develop compelling, audience-focused copy and messaging for UNDP’s corporate marketing campaigns, platforms and products.
• Create compelling, audience-centered copy for digital platforms, social media, websites, email campaigns, publications, marketing materials and branded products.
• Translate complex development topics into clear, engaging and accessible content for diverse audiences.
• Edit and proofread communications products to ensure clarity, consistency, accuracy and adherence to UNDP style standards.
• Collaborate with designers and multimedia specialists to produce integrated content and storytelling products.
• Adapt content for different platforms and audience segments while maintaining a consistent brand voice.
• Stay informed of emerging creative, marketing and digital communication trends and incorporate relevant best practices into content development.

Coordinate creative production and project delivery

• Coordinate the development and delivery of high-quality creative products, working across multidisciplinary teams and managing multiple assignments and deadlines.
• Stay informed of emerging creative, marketing and digital communication trends and incorporate relevant best practices into content development.
• Manage creative briefs, stakeholder consultations, approvals and production workflows to ensure efficient project execution.
• Monitor multiple assignments simultaneously and prioritize workloads to meet deadlines.
• Identify and address production challenges in a proactive and solutions-oriented manner.
• Anticipate and mitigate potential project risks, bottlenecks and resource constraints while maintaining delivery schedules.
• Oversee procurement processes related to creative services and production vendors, ensuring compliance with organizational policies and procedures.
• Maintain effective collaboration and communication among project stakeholders to ensure alignment, transparency and accountability throughout the project lifecycle.
• Track project performance and outcomes, preparing reports and recommendations for continuous improvement.

PromoteE-commerce marketing and product development and facilitate knowledge management 

• Advice and support the growth and positioning of UNDP’s e-commerce platform through marketing, creative content and the development of brand-aligned products.
• Identify, synthesize and document best practices and lessons learned that are generated from the project and implementing partners.
• Assist in identifying opportunities for new products and creative approaches that strengthen brand visibility and audience engagement.
• Contribute to the development of marketing materials that effectively showcase UNDP-branded products and merchandise.
• Collect, organize and maintain information, resources and examples of successful campaigns, products and creative initiatives.
• Identify, document and share lessons learned, best practices and innovative approaches emerging from projects and partnerships.
• Support knowledge-sharing activities and contribute to continuous improvement of creative and marketing practices across the organization.
• Increased visibility and engagement for UNDP’s e-commerce activities and branded products.

The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of the Office and the Organisation.

Supervisory/Managerial Responsibilities: None

Competencies

• Core Competencies:

Achieve Results: LEVEL 3: Set and align challenging, achievable objectives for multiple projects, have lasting impact

Think Innovatively: LEVEL 3: Proactively mitigate potential risks, develop new ideas to solve complex problems

Learn Continuously: LEVEL 3: Create and act on opportunities to expand horizons, diversify experiences

Adapt with Agility: LEVEL 3: Proactively initiate and champion change, manage multiple competing demands

Act with Determination: LEVEL 3: Think beyond immediate task/barriers and take action to achieve greater results

Engage and Partner: LEVEL 3: Political savvy, navigate complex landscape, champion inter-agency collaboration

Enable Diversity and Inclusion: LEVEL 3: Appreciate benefits of diverse workforce and champion inclusivity

• Cross-Functional & Technical competencies: 

Business Direction & Strategy-System Thinking: Ability to use objective problem analysis and judgement to understand how interrelated elements coexist within an overall process or system, and to consider how altering one element can impact on other parts of the system

Business Management-Portfolio Management: Ability to select, prioritize and control the organization’s programmes and projects, in line with its strategic objectives and capacity; ability to balance the implementation of change initiatives and the maintenance of business-as-usual, while optimizing return on investment

Digital and Innovation-Design thinking: Solving problems by putting people at the centre, visualising ideas and making them tangible in order to improve them through and iterative process of developing and testing. Strong empathy skills, being able to put yourself ""in someone else's shoes”, understand needs, abilities, preferences, motivations, (everyday) experiences from different perspectives as well as their cultural, social, economical and political contexts. Ability to identify and challenge assumptions, (cognitive and social) biases and dominant mental models by generating new perspectives and frames that help redefine the problem, solution and opportunity space. Being able to work with incomplete information, ambiguity and opposing views, needs and constraints and synthesise them into solutions that are viable, technically feasible and useful 

Communications-Marketing: Ability to communicate the value of a product or service

Communications-Campaign management: Ability to produce and implement communications and advocacy campaigns that lead to impactful change

Communications-Creative direction and copywriting: Ability to creatively communicate concepts in an engaging and simple way

Communications-Brand and quality management: Ability to position the UNDP brand and uphold it to a high level of quality

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Advanced university degree (master’s degree or equivalent) in Communications, Marketing, Advertising, Copywriting, Journalism, Design or a related field is required. Or
• A first-level university degree (bachelor’s degree) in the areas mentioned above in combination with an additional two years of qualifying experience will be given due consideration in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Experience:

• A minimum of five (5) years (with a master’s degree), or seven (7) years (with a bachelor’s degree), of relevant professional experience in communications, marketing, advertising, creative direction, copywriting, strategic outreach or a related field is required.
• At least three years of experience providing creative direction for integrated marketing and/or advertising work, including oversight of both copy and design, is required.
• Demonstrated experience in creative copywriting and translating ideas into integrated marketing or advertising products, supported by a portfolio demonstrating both copywriting and creative direction, is required.
• Demonstrated ability to develop and deliver high-quality creative products under tight deadlines is required.
• A strong understanding of design principles and demonstrated ability to provide clear, actionable creative directions to designers is required.
• Strong project-management skills and experience coordinating multiple creative projects, contributors and stakeholders are required.
• Familiarity with Microsoft Office applications is required.
• Familiarity with the Sustainable Development Goals and international development issues is required.
• Experience optimizing content for search-engine marketing desired.
• Previous professional experience within the United Nations system or a comparable international organization is an asset.
• Professional experience in an advertising, branding or creative agency environment is desirable.
• Experience developing creative work for B2B, nonprofit or purpose-driven marketing initiatives, is desirable.
• Experience pitching and presenting creative concepts to senior clients or decision-makers is desirable.
• Experience managing creative projects and campaigns across multiple countries, regions or culturally diverse audiences is desirable.
• Demonstrated experience using digital storytelling, social media and audience engagement is desirable.
• Experience working with multiple creative stakeholders is desirable.
• Fluency in English, with exceptional writing and copywriting skills, is required.
• Working knowledge of another United Nations language is desirable.

Equal opportunity

As an equal opportunity employer, UNDP values diversity as an expression of the multiplicity of nations and cultures where we operate and, as such, we encourage qualified applicants from all backgrounds to apply for roles in the organization. Our employment decisions are based on merit and suitability for the role, without discrimination. 

UNDP is also committed to creating an inclusive workplace where all personnel are empowered to contribute to our mission, are valued, can thrive, and benefit from career opportunities that are open to all.

Sexual harassment, exploitation, and abuse of authority

UNDP does not tolerate harassment, sexual harassment, exploitation, discrimination and abuse of authority. All selected candidates, therefore, undergo relevant checks and are expected to adhere to the respective standards and principles. 

Probation

For all new UNDP fixed term appointments (FTA), including for staff members being transferred or seconded to UNDP under the Inter-Organization Agreement concerning Transfer, Secondment or Loan of Staff, on an appointment of more than one year, continuation of the appointment beyond the initial 12 months is contingent upon the successful completion of a probationary period.

Right to select multiple candidates

UNDP reserves the right to select one or more candidates from this vacancy announcement.  We may also retain applications and consider candidates applying to this post for other similar positions with UNDP at the same grade level and with similar job description, experience and educational requirements.

Use of AI by candidates

Applicants are invited to read UNDP’s guidance for candidates on using AI responsibly in UNDP recruitment and selection

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