Communications Manager

Summary

The Wikimedia Foundation is seeking a Communications Manager to oversee and lead communications for our legal, advocacy, and public policy work, and a number of other initiatives that aim to advance and protect the reputation of the Foundation, Wikipedia, and other Wikimedia projects, and the global Wikimedia community of volunteers. 

With experience in leading high-profile media and communications campaigns that drive impact, and a core expertise in fast-moving crisis communications, the Communications Manager will be a vital member of the Media Relations team within the Foundation’s Communications Department. 

In this position, your role will be to develop proactive, innovative media, storytelling, and creative communications approaches that can help us move the needle and secure influence among our key global audiences. You will regularly interact with members of the press, cultivating strong relationships with key journalists, assessing inbound opportunities, pitching stories, and more. You will also play a leading role in our reputation management work, responding to crises, developing reactive communications plans, and ensuring consistent messaging across the organization.

You are responsible for:

Overseeing proactive communications and media relations efforts across a wide-ranging portfolio

• Serving as a primary point of contact for the Global Advocacy and Legal Affairs teams, as well as liaising with several other Foundation teams, including Product and Technology and Trust and Safety.  Provide effective partnership to craft and implement proactive strategic communications plans, with clear objectives and measurable goals that are aligned with the Foundation's annual plan, that deliver tangible results.
• Proactively develop messaging for key initiatives to help guide our communications approach. Build and enhance core narratives around the impact and benefits of the Wikimedia projects to key audiences, with clear proof points.
• Guide, produce, and review a range of communications materials, including press statements, blogs, pitch notes, briefing docs, newsletter copy, and more.
• Ensure that key messages and complex narratives are shaped consistently and clearly for public audiences. 
• Build relationships and lead cooperative efforts with internal and external stakeholders at all levels to enable the successful delivery of communications plans. 

Leading media relations and crisis communications responses

• Act as a primary media liaison for managing and responding to daily press inquiries in a timely manner. Handle interviews, requests for information, speaking engagements, and more. 
• Lead on crisis and rapid response media efforts, including developing proactive and reactive communications plans and materials. Evaluate and triage crisis scenarios, responding quickly and demonstrating strong judgment on sensitive, fast-evolving, and complex situations.
• Proactively foster relationships with journalists to enable regular and in-depth coverage of our work. 
• Engage cross-Foundation team members at all levels in problem-solving and collaboration on solutions.
• Develop and recommend workflows and systems to enable the team to more effectively handle increasing complexity and crisis situations in our day-to-day work.

Management of people and external vendors

• Work collaboratively with the Senior Communications Manager to help define the goals and direction of the Media Relations team and ensure these are met.
• As a line manager, provide consistent feedback and coaching to direct reports in order to support the team's professional development. 
• Manage relationships with external vendors (such as public relations agencies) as directed to deliver goals.

Skills and Experience:

• Must work UTC-4 hours every day (i.e. core hours of 1:00 pm - 9:00 pm UTC). 
• Minimum of 8 years of communications and media relations experience.
• Experience in advocacy, policy, and legal communications, with demonstrable experience of developing and implementing cross-channel campaigns that drive impact, with clear audiences, goals, and tactics. 
• Experience leading crisis and rapid response media efforts, and developing systems to proactively prepare organizations for crisis response. 
• Excellent knowledge of the global media landscape, with the ability to cultivate journalist relationships. 
• Experience of working with other departments, advising stakeholders at all levels on plans and tactics, with the ability to bring in others as necessary.
• Excellent written and verbal communications, with exceptional attention to detail.
• Ability to proactively shape and translate complex messages into those that are compelling and engaging for external audiences.
• Experience in working with external vendors, leading relationships to drive key results.
• Ability to work flexibly, balancing longer-term priorities with urgent and changing needs, ensuring work is kept on track.
• Experience working on a global team with diverse demographic and cultural characteristics, as well as the flexibility to virtually meet with people in multiple time zones. 
• Experienced in working autonomously in a fast-paced team.
• People management experience, leading others to achieve impact.
• A commitment to consistently modeling the Wikimedia Foundation's organizational values.

Additionally, we’d love it if you have:

• Experience in the United States market and tech policy sector.

About the Wikimedia Foundation

The Wikimedia Foundation is the nonprofit organization that operates Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia free knowledge projects. Our vision is a world in which every single human can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. We believe that everyone has the potential to contribute something to our shared knowledge, and that everyone should be able to access that knowledge freely. We host Wikipedia and the Wikimedia projects, build software experiences for reading, contributing, and sharing Wikimedia content, support the volunteer communities and partners who make Wikimedia possible, and advocate for policies that enable Wikimedia and free knowledge to thrive. 

The Wikimedia Foundation is a charitable, not-for-profit organization that relies on donations. We receive donations from millions of individuals around the world, with an average donation of about $15. We also receive donations through institutional grants and gifts. The Wikimedia Foundation is a United States 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization with offices in San Francisco, California, USA.

As an equal opportunity employer, the Wikimedia Foundation values having a diverse workforce and continuously strives to maintain an inclusive and equitable workplace. We encourage people with a diverse range of backgrounds to apply. We do not discriminate against any person based upon their race, traits historically associated with race, religion, color, national origin, sex, pregnancy or related medical conditions, parental status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, genetic information, or any other legally protected characteristics.

The Wikimedia Foundation is a remote-first organization with staff members including contractors based 40+ countries*. Salaries at the Wikimedia Foundation are set in a way that is competitive, equitable, and consistent with our values and culture. The anticipated annual pay range of this position for applicants based within the United States is US$117,161 to US$ 179,938  with multiple individualized factors, including cost of living in the location, being the determinants of the offered pay. For applicants located outside of the US, the pay range will be adjusted to the country of hire. We neither ask for nor take into consideration the salary history of applicants. The compensation for a successful applicant will be based on their skills, experience and location. 

*Please note that we are currently able to hire in the following countries: Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Greece, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Kenya, Mexico, Netherlands, Nigeria, Peru, Poland, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Uganda, United Kingdom, United States of America and Uruguay.  Our non-US employees are hired through a local third party Employer of Record (EOR). 

We periodically review this list to streamline to ensure alignment with our hiring requirements. 

All applicants can reach out to their recruiter to understand more about the specific pay range for their location during the interview process.

If you are a qualified applicant requiring assistance or an accommodation to complete any step of the application process due to a disability, you may contact us at [email protected] or +1 (415) 839-6885.

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