Communications Manager at Bridge International Academies

Bridge began in order to help solve a single, seemingly intractable problem; one-in-two children are not learning. We help children in parts of the world where there is a shortage of learning, by boosting government schools or running complementary community schools. Since 2007, we have reached one million children through hundreds of schools across Africa and India.

We believe every child has the right to high-quality education. We work in partnership with governments, communities, teachers, and parents to support and deliver quality education to for primary and pre-primary children in developing countries.

We are data-driven and evidence-based and our model adapts to the needs of individual governments. We have re-engineered every part of the education system, from teacher training and support, to lesson delivery, construction, and financial administration; making government schools and community schools as effective as possible.

In Nigeria we are supporting the government to improve every public primary school and teacher in Edo State; In Borno State we are part of a tripartite partnership with the Borno State government and the Nigerian Stock Exchange and in Osun and Lagos States we run community schools. In Liberia, we are part of a public private partnership; and, in Andhra Pradesh – south-east India – we have an infrastructure partnership. In East Africa, we run hundreds of community schools. Our model holds us accountable to governments and families and we are flexible about our approach so long as we can serve more marginalised communities and improve learning outcomes for children.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Communications Manager

Location: Benin, Edo
Employment Type: Full-time

Job Description

• We invite you to join this incredible endeavour that is having a world-changing impact across multiple continents. You will join a team of dedicated change-makers committed to ensuring that each decision we make keeps a child’s experience of learning as its guiding principle.

Strategy Group:

• The Strategy Group at Bridge is responsible for our overall direction in education service, designing our verbal and visual brand, communicating our work internally and externally, providing insight into the ecosystems within which we work, measuring the impact of our programs, engaging our government partners in programming, ensuring regulatory compliance, and expanding the reach of our services into new geographies. Creative, Communication, Insights, Policy & Partnerships, and New Opportunities areall departments within the Strategy Group. Collaboration between and coordination of each of these department’s functions is critical to ensure that every child has accessto an education that develops her full potential and creates the foundation for prosperity for the country.

Communications Department:

• The Communication team at Bridge is housed with the Strategy group and collaborates across departments to ensure that Bridge is telling its story both locally and globally in the most compelling way. Communication is responsible for a wide range of activities including digital communications, external relations, advocacy, reputation management and media. We are focused on ensuring that the work that Bridge is doing to improve learning outcomes for hundreds of thousands of children reaches a wide audience.
• We support a wide array of initiatives simultaneously and need to be able to respond quickly and effectively to help shape the external environment in which we operate. We spot opportunities as well as create them and always make sure that those in the communities we serve and the Governments we support get their voices heard.

About the Role

• As Manager, Communications, you will be the communications lead for a large scale government education programme. You will support the government in the creation and delivery of communications strategies and ensure that the programme is being communicatedeffectively to a wide range of stakeholders both at a statewide, national and international level.
• You will be able to leverage relationships to influence communications approaches and build strong advocacy platforms to further the aims and ambitions of the work.
• You will create, write and design content that is both compelling and impactful; that places your programme at the core of the group communications strategy in Nigeria

What You Will Do

• Manage the communications for a statewide government educationprogramme.
• Act as the communications lead for a government communications team and programme.
• Develop compelling communications strategies for the promotion of the programme within Nigeria and internationally.
• Directly manage media engagement and cultivate media contacts.
• Pitch stories to both national and local media to achieve high visibility for in print, broadcast, TV and online media outlets.
• Evaluate opportunities for communications partnerships and platforms that will strengthen the programme.
• Act as a spokesperson and represent the programme in local and national forums.
• Build a strong advocacy engagement programme with national and multinational partners.
• Write clear and compelling pitches, press releases and articles.
• Support the government to develop content strategies for digital communications.
• Identify media trends, news cycle opportunities.
• Support Internal communications initiatives to promote the programme.
• Analyse and measure results of communications initiatives.
• Work closely within the Nigerian communications group to ensure that the communications strategy for the programme is advanced and complementary to the group strategy.

What You Should Have

• A Master’s degree
• 8+ years relevant experience in communications.
• Experience of working with or for government in a communications capacity.
• Experience in Nigeria of working in communications for political, campaigning, non-profit, or social enterprise. Experience with a multinational organization is a plus.
• Experience working within a matrixed global organization.
• Strong experience of creating and executing communications plans and strategies.
• An established network of local and national media contacts.
• Experience of being the lead external relations contact for media and stakeholders.
• A strong sense of the news agenda and ability to make issues and campaigns relevant.
• Experience of handling crisis communications.
• Experience of supporting in the creation and delivery of social media and digital campaigns.
• Strong writing and editorial skills.
• A strong-sense of teamwork and ability to both manage and execute programs.
• An extremely proactive and determined attitude.
• Prior experience within a fast-paced, disruptor, metric driven consulting or educational organization is a bonus.

You’re Also:

• A detailed doer – You have a track record of getting things done. You’re organized and responsive. You take ownership of every idea you touch and execute it to a fine level of detail, setting targets, engaging others, and doing whatever it takes to get the job done. You can multi-task dozens of such projects at once and never lose sight of the details. Likely, you have some experience in a start-up or other rapid-growth company.
• A creative problem-solver – Growing any business from scratch comes with massive and constant challenges. On top of that, Bridge works in often fragile, sometimes volatile low-resource communities and with complex government systems. You need to be flexible and ready to get everything done effectively, quickly, and affordably with the materials at hand.
• A relentless advocate – The children we serve and teachers we empower never leave your mind. You know them, get them, have shared a meal with them (or would be happy to in the future). You would never shrink back from shaking a parent’s hand or picking up a crying child, no matter what the person was wearing or looked like. Every decision you make considers their benefit, experience, and value.
• A malleable learner – You believe you can always do better. You welcome constructive criticism and provide it freely to others. You know you only get better tomorrow when others point out where you’ve missed things or failed today.
• A data-driven decision-maker – When making decisions, you don’t rely on your intuition alone. You collect data, you analyze it and make decisions with clear justifications.
• A curious investigator – You ask why a lot. You don’t just take what you see and accept it. You wonder why it is that way, and are aware that the world we see is created by human choices and actions – and it could be different. You wonder, and see the world as wonderful even when you want to change a part of it that is unjust.

Application Closing Date
11th January, 2021.