Deadline to apply: Sunday, 5 November 2023 (23:59 London time).
Description: We are seeking a Communications & Outreach Manager to join our team at Our World in Data. You will play a pivotal role in helping us achieve our mission to increase the use of data and research to help make progress against the world’s largest problems. Your responsibilities will encompass overseeing our current communication channels while developing and executing innovative strategies to broaden our reach and ensure our work reaches the appropriate audiences.
Contract type: Full-time, flexible hours. We prefer this role to be based in the UK. We will consider sponsoring visas or hiring people who are based outside the UK in exceptional circumstances.
Compensation: £45,000 – £65,000 per year.
Location: Preference for Oxford, UK (remote/in-office hybrid).
As Communications & Outreach Manager at Our World in Data, your primary responsibility will be to enhance the visibility and reach of our research and data on the world’s largest problems, contributing to public dialogue and enabling people to have more informed opinions and make better decisions.
The ideal candidate will be capable of leading all of our communications work and will have experience setting a vision for an organization’s communications strategy, helping create a plan to execute this vision and evaluate its success.
However, we will also consider applications from less experienced candidates who can demonstrate their potential to grow into the role. Such candidates would likely be appointed at the Communications & Outreach Officer level; they would therefore receive greater support in developing strategies and leading projects than someone appointed at the Manager level.
Oversee and optimize existing communication channels for maximum impact and effectiveness
- You will work directly with our researchers and data scientists to identify when and how to disseminate our work to a wide range of audiences in a way that’s accurate, engaging, and creative.
- You will promote our work by directly managing, in a hands-on way, all of our communication channels, including social media accounts and newsletters.
- You will support our team to communicate with users, journalists, and everyone excited by our work, and will be driven to help them engage better with our work.
- You will liaise with the Product & Design and Data & Research teams to design and deploy communication strategies. You will set and track goals for our communications strategy and use feedback and analytics to continually update the strategy to optimize its effectiveness.
Create and execute innovative strategies to broaden our audience reach and enhance engagement
- You will give input on new features and collaborate with our Product & Design team to align communication strategies with product development, including ensuring new website features and products resonate with communication goals.
- You will develop and communicate innovative strategies to make our outreach more engaging and our work more widely known to stakeholders, such as key decision-makers.
- Our communications efforts are currently focused on Twitter/X and Instagram, as well as our newsletters. You will lead in evaluating these and researching other communication channels and strategies. You will work with the leadership team to define and implement our future strategies.
- You will be responsible for collecting and reviewing data on the success of new communication initiatives, such as newsletter redesigns, and provide constructive feedback to the Product & Design team for improvement.
Required skills and experience
- Expertise in developing, implementing, and evaluating a comprehensive communications strategy that involves multiple channels, such as social media and newsletters.
- Ability to write clear, accurate, and engaging communications about data and scientific ideas for non-specialist audiences.
- Data and scientific literacy skills, allowing you to translate concepts from our articles, visualizations, and other work into accessible, compelling narratives.
- Good understanding of our mission and work and a passion for communicating it to the world.
- Familiarity with effective data visualization and design principles.
Skills and experience that will set you apart
- Familiarity engaging with traditional media (e.g. newspapers) as well as website and social media users.
- Experience disseminating scientific research.
- Experience working in our space, at the intersection between scientific data & research and technology platforms.
- Data visualization and design skills, such as experience using Adobe Illustrator and/or Figma.
Personal characteristics
These are characteristics that we look for in anyone who wants to join our team.
- Drive and ability to work without supervision, alongside good judgment about when to seek appropriate input and guidance.
- Ability to communicate effectively and collaborate well, especially within a remote working environment like ours.
- Confidence to explain your reasoning and willingness to learn from new evidence and respond positively to feedback.
- Founder mentality: taking ownership, thinking creatively, proactively identifying issues, and improving things.
Email us at jobs@ourworldindata.org with the subject line “Communications & Outreach Manager” and attach:
- Your CV/resume.
- An example of your previous work that you think will interest us.
- A cover letter that answers the following two prompts (maximum 600 words). Please answer each prompt separately using the numbering provided.
- Why do you want to work for Our World in Data, and why do you think you’re the right person for this job?
- Write 3 different tweets, each sharing with our audience an insight from the visualization here. Use up to 280 characters for each tweet.
In the body of your email, please tell us where you came across this job ad so that we can track the effectiveness of our advertising efforts.
Additional submission instructions:
- Attach your CV/resume, work sample, and cover letter as separate PDF documents with the filenames:
- [your name] CV.pdf
- [your name] Work Sample.pdf (Let us know if it’s difficult to format your work sample as a PDF.)
- [your name] Cover Letter.pdf
- Please do not put your name or any other personally identifying information (such as your photo, address, etc.) within the PDFs themselves — we evaluate applications anonymously, and this greatly helps with that.
Please read our privacy notice regarding the personal data we collect from you during this hiring process.
Feel free to email us if you have any questions. We look forward to hearing from you!
- We expect the entire process, from the application deadline to making an offer to the successful candidate, to take roughly 6–7 weeks.
- We will start reviewing applications after the deadline and aim to finish that within about a week.
- We will then invite selected candidates to an introductory interview, which will take place over the following 1–2 weeks.
- After that, selected candidates will complete an offline exercise, which will take about 2 weeks (in total, for applicants to complete and for us to assess.)
- Based on the results of this exercise, we will shortlist candidates for a final interview.
- We would ideally like the successful candidate to start working with us in the first quarter of 2024.
Global Change Data Lab (GCDL) is the non-profit startup that produces the web publication Our World in Data. We focus on increasing the use of data and evidence to make progress against the world’s largest problems.
Our work is referenced in thousands of media articles every month. In the context of the pandemic, we have been producing the datasets and infrastructure that have informed billions of people around the world.
Millions of people visit Our World in Data every month, and among those who rely on our work are international organizations like the UN and WHO, the governments of countries around the world, major media outlets like The New York Times and The Economist, and major businesses and nonprofits.
- You will report to the leadership team and collaborate daily with members of our Data & Research and Product & Design teams.
- You will have substantial flexibility around your hours.
- We organize weekly activities to foster a sense of community across our remote team — from meeting for virtual “tea”, to discussing big ideas, to playing games together.
- Our full team meets in person at least once a year.
- The team at Our World In Data is welcoming, supportive, and high trust. We’re bound together by our common mission and the enjoyment we get from doing excellent work with talented colleagues.
- Remote work has allowed us to build a team of fascinating individuals from various countries and backgrounds, a diversity we’d like to nurture and encourage.
- We especially welcome applications from candidates whose backgrounds are traditionally underrepresented.
- Our flexible hours make balancing care and other responsibilities easier to manage than many traditional roles.
- If you are excited about this role but unsure whether you’re the right fit, we encourage you to apply. We’re also happy to answer any questions by email at jobs@ourworldindata.org.