Senior Editorial Manager

Position Title: Senior Editorial Manager

Duty Location: Belgrade

Duration: 12 months

Type of Employment: Full- Time

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people to survive and rebuild their lives. Founded in 1933, the IRC offers lifesaving care and life-changing assistance to refugees forced to flee from war or disaster. At work today in over 40 countries, the IRC seeks to be an operational and inspiring leader in matters of resettlement, asylum, and integration, demonstrating its credibility and expertise as a leading service provider, partner and advocate across the arc of the global displacement crisis.

Across Europe, the IRC delivers programs that address acute humanitarian needs of asylum-seekers and other vulnerable migrants who are newly arrived, stranded or in transit, and programs that address their longer-term integration needs.

In response to the increased number of people on the move from 2015, the IRC began responding in the Balkans to assist vulnerable refugees, asylum seekers and migrants. Since the conflict in Ukraine started and consequent displacement into neighboring countries from February 2022, the programs are established to address the most pressing needs of people on the move across the South-east Europe. IRC continues to use its voice and expertise to increase safe and legal pathways, ensure protection and improve the quality of resettlement, asylum and integration services. The programs are implemented in close partnership with local non-governmental organizations and governmental institutions.

Job Description

Refugee Info is a digitally enabled responsive information service that supports and empowers populations in crisis, including asylum seekers, migrants, and people who have experienced violence. Our program equips people with information to understand their options so that they can make informed decisions about how to stay safe, get urgent care for acute problems, exercise their rights, and access services. It was developed by the IRC and Mercy Corps in 2015 to address asylum seekers’ and migrants’ pressing need for reliable information upon arrival to Greece, and is now active in 15 countries on 5 continents.

It meets communities on the digital platforms they already use and aims to deliver information that is contextualized to their specific needs and speaks to their lived realities. This approach draws on evidence that people are more likely to trust and act on information that is responsive to their needs, speaks to their lived realities, and that comes from “peers” rather than authority figures.

Position summary

The Senior Editorial Manager creates and oversees editorial procedures and standards across digital platforms that are sharing information with displaced and crisis-effected Ukrainians. S/he is responsible for creating and leading the implementation of a user-focused content strategy. S/he manages an editorial team and works closely with the digital community liaison team to ensure they are equipped with the information they need to answer questions and that their feedback continuously informs the improvement of information products and the development of new information.

Major Responsibilities

• Establish clear editorial guidelines and standards
• Create, tweak and maintain editorial SOPs and guidelines to ensure the project continuously shares accurate, timely and relevant information across its channels, including establishing processes to ensure that information content is continuously up to date and that new developments are captured in a timely manner.
• Create and maintain content calendar
• Vet and edit all content for adherence to editorial standards.
• Work closely with Social Media Manager to ensure content is optimized to perform well on social media.
• Work closely with Moderation/ Digital Communication Liaison Manager to respond to identified gaps in information.
• Manage editorial projects including video production, graphics designing, large-scale translations and FGDs.
• Develop and manage relationships with third-party content providers. Ensure third-party content receives appropriate technical review.
• Establish visual style and work with UX designers to structure and create content that is accessible and easy to navigate.
• Maintain knowledge of, and ensure staff is trained on, editorial team tools including content management systems (Contentful and custom CMS, Google tools), social media tools (Facebook page, Facebook Ad Manager, Page Manager and Instagram) and project management tools (Trello, Transifex and Slack).
• Maintain and develop deep knowledge of current digital and social media content best practice.
• Analyze Signpost’s growth, engagement and audience behaviors using different analytical tools and keep teams updated.
• Maintain working knowledge of key issues relevant for those effected by the crisis in Ukraine.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in journalism, communications or equivalent combination of background and experience.
• 3 years of reporting, writing and editing experience, including for online platforms and social media.
• Prior experience working in managing and updating digital media, website and news publication.
• Previous experience in multimedia content development
• Fluency in English required. Preference will be given to candidates with fluency in the following languages: Ukrainian and Russian
• Previous experience with CMS systems.
• Excellent visual design sense regarding clear and accurate presentation of content.
• Previous experience on the audio-visual, photo, and graphic designing tools (Adobe Creative Clouds, Canva or other relevant tools)
• Excellent interpersonal, oral and written communication skills; demonstrated ability to successfully work in a fast-paced environment within and across departments/functions/geographic locations, and develop positive relationships with locally and remote based staff.
• Humanitarian experience is a plus.

Success Factors

The successful Senior Editorial Manager will be extremely proactive, detail-oriented and organized. S/he values accurate and error-free reporting above all. S/he is self-directed and reliably completes tasks. S/he is diplomatic and able to work with a range of peers. S/he is computer-savvy and quick to learn new tools. S/he has a strong commitment to teamwork and accountability and regularly seeks opportunities for collaboration. S/he thrives in evolving and changing environments.

WORK ENVIRONMENT

This position will be based out in Belgrade, Serbia.

Disclaimer Clause: This job description is not an exhaustive list of the skills, effort, duties and responsibilities associated with position.

IRC is an Equal Opportunity Employer IRC considers all applicants on the basis of merit without regard to race, sex, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status or disability. **

The IRC and IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in IRC Way – Standards for Professional Conduct. These are Integrity, Service, Accountability and Equality. In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Beneficiary Protection from Exploitation and Abuse, Child Safeguarding, Anti Workplace Harassment, Fiscal Integrity, and Anti-Retaliation.