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Communications Strategist

About the Position

As a nonprofit organization that researches important and neglected issues, Rethink Priorities’ key path for impact is communicating our work to decision-makers in accessible and actionable ways. To this end, RP is seeking a communications strategy professional to map and identify the best ways to target and engage our external audiences.

The communications strategy professional is a new position. The person in this role will join the Development and Communications Team, reporting directly to the Director of Development and working closely with the Communications Coordinator. In the coming years, this professional might potentially have the opportunity to hire and manage additional communications staff.

RP is interested in hearing from candidates who have relevant experience in strategic communications, particularly in the field of effective altruism (EA). That being said, we are open to receiving applications from strong candidates with different types of experience and varying levels of seniority. As mentioned above, will primarily evaluate your candidacy based on the strength of your answers to our prompts. Please note that the successful candidate’s exact title (e.g. Senior Communications Strategy Coordinator, Senior Communications Strategist, etc.) will be based on their experience.

This role is fully remote and we are able to hire in many countries. While we welcome applicants from all time zones, you may be expected to attend meetings during working hours between UTC-5 and UTC+3 time zones, where the Development and Communications staff are currently based. This role is open to full-time and part-time candidates who are available for at least 30 hours per week.

Key Responsibilities

Communications strategy planning:

• Use your expertise and judgment to rewrite RP’s communications strategy, which serves as a high-level blueprint for RP’s entire external communications.
• Prioritize where and how to communicate to maximize the organization’s impact. Potential avenues for communication include but are not limited to our website, public and stakeholder newsletters, presentations/webinars, blog/forum posts, social media, visual communications, press releases, and podcasts.
• Initiate and oversee the development of new communications projects, including potentially identifying gaps in our current work.

Impact assessment:

• Develop and implement systems to monitor and measure the impact of our communications work and draw conclusions for our strategy based on this data.

Brand management:

• Develop strategies to increase RP’s visibility within the EA community and other relevant audiences.
• Help to strengthen our reputation as a respected and multi-faceted organization that works as a research institute, a consultancy, a think tank, and an incubator.
• Lead our brand management and ensure that our voice is consistent across all channels.
• Ensure that RP’s visual branding remains professional yet up-to-date and consistent with our overall communications and organizational strategies.

Collaboration:

• Work collaboratively with RP’s Communications Coordinator as well as with our freelance staff (e.g., graphic designer and copyeditor).
• Maintain and update communications materials that are relevant for all RP staff, such as the style guide and the media engagement policy.
• Identify when and what types of communications training RP’s staff might need and implement said training. Also provide staff with ad hoc advice when responding to media requests and assist them in preparing for interviews or presentations.
• Participate in crisis response planning with RP’s executives, including developing key messages and communications strategies.
• Occasionally assist and advise special projects that RP is incubating with their communications.

Skills, Competencies, Knowledge and Experience

Essential skills, competencies, knowledge, and experience

Strategic planning experience:

• Experience developing a communications plan
• Experience successfully communicating (either in writing or orally) with at least one of RP’s target audiences (e.g. researchers, nonprofit organizations, funders, and policymakers)
• Demonstrated ability to think strategically and exercise good judgment in identifying mediums of communication to use or to eliminate or deprioritize

Content knowledge:

• Solid and nuanced understanding of EA and longtermism
• Clear interest in RP’s mission and the cause areas in which we work (e.g. AI governance and safety, animal welfare, EA movement research, global health and development, and longtermism)

Communication skills:

• Excellent written communication skills in English
• Communication skills well-suited to an EA think tank where exceptional rigor and reasoning transparency matter more than traditional marketing norms
• Ability to communicate complex topics with nuance to various audiences (who may or may not be familiar with these fields of research)
• A sense of visual aesthetics (i.e. able to provide a professional designer with the vision for a particular communications product and offer feedback as needed)

Interpersonal skills/mindset:

• Intellectual curiosity and open-mindedness (willing to carefully consider colleagues’ ideas and comfortable explaining your own reasoning)
• Resourcefulness and ability to problem-solve
• Creativity and initiative for developing new ideas and strategies
• Comfort with remote work and asynchronous collaboration using technologies such as G Suite (we’re a remote-first organization with staff in multiple time zones)

Desired skills, competencies, knowledge, and experience

• Experience working or volunteering in the EA field
• Background in one of the following: journalism, PR, science communications, think tank/nonprofit communications
• A track record of effectively engaging audiences on social media platforms, such as Twitter
• Experience managing a brand
• Data visualization skills
• Content knowledge in any one of RP’s cause areas (listed above)
• Experience measuring the impact of communications products and campaigns
• Familiarity with tools for managing a communications calendar and monitoring impact

What we Offer

Compensation:

• Annual salary between the following ranges for a full-time position depending on the title (ranging from Senior Communications Strategy Coordinator to Senior Communications Strategist), prorated for part-time work:
  • $84,540 – $115,235 USD pre-tax
  • 69,711 – 94,368 GBP pre-tax
  • 81,800 – 110,846 EUR pre-tax
• The exact salary will be based on the candidate’s prior relevant experience and corresponding title level, and calculated using RP’s salary algorithm. RP does not negotiate salaries to ensure fairness.
• Compensation is not restricted to the currencies listed above. Payments may be made in different currencies and payment intervals depending on the location of applicants and legal requirements.

Other Benefits

• Opportunity to contribute to a fast-growing, high-impact organization our research is used by key decision makers who influence the distribution of hundreds of millions of charitable dollars
• Flexible work hours and location
• Comprehensive global benefits package (while they vary by country, we make every effort to ensure that our benefits package is equitable and high-quality for all staff)
• Generous paid time off leave, including, but not limited to:
• Unlimited vacation with a minimum of 30 days off per year (including public local holidays, vacation time, and mandated 3-weeks total mid- and end-year organization-wide breaks)
• Unlimited (within reason) personal and sick leave
• Parental leave – up to 6 months of parental leave during the first 2 years after a child’s birth or adoption for parents of all genders
• For more details about our benefits, please see our Benefit Package for Permanent Roles
• A caring team that values respectful work relations and a healthy work-life balance
• Opportunities to grow/advance your career and engage in professional development
• Low administrative bureaucracy
• We don’t provide snacks but we could mail you a box of Oreos if you want!

Additional Information:

• Extension requests: We will try to accommodate extension requests that are made before the deadline and are up to seven (7) days. We generally cannot accommodate extension requests made on or after the application deadline, or are longer than 7 days, and cannot accept late submissions to ensure fairness to other applicants.
• Language: Please submit all of your application materials in English and note that we require professional level English proficiency.
• Travel: A majority of our staff travel a few times per year for conferences, team and all-staff retreats, coworking, as well as other work-related purposes. In many cases, travel is not mandatory, but encouraged. Please do not be discouraged from applying due to travel restrictions, if travel is not listed as an essential requirement for the role. Where possible, virtual participation option or other accommodations could be offered.
• Accessibility: We’re committed to running an inclusive and accessible application process. We warmly invite you to reach out to [email protected] with any questions or accessibility requests such as chat box use during interviews.
• Inclusivity and fairness: RP is committed to building an inclusive, equitable, and supportive community for you to thrive and do your best work. We’re committed to finding the best people for our team, so please don’t hesitate to apply for a role regardless of your age, gender identity/expression, political identity, personal preferences, physical abilities, veteran status, neuroersity or any other background. We provide reasonable accommodations and benefits, including for example, flexible work schedules and locations, mental health coverage in medical benefits (as available), as well as technology budgets and professional development time that can be used, for example, to purchase assistive technology or engage in job coaching.
• Other: Visit our Career Opportunities webpage if you’d like to know more about our hiring process, culture, and what working at RP is like.

About Rethink Priorities

Founded in 2018, Rethink Priorities (RP) is a nonprofit organization that addresses global prioritiesimportant and neglected issuesby researching solutions and strategies, and mobilizing resources, and empowering our team and others. RP’s mission is to generate the most significant possible impact for others in the present and the long-term future.

Our cause areas include animal welfare, artificial intelligence, climate change, global health and development, and other work to safeguard a flourishing long-term future. RP also aims to understand and support those working on these issues.

Rethink Priorities works as all of the following:

1. A consultancy doing commissioned work in response to demands from organizations aligned with effective altruism (EA).
2. A research institute driven by research agendas we set according to our own priorities.
3. A think tank aiming to inform public policy to improve the world.
4. An accelerator, incubator, and base for priority projects.

Some of our recent accomplishments include:

• Helping major foundations to answer their questions on climate change solutions, weather forecasting in lower- and middle-income countries, increasing access to medicine, and the effectiveness of prizes and other interventions.
• Comparing the capacity of different animal species to experience pleasure and pain to help philanthropists decide how to allocate funding.
• Investigating various animal welfare interventions, as well as bringing to light the neglected areas of invertebrate and insect welfare.
• Publishing pieces on nanotechnology and ways to use forecasting to improve the long-term future, as well as supporting those interested in these types of topics.
• Launching a Special Projects Team to incubate promising new initiatives, such as Epoch (a new AI research organization) and Condor Camp (EA and longtermism movement-building in Brazil and Latin America).
• Conducting surveys to better understand the EA community, the general public’s familiarity with EA and their attitudes towards related issues over time as well as message testing specific issues for various EA groups.