Senior External Affairs Officer, Media Partnerships

Job #:
req37700

Organization:
World Bank

Sector:
External Affairs & Corporate Relations

Grade:
GG

Term Duration:
4 years 0 months

Recruitment Type:
International Recruitment

Location:
New York, NY,United States

Required Language(s):
English

Preferred Language(s):

Closing Date:
7/29/2026 (MM/DD/YYYY) at 11:59pm UTC

Description

External and Corporate Relations Vice Presidency (ECR). The mission of External and Corporate Relations (ECR) is to help deliver financial and political support for the World Bank Group, strengthen the Bank Group's role as a global thought leader in development by enhancing and safeguarding its reputation, and support operational teams to achieve country outcomes. ECR manages corporate communications and global engagement with key stakeholders, including media, civil society, foundations, private sector, donor countries, and international organizations, as well as employee engagement.

ECR also manages strategic communications for the World Bank's Regions and Global Departments/Development Economics Department and leads the management of reputation risk.

ECR is seeking a seasoned communications professional to lead its new media partnerships function, reporting to the Director, Communications & Content. The new function will complement the existing editorial media partnerships work, and seek and implement non-editorial partnership opportunities with media organizations which are increasingly leveraging their brands into events and similar

Duties and Accountabilities
• Design, develop and support the implementation of a new strategic approach for media partnerships for the World Bank Group.
• Research, identify and map opportunities for strategic media partnerships, aligned with the ECR strategy and WBG's business priorities, for full range of options from large traditional media, major social media platforms to small niche new players.
• Negotiate specific partnership deals and arrangements with range of media organizations, to include range of opportunities such as programming, events, and spokesperson opportunities.
• Lead on the implementation of partnership deliverables, including working with other ECR team members and colleagues from across the WBG on content and spokesperson provision, including on developing and agreeing deliverables and timeline with partners and WBG stakeholders.
• Lead on relationship development and management for partnerships and potential partners, and demonstrating best practice to ECR colleagues.
• Oversee monitoring of partnerships and their results and impact, working with other ECR teams.
• Factor insights and learnings into development and negotiation of new partnerships.
• Demonstrate value of media partnerships with ECR and other WBG colleagues to build support, and collaboration, and to identify opportunities for further collaboration and new initiatives.

Selection Criteria
• A Master's degree in relevant field with a minimum of 8 years of relevant experience.
• Experience working with senior business and other leaders, and delivering high quality strategic advice and communications products.
• High degree of motivation, leadership, initiative, flexibility, reliability, and responsiveness to changing demands and new opportunities; capacity for effective multitasking, with a demonstrated ability to be an independent starter with minimal supervision, and a high capacity to persevere for results.
• Ability to inspire others and bring them along for new ideas and approaches.
• Experience with online/digital communications tools and tactics, and understanding of how they can be included in the communications mix.
• Demonstrated initiative and drive for results including the ability to undertake a diversity of tasks within a rapidly changing and demanding environment on short deadlines.
• Strong understanding of reputational risks and issues and ways to manage and mitigate; plus messaging, stakeholder engagement, and media engagement,.
• Excellent English language skills and proficiency to write and edit complex communications products in accessible ways for a range of audiences.
• Exhibits a proactive, problem-solving attitude with a strong "can-do" approach.
• Able to combine innovative approach and ideas with pragmatism, to inspire colleagues and stakeholders but with view to successful implementation
• Displays strong interpersonal skills including active listening and effective communication, able to quickly win trust and respect with internal colleagues and external partners.
• Shows willingness to pivot and adapt to changing circumstances and priorities.
• Open to taking on various tasks, from high-level strategic work to hands-on technical.
• Able to identify when to leverage specialized resources within the organization to support specific needs.
• Good team player and collaborator.

World Bank Group Core Competencies

The World Bank Group offers comprehensive benefits, including a retirement plan; medical, life and disability insurance; and paid leave, including parental leave, as well as reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities.