Team Lead – Communications Unit

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development ( OECD ) is an international organisation comprised of 38 member countries, that works to build better policies for better lives. Our mission is to promote policies that will improve the economic and social well-being of people around the world. Together with governments, policy makers and citizens, we work on establishing evidence-based international standards, and finding solutions to a range of social, economic and environmental challenges. From improving economic performance and creating jobs to fostering strong education and fighting international tax evasion, we provide a unique forum and knowledge hub for data and analysis, exchange of experiences, best-practice sharing, and advice on public policies and international standard-setting.

The Economics Department (ECO) leads co-ordinated, innovative, international action with respect to the OECD’s work on economic policy, both international and domestic. The Department implements the priorities of the Programme of Work and Budget (PWB) set by Member Countries and the Secretary-General in its area of business.

The Economics Department aims at enhancing economic performance in Member and non-Member countries through sound and innovative policy advice with a view to seeking an inclusive and durable increase in living standards. It deals with a wide array of policy areas combining macro-economic analysis and a strong emphasis on structural policy issues. Its policy advice is derived from a variety of sources such as country surveillance, cross-country benchmarking and evidence derived from empirical research. Much of the Economics Department’s policy analysis and advice is provided as input to committee-based peer review and multilateral surveillance processes and contributes to the overall OECD mission. The Economics Department interacts with several other OECD directorates working in specific policy fields.

ECO is looking for a Team Lead for its Communications Unit to manage and co-ordinate communications in the Front Office of the Head of Department and Chief Economist (FO) and for both the Country Studies Branch (CSB) and the Policy and Research Branch (PRB).

The selected person will have excellent analytical, web, social media and editorial skills and will coordinate delivery of high-quality communications outputs. S/he will play an active role in strengthening ECO’s capacity to ensure relevant and timely communications, contributing to strategies for handling issues that impact ECO policy/strategic interests, in accordance with the long and short-term goals and objectives of the Department. S/he will work closely with the Directorate for Communications (COM).

The Team Lead is based within the Front Office and is jointly overseen and supervised by the FO Counsellor and the CSB and PRB Deputy Directors. S/he will oversee the work of other members of the Department’s communications staff.

Main Responsibilities

Ideal Candidate Profile

Tools

- Excellent knowledge of the communications tools and applications in use at the OECD and ECO, or ability to learn new systems with ease, to be able to lead, advise, and train external and internal stakeholders.
- Excellent IT skills, including familiarity in using web tools and platforms, web 2.0.
- Familiarity with desktop design tools would be an advantage.
- Experience with IT collaborative platform s (e.g. Sharepoint, eShare, Teams).
- Very good knowledge of the standard computer applications (Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint).

Languages

- Fluency in one of the two OECD official languages (English and French) and knowledge of the other, with a commitment to reach a good working level.
- Knowledge of other languages would be an asset.

Responsibilities

Support senior management by providing communications advice that maximises impact and visibility of ECO key messages and work, in line with the priorities of the Secretary General and the Organisation’s Annual Communications Plan (ACP); Take responsibility for the ongoing development and implementation of the ECO Communications strategy and visual identity, aligning with the ACP and following the Organisation’s rules on branding and visual identity.; Working closely with COM, manage tailored communications for the Chief Economist as well as ECO Directors, including for strategic engagements and identifying new opportunities.; Work with teams in FO, CSB and PRB, in collaboration with COM, to identify, extract and promote key policy messages, multiplying the reach of these messages and embedding them in key audiences.; Identify training needs for ECO staff to improve communication skills (e.g., presentations, writing for the web) and work with Human Resources Management (HRM) and COM to connect staff to appropriate training opportunities .; Supervise the communications team, liaising closely with the Front Office and ECO Management. Ensure good communication and teamwork, and facilitate the team members’ professional development. Coordinate the work of the team, taking into account peaks in workload.; Work with authors and teams in FO, CSB and PRB in reviewing and editing outputs, to ensure quality control, improve their readability and accessibility for different target audiences and ensure coherence with OECD guidelines and the ECO visual identity and communications strategy.; Take responsibility for the strategic planning for key outputs and events, taking into account the global news calendar, stakeholders’ expectations and anticipating media headlines.; As appropriate, work on with COM relations with the media and the issuance of ECO news releases.; Working with COM, contribute to the production of promotional material, including drafting and ensuring a presentation in line with the OECD visual identity.; Oversee and develop content for the ECO web pages, social media channels and events. Ensure consistency and coherence in the messages and content produced, in line with the ACP and ECO’s communications strategy and visual identity.; Working with COM, identify and make recommendations for new products, emerging trends and dissemination channels and institutions and individuals to disseminate information.; Establish and manage web key performance indicators and review web metrics reports.

Requirements

A post-secondary education, preferably a degree, in communications, journalism, marketing or any other relevant field.; A minimum of 5 years’ experience in communications in an international environment. Experience in working in a communications team. Experience in managing junior staff would be an asset.; Proven ability to undertake strategic communications design, planning and delivery.; Strong knowledge of, and professional experience in, designing, creating, managing and evaluating online communications, collaboration and social media platforms and methodologies (websites, X, Facebook, blogs, newsletters, Instagram etc.) and evaluating their success.; Excellent knowledge of document and project lifecycles, publishing constraints, desktop publishing, content organisation, writing, proofreading and editing skills.; Ability to initiate and manage a continuing editorial process and to conceptualise and execute the online packaging of content.; Very good knowledge of the OECD’s work, and a broad knowledge of the substantive work and goals of the OECD in general.; Strong analytical and conceptual skills and ability transforming complex messages into language suitable for non-technical audiences.; Experience with creating visual assets for digital content using design software.; OECD staff are expected to demonstrate behaviours aligned to six core competencies which will be assessed as part of this hiring processes: Vision and Strategy (Level 1), Enable People (Level 2), Ethics and Integrity (Level 2), Collaboration and Horizontality (Level 2), Achieve Results (Level 2), Innovate and Embrace Change (Level 1).; To learn more about the definitions for each competency for levels 1-3, please refer to OECD Core Competencies .