United Nations Foundation
Coordinator, Communications and Special Projects, OA Alliance
Employment Opportunity - WASHINGTON, DC - Part Time
Position Overview
The International Alliance to Combat Ocean Acidification (“OA Alliance”) is a voluntary initiative made up national and subnational governments, alongside non-government affiliate members. Together, members work to increase ambition for climate action and transform planning and response to climate-ocean change. This includes supporting governments in understanding the information they will need to protect coastal communities and livelihoods from the threat of ocean acidification and other climate- ocean impacts.
The OA Alliance is seeking a Coordinator, Communications and Special Projects ready to contribute to the initiative’s communications efforts, social media presence, research, policy development, peer-to-peer learning, and project coordination work.
The Coordinator, Communications and Special Projects will work with the communications lead to implement the OA Alliance communication strategy related to increasing visibility of OA Alliance efforts and members’ actions through an improved online presence. This will include managing the initiative’s digital presence and supporting content creation to keep digital platforms relevant. The Coordinator will also work with the Executive Director to respond to specific program or project-level needs such as organizing contact lists, tracking project progress and implementation, drafting policy or communications briefing papers, and providing general coordination and program support.
Reporting to the Executive Director, OA Alliance, this position will be positioned with the Executive Director in the Washington, DC office (hybrid) or remote.
This part-time, term-based position extends through December 2025.
Essential Functions
Communications
The International Alliance to Combat Ocean Acidification (“OA Alliance”) is a voluntary initiative made up national and subnational governments, alongside non-government affiliate members. Together, members work to increase ambition for climate action and transform planning and response to climate-ocean change. This includes supporting governments in understanding the information they will need to protect coastal communities and livelihoods from the threat of ocean acidification and other climate- ocean impacts.
The OA Alliance is seeking a Coordinator, Communications and Special Projects ready to contribute to the initiative’s communications efforts, social media presence, research, policy development, peer-to-peer learning, and project coordination work.
The Coordinator, Communications and Special Projects will work with the communications lead to implement the OA Alliance communication strategy related to increasing visibility of OA Alliance efforts and members’ actions through an improved online presence. This will include managing the initiative’s digital presence and supporting content creation to keep digital platforms relevant. The Coordinator will also work with the Executive Director to respond to specific program or project-level needs such as organizing contact lists, tracking project progress and implementation, drafting policy or communications briefing papers, and providing general coordination and program support.
Reporting to the Executive Director, OA Alliance, this position will be positioned with the Executive Director in the Washington, DC office (hybrid) or remote.
This part-time, term-based position extends through December 2025.
Essential Functions
Communications
- Support the implementation of the social media plan provided by the OA Alliance communications lead.
- Implement and support social media campaigns.
- Gather and analyze social media data insights to report on year-end social media performance and on specific campaigns. Monitor impact and uptake.
- Keep up to date on OA Alliance social media platforms and those of partners, responding to tags, reposting information, and engaging in other ways.
- Create images to accompany social media posts and campaigns, using Canva, rigorously following the OA Alliance’s branding guidelines.
- Support the OA Alliance communications lead in developing articles or blogs when opportunities arise.
- Support the OA Alliance communications lead in creating materials for event promotion in Canva (using OA Alliance templates).
- As guided by the Executive Director, use Squarespace to make content updates to the OA Alliance website to ensure that it is up to date with OA Alliance materials, events, workshops and webinars.
- Gather a list of platforms (within and beyond the climate-ocean space) where the OA Alliance can contribute with content related to our work and our members’.
- Support the OA Alliance’s communications lead in selected creative projects.
- Research funding opportunities for creative communications projects.
- Coordinate engagement with Affiliate member non-governmental entities (such as universities, industry leaders, associations, businesses, and other entity types) who have made a commitment to elevating the issue of ocean acidification (“OA”) within their entity and thereby become members of the OA Alliance (“Affiliate Members”) including but not limited to:
- Supporting the onboarding process of new affiliate members.
- Joining and coordinating introductory calls and other induction activities with new Affiliate Members as per OA Alliance’s instructions; and
- Announcing new OA Alliance Members through OA Alliance channels, including the OA Alliance website and social media platforms.
- Create and maintain contact lists related to Programs of the OA Alliance
- Support the Executive Director in meeting coordination support for Programs of the OA Alliance.
- Support scheduling for the Executive Director.
- Other duties as assigned.
- Bachelor's degree required; completed coursework or work experience in a field related to communications, policy, or ocean or climate issues is preferred.
- A minimum of one year of work experience, with a strong track record of success.
- Familiarity with or willingness to learn digital networking or social media platforms like X, LinkedIn, and Instagram, content creation tools like Canva, and website builder platforms like Squarespace. Experience with Salesforce or other customer relationship management tools a plus.
- Experience working on communications materials.
- Strong planning and organizational skills.
- Continuous learning skills and the ability to synthesize information.
- Ability to flexibly manage multiple tasks with attention to detail and deadlines.
- Ability to take initiative, the ideal candidate will be a self-starter who is comfortable carrying out multiple tasks on different projects and assignments and seeking new tasks.
- Ability to develop, maintain, and enjoy effective working relationships with people from a wide variety of organizations and with a wide variety of functional expertise.
- Demonstrated experience and/or interest in climate-ocean change policies at the domestic and international levels.
- Ability to conduct basic policy research and prepare summaries or recommendations.
- Detail-oriented and excellent problem-solving skills.
- Proficiency in Microsoft Office suite required, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook.
- Experience with Salesforce and Sharepoint platforms a plus.
- Must be available to work part-time at a maximum of 29 hours per week.
- Ability to work under pressure and handle stress.
- Ability to meet regular attendance / tardiness policy.
