Senior Manager Communications and Engagement

Senior Manager Communications and Engagement

• Full-time

About the Program

Investing in Women: Women in Inclusive Sustainable Economic Recovery (IW) is a multi-country Australian Government initiative in Southeast Asia that seeks to accelerate women’s economic empowerment through increased and equitable opportunities in the private sector, contributing to inclusive, sustainable economic recovery and growth in targeted countries. Our objective is to support women to thrive in the workplace and succeed in business.

Building on the results, partnerships and lessons established under the first seven years of the program, IW’s new phase will extend and deepen Australia’s contribution to advancing gender equality in Southeast Asia through influencing and growing an ecosystem of policymakers, business leaders, capital providers and women’s economic empowerment actors.

Positioning women at the centre of economic resilience and accelerating their economic empowerment is critical to achieving a wide range of sustainable development objectives in Southeast Asia. As the region recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic, gender-sensitive economic recovery strategies will be critical to prevent further deterioration in women’s economic empowerment indicators as seen during COVID-19. Focus on an inclusive recovery seeks to harness the productivity, skills, capacity, talent, innovation, and leadership that women offer, and realise the benefits of women’s economic empowerment for themselves, their families, and their communities.

IW continues the ambitious agenda of advancing women’s economic empowerment through:

• Workplace Gender Equality (WGE) – We support Business Coalitions that work with influential businesses on shifting workplace cultures, practices, and policy barriers to achieve workplace gender equality, with member companies together employing more than one million people;
• Enabling Policy Reforms – We support locally identified reform agendas that promote women’s workforce participation, generate support for the business case for WGE, and build the case for the value and importance of the care economy to business, the economy and women’s economic empowerment;
• Campaigns and Communities of Practice – We support locally driven campaigns in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam that highlight positive examples of gender equality to strengthen public support for women’s economic participation. Through fostering a community of gender equality advocates, IW will continuously build evidence that supports the broader adoption of progressive attitudes and behaviours; and
• Gender Lens Investing – We work to increase investment in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) that disproportionately benefit women in Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam. We do so by increasing capital providers’ demand for Gender Lens Investing strategies and products, catalysing the supply of financial instruments available to small businesses owned or led by women, and investing in the growth of SMEs that support women through a ‘fund of funds’ strategy.

In collaboration with corporations and business leaders, policymakers and implementers, capital providers, entrepreneurs, and advocates, we are working with those who are driving change for women's economic equality in our region.

Investing in Women supports the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030 Agenda and the leveraging of private sector investments to achieve the Goals. The SDGs recognise that gender equality is not only an essential human right, but a necessary foundation for peaceful, prosperous and sustainable societies.

About the Opportunity

The Senior Manager Communications and Engagement is a key leadership role responsible for setting and executing IW’s communication strategy and fostering effective stakeholder engagement. The role delivers on the Australian Government’s communications and public diplomacy expectations for IW, and supports achievement of the program’s end of program outcomes.

The Senior Manager is a reliable advisor to the CEO and senior leadership team, providing strategic communications and stakeholder engagement advice.

Reporting directly to CEO, this position provides strategic leadership to the communications team. The Senior Manager will be responsible for building a cohesive and high-performing communications team and fostering collaboration to deliver strategic, consistent and impactful communications and engagement at the country and whole of program levels.

The geographically dispersed team is comprised of two Communications and Engagement Managers (in Vietnam and the Philippines) and a part-time Website Coordinator. There is also dotted-line supervision of a Policy Partnerships, and Communications and Engagement Manager (Indonesia).

Key Responsibilities

• Strategy setting and execu