Strategic Communications Design and Knowledge Management Advisor

Overview

Chemonics seeks a Strategic Communications Design and Knowledge Management (SCD-KM) Advisor for the FEWSNET team. The SCD-KM Advisor will strengthen alignment between FEWS NET decision support products and the information needs of the United States Department of State (DoS) and other United States Government (USG) decision makers. The Advisor aims to ensure that FEWS NET products deliver clear, compelling, timely, and actionable information through effective communication channels for the USG.

The SCD-KM Advisor will be based in Washington, DC, working out of the home office and directly supervised by the Deputy Chief of Party-Innovation, with dotted line supervision by the Chief of Party on strategic communications components. The SCD-KM Advisor may be required to undertake international travel occasionally.

This role develops and maintains internal knowledge management systems to support consistent, high-quality analysis, reporting and decision support across the FEWS NET DST. The SCD-KM Advisor focuses on improving external communications with key stakeholders while ensuring the establishment and efficient use of internal systems and processes to capture, organize, share and effectively use FEWS NET’s extensive knowledge. The outcome is that institutional knowledge is retained and easily accessible, supporting efficient workflows and analysis.

Effective knowledge management is essential to FEWS NET’s ability to communicate analysis conclusions to the right people at the right time and in the right way, and the SCD-KM Advisor helps ensure decision support products achieve this goal and that project staff have access to a knowledge management system that supports their work.

The main responsibilities of the SCD-KM Advisor include, but are not limited to:

• Team Capacity Building:
  Support FEWS NET staff in designing effective briefings, including storytelling/narrative structuring, slide preparation, and presentation coaching; develop and deliver training programs to improve communication skills (including communication design, technical writing for the DoS/USG audience, and briefing development); mentor technical staff in communications, representational skills and media engagement; build a culture of clear and effective communication within the team.
• Communication Strategy Development:
  Work with the FEWS NET Hub and FEWS NET DST leadership to maintain awareness of State Department decision-making processes, communication preferences, and decision support needs; understand FEWS NET’s reporting processes and product lines to maximize use of materials; test redesigned products through user feedback sessions, interviews, or rapid prototyping; recommend iterative improvements to processes, products, and internal systems.
• Strategic Communications, Product Design and Knowledge Management:
  Review, refine, and redesign FEWS NET decision support products to be visually appealing, concise, jargon-free, and audience-appropriate; support creation of new products using user-centered design and effective communications approaches; establish and maintain communication standards, style guidance, and templates; ensure high-quality products align with brand and mission; develop and maintain centralized knowledge repositories and SOPs; ensure critical institutional knowledge is captured, retained, and shared;
  
  oversee coordination and delivery of DST briefings to key stakeholders, especially USG stakeholders; respond quickly to evolving information needs; facilitate clear communication of stakeholder needs to FEWS NET leadership and technical teams.
• Collaboration and Coordination:
  Work with other advisors, the FEWS NET Hub, and field partners to ensure a coordinated communication approach; define and track metrics related to communication effectiveness; represent the DST at project-wide communications groups; lead discussions on website-related improvements; engage with external stakeholders and partners to extend reach; act as point of contact for communications with network partners (e.g., FAO’s IPC); support senior management in managing media requests and coordinating with Chemonics’…