Policy & Positioning Lead

The Organisation

Plan International is an independent development and humanitarian organisation that advances children’s rights and equality for girls. We believe in the power and potential of every child but know this is often suppressed by poverty, violence, exclusion and discrimination. And it is girls who are most affected.

Working together with children, young people, supporters and partners, we strive for a just world, tackling the root causes of the challenges girls and vulnerable children face. We support children’s rights from birth until they reach adulthood and we enable children to prepare for and respond to crises and adversity. We drive changes in practice and policy at local, national and global levels using our reach, experience and knowledge.

For over 85 years, we have rallied other determined optimists to transform the lives of all children in more than 80 countries.

We won’t stop until we are all equal.

The Opportunity

As Plan International continues to drive forward its important work for children’s rights and equality for girls, the Policy & Positioning Lead will be instrumental in ensuring our messaging is bold, inspiring, and aligned with our vision for change. This is an exciting moment to join Plan International. With a shift in our global operating model, this role offers a unique opportunity to shape and play a key role in supporting the positioning of the organisation and our leadership at a critical time. 

The Policy & Positioning Lead provides strategic support to the Director of Global Affairs to strengthen and elevate Plan’s organisational voice through high‑quality policy positioning, strategic communications, and compelling external products. It ensures that Plan’s flagship initiatives, evidence, and impact are consistently articulated, packaged, and communicated across the organisation and externally to build recognition of the impact on girls of Plan’s work and expand partnerships and investments in girls programming.  This position is attuned to developments within the sector and helps position the externally facing communications material to current and potential partners (including institutional, academic, governments, donors and foundations).

The role translates complex internal analysis, data, and intelligence into powerful, accessible narratives—supporting speeches, proposals, opinion pieces, and communications that influence priority stakeholders and position Plan as a leader in the sector.

This reports to the Director of Global Affairs, with close interactions with the Office of the CEO (OCEO). The Global Affairs department has multiple teams that together provide strategic guidance and high-level coordination to strengthen external communications and alignment across Plan International. It contributes to advancing Plan’s global strategy by ensuring effective external communication and engagement, particularly during times of change. Aligned with the ‘One Plan’ approach, the Global Affairs department fosters transparent and inclusive messaging, amplifies diverse leadership voices, and supports integration of local insights into global messaging and action.

Dimensions of the Role

• Organisational influence: Works across the Global Affairs department including External Communications, engaging with programme teams, the Office of the CEO, regional hubs, and country offices to enhance Plan’s global positioning.
• Scope of work: Leads on packaging major flagship initiatives for organisational positioning, business cases, and external engagement strategies. Supports leadership’s relationships with external stakeholders to facilitate critical collaborations and opportunities.
• Outputs used by: CEO, executive leaders including Director of Global Affairs, regional offices (ROs), country offices (COs), and national organisations (NOs).
• Cross-functional coordination: Aligns with external communications for profile-raising while ensuring programmatic and policy substance is reflected in strategic messaging.
• Geographical reach: Global – drawing from country-level impact, regional intelligence, and global analysis for technical impact narratives.
• Internally: Represent Global Affairs in various internal networks when needed.

Accountabilities

Strategic Positioning & Policy Packaging

• Develop unified, high-level positioning for Plan’s flagship initiatives and priority areas.
• Produce powerful and compelling narrative and statements on Plan’s impact and value proposition.
• Create polished packaging for business cases, proposals, and strategic briefs for external audiences (e.g., donors, multilaterals, partners).
• Coordinate leadership messaging for high-profile events, conferences, and strategic engagements in partnership with key internal technical expertise.
• Source timely geopolitical and sector insights from technical experts across the organisation to ensure the Plan is well positioned and prepared for external engagements.

Evidence Translation & Thought Leadership

• Translate complex programmatic evidence, data, and internal intelligence into clear narratives and policy-ready content.
• Compile problem/solution sets demonstrating how Plan adds value and contributes to transformational change.
• Ensure coherence and consistency in messages shared across the organisation and externally.

Leadership Communications

• Lead, edit and coordinate the development of high-quality contextually attuned speeches for the CEO and senior executives ensuring consistency, clarity, and impact in all communications.
• Develop op-eds, expert-driven arguments, and other written materials that reflect Plan’s strategic priorities.
• Ensure that external communications consistently integrate power-shifting narratives that centre youth perspectives and reflect Plan’s purpose.
• Work with communications colleagues to align speech opportunities with key external moments.

Positioning Planning & Engagement Mapping

• With the Director of Global Affairs and communications teams, identify upcoming opportunities for message amplification across venues, events, and platforms.
• Develop targeted communications plans for major research releases, flagship initiatives, and sector interventions.
• Identify entry points for influence across thematic areas (e.g., education, health, climate).

Cross-Organisational Coordination

• Work across teams to harvest high-quality insights, analysis, and impact stories from COs, ROs, and program teams.
• Ensure external packs and messaging are accessible and usable by COs, ROs, and NOs to maintain one organisational voice.
• Support internal alignment between strategic communications and programmatic evidence.
• Manage multiple projects simultaneously, ensuring responsiveness to evolving organisational needs.

Key Relationships

• CEO – Develops and delivers communications that position Plan International’s leadership effectively, ensuring alignment with strategic messaging and engagement priorities.
• Director of Global Affairs – Works closely in terms of coordination, planning, and writing. 
• Global Affairs team – including but not limited to the Director of Global Affairs, Director of Policy, Advocacy and Strategy Partners, External Communications, Head of UN teams, Head of Fundraising.
• External Communications Team – Ensures alignment in external positioning and media engagement
• Countries, Regions, National Organisations - Sourcing content, insights, and technical impact narratives.
• External – relationships with institutional donor community, academia and foundations in international development and humanitarian sector

Technical expertise, skills and knowledge

Qualifications and Experience

Essential

• Significant experience in strategic communications, policy positioning, and influencing in external forums with a focus on international development.
• Experience developing positioning plans linked to major initiatives, research releases, or organisational strategic priorities.
• Demonstrated ability to translate complex programmatic evidence, research, and internal analysis into clear, compelling narratives for external audiences.
• Proven experience drafting high‑quality speeches, op‑eds, policy briefs, and strategic positioning materials for senior leaders.
• Strong track record of working cross‑functionally with programme teams, communications functions, and senior leadership supporting organisational messaging.
• Experience working in a global, complex organizational environment, with a strong understanding of stakeholder management.
• Knowledge of geopolitical and sector trends, experience in strategic analysis and positioning against trends, with the ability to provide informed insights for external narrative, communication and engagements.
• Knowledge of and experience in the development and humanitarian sector, both the donor community and programming.
• Experience producing content tailored for donors, multilaterals, or sector‑wide engagement (e.g., investment cases, flagship initiative positioning).

Desirable

• Experience working with or within international NGOs, multilateral institutions, or global development organisations.
• Experience in global governance, advocacy, or external relations.​
• Familiarity with thematic areas such as girls’ rights, education, health, or climate change.
• Formal training or qualifications in communications, public policy, international relations, or related fields.
• Understanding of feminist leadership principles and anti-racism approaches.​
• Additional language skills, particularly French and/or Spanish

Competencies

Essential

• Outstanding written communication skills, with ability to craft influential, concise, and strategic external products.
• Strategic thinking, analytical and synthesis skills, able to assess large volumes of internal evidence and package it into actionable insights.
• Ability to identify strategic opportunities for influence and align messaging to external moments, audiences, and venues.
• Strong interpersonal and relationship management skills, with experience influencing senior stakeholders.
• Strong stakeholder coordination skills, comfortable working across multiple teams, levels, and geographies.
• Ability to navigate complex stakeholder environments with strong political acumen, diplomatic skills, and a high degree of political and organisational awareness to ensure messages are aligned with priorities and sensitive to internal dynamics.
• Planning and organisational skills, with the ability to manage multiple deadlines and produce polished outputs quickly.
• Adaptability and resilience, able to work in a fast-paced, dynamic environment with competing priorities.

Desirable

• Creativity and innovation in shaping compelling narratives and thought‑leadership pieces.
• Ability to guide teams on message framing, audience analysis, and compelling storytelling.
• Confidence convening and facilitating cross-functional discussions to refine positioning.
• Understanding of how to adapt messaging for a range of platforms and audiences (e.g., speeches, written briefs, digital storytelling).
• Ability to support crisis communications, ensuring executive messaging remains strategic and effective.

Location: The location of this role can be flexible, but given the nature of the interactions and engagements, preferably based out of the USA or our global hubs in UK or Kenya aligned with where you have the pre-existing right to work and live.

Type of Role: One year fixed term contract

Reports to: Director of Global Affairs

Closing Date: Sunday 5th April at 23.59pm UK

Equality, diversity and inclusion is at the very heart of everything that Plan International stands for.

We want Plan International to reflect the diversity of the communities we work with, offering equal opportunities to everyone regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation.

Plan International is based on a culture of inclusivity and we strive to create a workplace environment that ensures every team, in every office, in every country, is rich in diverse people, thoughts, and ideas.

We foster an organisational culture that embraces our commitment to racial justice, gender equality, girls’ rights and inclusion.

Plan International believes that in a world where children face so many threats of harm, it is our duty to ensure that we, as an organisation, do everything we can to keep children safe. This means that we have particular responsibilities to children that we come into contact with and we must not contribute in any way to harming or placing children at risk.

A range of pre-employment checks will be undertaken in conformity with Plan International's Safeguarding Children and Young People policy. Plan International also participates in the Inter Agency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme. In line with this scheme we will request information from applicants previous employers about any findings of sexual exploitation, sexual abuse and/or sexual harassment during employment, or incidents under investigation when the applicant left employment. By submitting an application, the job applicant confirms their understanding of these recruitment procedures.

Please note that Plan International will never send unsolicited emails requesting payment from candidates.