Communications Officer

Communications Officer

ZWE - Zero Waste Europe

Brussels, Belgium

About you

• You are a communications professional with proven media relations skills who is passionate about environmental sustainability. With excellent writing abilities, you can make complex topics accessible across multiple channels and implement communications pushes from strategy to execution;
• You thrive in multicultural settings and embrace our hope-based, solution-oriented approach to storytelling;
• Proactive and detail-oriented, you're comfortable managing social media channels, using various communications tools, and adapting the content to different audiences;
• You're a collaborative team player who values humour while maintaining a high standard of work. You approach challenges with a problem-solving attitude and can prioritise effectively while contributing to our positive team culture. You are caring and helpful towards your team members and can jump in to help your colleagues if/when workload needs to be redistributed;
• You are impact-oriented, unafraid to propose new ideas and try new approaches. You treat evaluation/feedback as an essential part of growing (both for the organisation and yourself). When blocked, you ask for help; when stuck in your growth, you seek/ask for more responsibilities or challenges.

If you balance strategic thinking with hands-on execution and want to use your communications skills to advance the zero waste movement in Europe, we want to hear from you!

About the role

We are looking for a Communications Officer to join the ZWE team. They will report to ZWE’s Head of Communications and be placed within the ZWE Communications team (which currently hosts two other Communications Officers).

This position combines skills in general communications with press and media work. This is a great opportunity to contribute to our mission of creating a zero waste, healthy, and fair world for all by elevating our hope-based, solution-oriented messages and approach, showcasing the people behind/impacted by the work whenever possible.

Core responsibilities of the Communications Officer:

• Build overall communications strategies: help set up structures and proactively contribute to effective communication and outreach for both in-house and project-specific communication activities;
• Lead on the publication and distribution of communications materials for assigned ZWE working topics - either in-house (reports, social media activities, newsletters, website content, event communications, ...) or by leading the liaison activities with suppliers (designers, videographers, photographers, proofreaders, translators, …);
• Media outreach and press activities - working with the wider ZWE Team on assigned work topics to identify and develop good publishable angles for our Press Releases and other media work, in line with audiences’/media’s needs. Liaising with ZWE team members to field and answer media requests on those topics, and follow up with media contacts for collateral materials;
• Co-manage ZWE’s digital channels (website, social media, newsletters), handling event communication activities (both online and in-person), and contributing to our community-building efforts - always taking into account our storytelling, hope-based, community engagement and solution-oriented approach;
• Working with the ZWE Communications Team to identify and provide communication-centric training/capacity-building moments for the wider ZWE team and our members' network;
• Support Zero Waste Europe’s spin-off, Mission Zero Academy, by drafting and sending press releases regarding the Zero Waste Cities Certification and the Zero Waste Business Certification.

Required skills and competences

• 3+ years of experience in Communications, Marketing, Public Relations, or a similar field;
• Solid/proven experience (at least 1-2 years) with media work, including:
  • Experience in writing media materials (press releases and statements, op-ed editing, liaising for quotes, construction of media messages, etc.);
  • Experience in media outreach strategies;
  • 1:1 contact and relationship-building with journalists.
• Solid/proven experience in handling general communication activities (including publication processes);
• Proficient in the English language. Other languages are a plus;
• Comfortable with democratising technical topics (i.e. making materials/messages understandable to different audiences without falling into jargon).
• Excellent communication and writing skills (editing and copywriting included);
• Comfortable with communications execution activities;
• Familiar with communications plans and strategies;
• Good communications-related IT skills (Slack, Canva, Trello/Zoho/CRM databases, Google Suite, WordPress website back office, Meltwater, Sprout Social, Adobe Suite…);
• Basic social media and community-building experience (ZWE’s preferred social media channels: LinkedIn, Bluesky, Instagram).

Preferred skills and competences

• A university degree in a relevant field (including - but not exclusive to - communications, journalism, marketing, environmental studies, sociology, European studies, international relations, …) or proven experience;
• Knowledge of, or interest in, environmental issues (in the field of resource and waste management, climate, or environmental justice);
• Previous experience in member-centric or client-facing workplaces;
• (Audio)Visual skills (video and/or audio editing, comfortable leading the development of audiovisual materials and liaising with necessary suppliers and other team members, etc.);
• Familiarity with pitching/storytelling/narrative-building is a plus;
• Appetite for political debate, system change, and grassroots movements is a plus;
• Previous experience with communications and press work beyond the “Brussels bubble” (including engaging with journalists and media outlets outside of Brussels) is a plus.

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