Media Director

Position description

The Communications Department at Human Rights Watch shapes the organization’s public voice and influence, ensuring our research and advocacy inform global debates, reach key decision-makers, and drive accountability for human rights abuses wherever they occur. Reporting to the Global Communications Director, the Media Director manages a team disbursed across the US and the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Africa to maximize strategic coverage of HRW’s research on traditional and emerging media platforms.

This position will be based in HRW’s New York Office, with candidates willing to work from the office 2-3 days per week.

Responsibilities

• Set and lead editorial vision for HRW’s media engagement to advance advocacy priorities, strengthen institutional voice, and maintain prominence and relevance across traditional and emerging platforms;
• Provide strategic leadership to the media division, driving performance, cohesion, and accountability while aligning divisional priorities with the goals of the wider Department and organization, while ensuring effective support and coordination across time zones and a sustainable approach to workload and resourcing;
• Translate HRW’s global strategy into clear media priorities, ensuring the division’s work is focused on moments, audiences, and channels where influence is most effectively exercised;
• Oversee the development and deployment of media products and interventions to meet the changing influence and technology landscape, maintaining consistent editorial standards and judgement to determine appropriate formats, levels of activation, and timing;
• Direct budget planning and resource allocation to prioritize high-impact interventions and emerging opportunities while maintaining operational discipline;
• Build and sustain relationships with influential external audiences, including senior journalists, editors, commentators, podcasters and newsletter writers, and represent HRW when needed in high-level public and international forums;
• Working closely with senior leadership, especially the Executive Director, to strategically shape their visibility and thought leadership;
• Act as a strategic advisor internally, working closely with leadership in the Communication Division, the Executive Committee and Program teams to inform organizational decisions on public positioning, opportunity and risk;
• Lead HRW’s crisis communications capability, ensuring rapid and authoritative responses during high-risk moments, with clear messaging and effective spokesperson deployment;
• Set and maintain high editorial standards across all media outputs, overseeing messaging, press materials, op-eds, and media engagement to ensure news value and strategic focus;
• Direct HRW’s media planning, managing the editorial calendar and making deliberate decisions on activations, including embargoes, exclusives, press conferences, and op-eds (etc.) to maximize impact;
• Drive a data-informed approach to media outreach, using audience and performance insights to guide engagement across elite outlets and emerging platforms, including online news, newsletters, podcasts, and other influential formats; and
• Strengthen organizational media readiness and learning, including media training, performance review, and continuous improvement based on monitoring, analysis, and feedback; and
• Perform other tasks as may be required.

Qualifications

Education: A bachelor’s degree or equivalent work experience in communications, media, journalism, marketing, human rights, or similar related field is required.

Experience: A minimum of ten years of relevant work experience and at least five of team management experience, is required, preferably within a global, large-scale, diverse, and dynamic mission-driven organization operating internationally.

Required Competencies

• Collegiate: Engages with staff, external partners, donors, and Board members in collegial and collaborative consultation on important matters and facilitate agreeable solutions in complex situations.
• Strategic: Works strategically to leverage the diversity of skillsets, expertise, experience, and identities on the team and in the organization.
• Inclusive: Creates an inclusive and positive work environment including by engaging in DEI strategic planning processes, incorporating DEI values and practices into the organization’s work, soliciting diverse points of view, collaborating with leadership and staff on DEI efforts, and proactively addressing microaggressions, bias, and discrimination.
• Compassionate: Creating organizational systems and processes that enable a safe, well, and resilient workplace while checking in regularly with staff on work/life balance and secondary trauma related to our work.
• Ambitious: Drives change and improvement at the organizational level by fostering an environment open to new ideas, creativity, taking calculated risks, and learning from failure while ensuring staff development and processes and systems improvements.
• System-oriented: Designs and enables processes and systems that allow for more efficient organizational operations, and effective delegation, actively mentoring others to improve their project management skills.
• Accountable: Models integrity, ownership, and accountability in all aspects of the work by developing and implementing decisions that are in the organization’s best interest and ensuring that decisions balance the needs of the organization with the needs of the staff.
• Vision-driven: Contributes to overall organizational leadership, culture, and strategy, serving as a role model that empowers and supports others to make decisions, plan and manage work, and grow and develop. Create and articulate an inspiring, inclusive vision for the organization and enthusiastically discuss future possibilities with any audience.
• Supportive: Utilizes coaching and mentoring to develop staff of all levels, including other leaders and managers to build their skills in communicating clear expectations, setting performance objectives, providing regular and timely constructive feedback, and offering guidance on professional growth.
• Organized: Actively leads and participates in planning and strategy processes for the organization, anticipating and preparing for challenging decisions and shifting internal and external trends.

Other: Proficiency in English is required, proficiency in other languages (particularly French or Arabic) is desirable. Applicants for this role should possess valid US work authorization, HRW cannot guarantee the ability to sponsor work authorization for this role.

Salary and Benefits: HRW seeks exceptional applicants and offers competitive compensation and employer-paid benefits. The salary range for this position is US$150,000-165,000.

Application instructions

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