Communications Officer

The Center for Economic and Social Rights is looking for a Communications Officer.

Overview:

• Part-time role
• Location: Anywhere (Remote)
• Language: English
• Salary: $37,000 – $60,000 per year, pro rata (depending on experience and location)
• Applications closing: until filled

Job Description

CESR is seeking a dynamic and experienced Communications Officer with a strong commitment to social justice. This role will play a key part in advancing CESR’s narrative-shifting work, amplifying our analysis and advocacy, and strengthening internal and external communications across the organization.

Reporting to the Executive Director, the communications officer will lead CESR’s communications strategy, oversee day-to-day communications management, and contribute to organizational development.

While not required, the following skills and experience would be strong assets for this role: experience working with and adapting design templates to lay out publications and communications materials, including reports, briefings, and digital assets, using tools such as Canva, Adobe Photoshop, or similar platforms; a fluent command of an additional language, preferably Spanish, and experience working in multilingual or international contexts; and familiarity with accessibility, inclusive design, and cross-cultural communications in global social justice settings.

Responsibilities

Strategy and leadership

• Lead the implementation and ongoing refinement of CESR’s communications strategy, including defining success metrics and assessing progress.
• Help build a shared understanding across the organisation of CESR’s key audiences, messages, and narrative goals.
• Set out a clear vision and pathway for CESR’s storytelling and narrative-shifting work, aligned with our strategic priorities.

Content and storytelling

• Produce and oversee a wide range of communications outputs, including news blasts, reports, briefings, factsheets, blog posts, periodic bulletins, press releases, annual reports, op-eds, and audiovisual materials.
• Ensure CESR’s research and advocacy outputs are edited, packaged, and disseminated in ways that are accessible, compelling, and strategically targeted.
• Promote a distinctive visual identity and ensure all outputs adhere to CESR’s house style and quality standards.
• Create, adapt, and manage communications outputs using established design templates, including laying out new publications (such as reports, briefings, factsheets, and presentations), producing social media and digital assets, and ensuring consistency with CESR’s visual identity, accessibility standards, and narrative goals.

Digital and media engagement

• Manage and maintain CESR’s website, including writing and editing content, improving accessibility and design, and overseeing the transition to a new content management system.
• Generate engaging social media content and grow CESR’s audience across platforms such as LinkedIn, Bluesky, X, and relevant listservs.
• Proactively identify and pursue opportunities to bring CESR’s perspective into public debates on economic injustice and inequality, including building and maintaining relationships with journalists and media outlets.

Collaboration and organisational support

• Work closely with program teams to ensure communications is built into project planning and adequately resourced from the outset.
• Manage relationships with external service providers, including web developers, designers, translators, videographers, and photographers.
• Ensure communications contributes to CESR’s resource mobilisation efforts, including drafting fundraising materials and appeals in coordination with colleagues.
• Provide strategic advice and hands-on support to CESR’s leadership, staff, and partners, including strengthening internal communications and supporting multilingual production.

Role Requirements

You are a strategic communicator with a strong political compass and a deep commitment to economic and social justice. You understand that communications are not just about visibility, but about power: whose stories are told, how problems are framed, and what solutions feel possible.

You are comfortable working at both a strategic and hands-on level, shaping long-term narrative direction while also writing, editing, designing,  and problem-solving day to day. You bring a collaborative mindset, enjoy working across teams and disciplines, and are skilled at translating complex research and policy analysis into language that is clear, credible, and mobilising.

You approach communications as a collective endeavour. You listen carefully to partners and colleagues, respect diverse forms of expertise and lived experience, and are attentive to questions of equity, accessibility, and representation in how stories are told and shared. You are organised, adaptable, and able to manage competing priorities in a small, international organisation.

Qualifications

The ideal candidate will bring:

• A degree in journalism, communications, or a related field—or equivalent experience.
• At least five years of experience in strategic communications within a human rights, social justice, or related advocacy context.
• A strong understanding of narrative strategies and experience communicating complex or technical issues in clear, accessible language.
• Familiarity with current and emerging communications tools, platforms, and trends.
• Excellent writing and editing skills, with a strong sense of voice, audience, and political context.
• A collaborative working style and the ability to manage multiple priorities across teams and time zones.

How to apply?

Please submit the following materials by email to jobs@cesr.org:

• A CV of no more than two pages
• A cover letter of no more than two pages
• Links to two published writing samples

We encourage applicants to submit materials that reflect their own thinking, voice, and experience. Given the nature of this role and CESR’s emphasis on authentic storytelling, political judgment, and accountability, we discourage the use of generative AI in preparing application materials.

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis until the position is filled. Our aim is to have the role filled by the beginning of March 2026.