Senior Director

POSITION: Senior Director (Asia)

Duration: 1 year

Employment type: Independent contractor agreement

Location: Asia

Reporting to: CEO

Salary: USD$70,000-120,000 depending on location

Application closing date: June 8th. 9am BST.

How to apply

Do not apply through LinkedIn. Please apply by following the steps in this form here or https://forms.gle/r8rxbZQpqu2iZ7pK8

About the Secure Energy Project

The Secure Energy Project (SEP) is a communications initiative that exists to build unstoppable support for a global shift to clean energy. We identify the obstacles slowing progress, then work with partners to design and run collaborative campaigns that remove them. We bring together allies across civil society, policy and industry to influence the narrative and politics of energy.

The transition to clean energy can improve everything: lower bills, better jobs, cleaner air and more connected communities. Yet progress is still too slow and increasingly vulnerable to misinformation and political backlash.

Now entering our third year, SEP is leading global communications efforts, coordinating campaign coalitions, and launching audience-led interventions in key countries. The energy system is going through massive change, and we want to guide it to rely on safer, faster, clean energy.

The Role

The Secure Energy Project is hiring a Senior Director to lead efforts in Asia to accelerate the shift from fossil fuels to cleaner, cheaper and more reliable renewable energy sources.

The role is focussed on working with partners in the region and using traditional and new media communications strategies to change the narrative and build public, industry and political support for clean energy.

The global energy crisis presents both a major challenge and opportunity and this role will help SEP and allies navigate this period in a region that is being most impacted by the restriction in oil and gas. Beyond this crisis, the role will also look to react creatively and quickly to other emerging threats and opportunities.

The role needs an established communications leader who knows the region, who knows how to work with data experts to make news, and is able to build and deliver impactful communications strategies at pace whilst bringing others with them.

You'll be joining a growing organisation with big ambitions. This role suits someone who is comfortable building while moving: testing, learning and improving quickly in a startup-like environment where structures are still forming.

Key Responsibilities

1) Communications strategy and delivery

• Work with network partners and other SEP leaders to develop clean energy communication strategies, leveraging political and industry moments, to drive towards shared objectives.
• Co-create, develop and disseminate narratives and messaging to support partners.
• Help plan, pitch and execute media moments.
• Track emerging narratives in Asia and plan responsive work to neutralize opposition and build public support for solutions.

2) Project leadership

• Lead SEP's Coal to Clean project working closely with a network of coal transition organisations around the world to increase the communications impact of their work and help drive regional narratives that clean energy is the smarter, cleaner and cheaper option.
• Run Coal to Clean coalition meetings with effective agenda and task management as well as initiating ideation and decision making processes.
• This will involve diplomatic negotiation, advising, building and helping execute communication strategies, media plans, message testing, media pitching, spokesperson training etc.
• Drive rapid response energy crisis communication projects in South East Asia, and coordinate others driving it globally.
• Lead other SEP projects in Asia.

3) Line management and team support

• Line manage project staff, consultants or freelancers, setting clear objectives and workplans that help deliver SEP projects effectively.
• Provide regular guidance, feedback and practical support to help team members overcome project-level challenges and deliver high-quality work at pace.
• Support recruitment where needed, and provide ongoing pastoral support so people feel clear, supported and able to do their best work.

4) Partnering, advising and coalition work

• Support SEP partners as a comms adviser, delivery partner, and/or through pilots that can later scale across the movement.
• Support SEPs efforts to fundraise for our work, especially new comms projects
• Participate in coalitions and, where appropriate, convene or lead working groups.
• Identify and develop practical tools, training and support that increase partner impact.

5) Analytics, learning and impact evidence

• You'll use audience insight and testing, polling, platform analytics, A/B experimentation and creative iteration to refine messaging and formats so content reliably lands with the audiences that matter.
• Maintain impact data to demonstrate value to partners and funders.

6) AI and innovation

• Explore and apply practical AI-boosted workflows for content, testing, distribution and insight and support the team and partners to do the same.

About you

You're a highly organised communications leader who is both strategic and hands-on. You are low ego and flexible. You're courteous but understand that sometimes you need to be pushy to hit media deadlines. You understand historic inequality and can work in an organization led by feminist values of collaboration and generosity.

You are brave and diplomatic. You're not afraid to push to deliver change, and do so with love. You have deep tactical experience, strong creative judgement, and a bias toward rapid prototyping: test, learn, improve. You're comfortable in a fast-moving environment with limited resources and evolving processes.

You understand how media and online narratives shape public debate and how public debate can create political pressure. When you analyse a problem, you quickly identify the audiences that matter and the formats and channels most likely to reach them. You are equally comfortable with tier one media as you are with industry press.

You don't need an NGO background. What matters is evidence that you can work with complex data to create compelling traditional and digital communications to shift opinion, build engagement, or disrupt established thinking - for a campaign, a product, a movement or a brand. You have an analysis of the climate movement, and how it could win narrative wars more effectively.

Essential skills and experience

• 10+ years experience in communications roles, including 3+ years in a role with significant responsibility for strategy and delivery in the Asia region.
• Sharp instincts for a news story and able to inspire others to support your ideas.
• Demonstrated success designing and delivering communications strategies for campaigns, brands, ideas, products or movements.
• Experience of communicating research and data to drive policy change (it doesn't have to be on energy transition).
• Confidence in facilitating decision-making and coordinating news stories with a community you can't control.
• Experience managing a small team including setting objectives and workplans.
• Traditional media experience including media planning, pitching, drafting press releases, identifying and training spokespeople.
• Able to leverage an existing network of journalists and media outlets across at least one major Asian country/region and can confidently build new contacts in new countries.
• Experience in crisis and rapid response communications.
• Strong project management skills, including briefing, coordinating sign-off, delivery and review; experience overseeing freelancers/agencies or other contributors.
• Experience in managing people to deliver communication campaigns or projects.
• Good understanding of how social platforms shape public debate with recent examples of impact.
• Experience in producing or commissioning digital content for social platforms.
• Ability to translate complex issues and data into clear, motivating narratives; excellent written and spoken English.
• Confidence in giving constructive feedback on messaging and content with care, clarity and diplomacy.
• Proven ability to measure and improve communications performance, with working knowledge of monitoring, evaluation and learning approaches/tools.
• Self-directed and adaptable; able to operate effectively in a fast-moving, evolving environment.
• Working familiarity with AI tools for communications and a willingness to help others use them well.
• Budget management experience.

Desirable skills and experience

• Experience running digital communications across multiple regions and adapting work for different cultural contexts.
• Experience building a creator / influencer ecosystem - identifying and recruiting relevant creators, briefing effectively, and scaling reach through smart repurposing and cross-posting.
• Experience integrating paid media, creator partnerships, and/or community growth tactics into campaigns.
• Brand and organisational communications experience (positioning, messaging frameworks, shop window materials).

What we offer

• A chance to lead high-impact work that accelerates the transition to clean and affordable energy.
• Join a small, high-ambition feminist organisation with a growing reputation — at a stage where you can shape our direction and grow with us.
• A collaborative, flexible, values-driven team with space to test and learn.
• Flexible working conditions, because childcare and caring responsibilities are not a hobby.
• Opportunities to work across borders with partners and change-makers in climate and energy.
• Competitive monthly compensation. USD$70,000-$120,000 per annum based on location and experience.

How to apply

Do not apply through LinkedIn. Please apply by following the steps in this form here or https://forms.gle/r8rxbZQpqu2iZ7pK8

Deadline June 8th. 9am BST.