The Foundation
We are the largest nonprofit fighting poverty, disease, and inequity around the world. Founded on a simple premise: people everywhere, regardless of identity or circumstances, should have the chance to live healthy, productive lives. We believe our employees should reflect the rich diversity of the global populations we aim to serve. We provide an exceptional benefits package to employees and their families which include comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage with no premiums, generous paid time off, paid family leave, foundation-paid retirement contribution, regional holidays, and opportunities to engage in several employee communities. As a workplace, we’re committed to creating an environment for you to thrive both personally and professionally.
The Team
The Communications Division, led by the Chief Communications Officer, oversees the foundation’s global communications strategy. The division brings together internal and external communications to advance the foundation’s mission to create a more equitable world. The Strategic Communications team leads global reputation and issue shaping that advances the foundation’s three goals and protects and strengthens the foundation’s brand through media intelligence; proactive/reactive media engagement and coordination; and always on monitoring and rapid response.
Your Role
The Communications Officer, Rapid Response, Africa will be a key member of the global Strategic Communications team. They will have a passion for proactive management of foundation reputation in earned media, and leading strategic efforts to anticipate, mitigate, and react to reputational risk issues in African markets and contribute to global issue management. They will coordinate with teams across the foundation, including other Communications colleagues in the Africa Regional Office, and with Gates Foundation affiliate organizations, grantees and partners in their approach to earned media engagement.
The position will be based in Nairobi, Kenya, and report to the Deputy Director, Strategic Communications, and will partner in supporting on all aspects of cross-foundation risk management efforts across programs, advocacy, legal, finance, operations and leadership offices.
What You’ll Do
- Identify and develop issue shaping and rapid response communications plans to mitigate potential programmatic and reputational risk across African markets, particularly Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Senegal, Ethiopia and Rwanda.
- Work with program and policy teams to anticipate comms risks related to program priorities, policy developments, and key country milestones.
- Manage rapid-response communications during breaking news, emergencies, or reputational risks across African markets, delivering clear, accurate messaging under tight deadlines and in coordination with regional and global comms leadership.
- Monitor media, social, and political developments across African regions to anticipate issues, flag risks early, identify mis/disinformation, and inform real-time communications strategies.
- Draft and deploy high-quality statements, Q&As, talking points, and reactive content aligned with regional context, cultural nuance, and organizational priorities.
- Coordinate closely with global and regional teams and external partners to ensure consistent messaging across countries, languages, and platforms.
- Support crisis preparedness by maintaining response playbooks, scenario planning, messaging, training/simulations, and post-incident analyses to strengthen future rapid-response efforts.
