Head of Communications

Location: Kenya

Please note, this position is only open to Kenyan nationals.

*A note on your cover letter: We are interested in cover letters that tell us something more/different than what is in your CV, and give us a sense of why you are passionate about contributing to Jacaranda's mission in this role. Given this a communications-related position, screened applications that are determined to have relied on AI will be disregarded.

About Jacaranda Health:Jacaranda Health is a nonprofit organization whose mission for the last nine years has been to improve maternal and newborn health outcomes in the public health system. We work hand-in-hand with governments, including county health management teams and Ministries of Health, across Sub-Saharan Africa, to deploy affordable and scalable solutions through public hospitals, where the majority of underserved mothers and babies receive care.

Role Overview:

Jacaranda is looking for a seasoned communications leader to amplify our voice - both within Kenya and on the global stage. This role sits at the helm of our communications team and will report to the Director of Communications and Development. This role combines strategic leadership with strong execution.

What will you do?

You’ll work across teams to drive an integrated communications strategy that aligns with Jacaranda’s rapid growth, evolving impact, and influence - both in-country and within new geographies. Working alongside our leadership team, you’ll help steer how we show up - from national government engagements and county-level advocacy, to global convenings, partnership meetings, and input within regional and global communities of practice. You’ll lead a team responsible for external visibility, technical documentation, learning products, and donor communications. You’ll also shape and grow Jacaranda’s content strategy, ensuring our learning and innovations are not only documented but disseminated in ways that influence change.

Main Responsibilities:

Strategic Communications Leadership:

• Own and evolve Jacaranda’s communication strategy, ensuring alignment with our organizational goals, values, and - importantly - voice across local and global audiences.

• Manage and mentor a growing communications team, fostering a culture of creativity, quality, and results.

Kenya-focused engagement and advocacy:

• Lead strategic communications to support county and national government engagement, advocacy, and health systems strengthening efforts.

• Develop compelling messaging, briefs, and stories tailored for policymakers, technical working groups, and health system influencers.

• Collaborate with advocacy and implementation teams to elevate local stories and results into the national spotlight.

Global visibility & partner engagement:

• Drive Jacaranda’s presence in global health dialogues—through communities of practice, global funder networks, and technical partnerships.

• Oversee the development of presentations, narratives, and insights tailored for global convenings, site visits, or bilateral meetings.

• Support positioning and thought leadership for senior leaders in global forums.

• Oversee routine and informal donor reporting, ensuring clarity, consistency, and storytelling that brings our work to life.

Content and learning strategy:

• Build out Jacaranda’s content engine to better capture and share technical resources, learning briefs, playbooks, and insights.

• Work with technical teams to translate research, product development, and field learning into engaging knowledge products. 

• Disseminate these resources to global, regional and local audiences to influence the broader maternal and newborn health and digital health ecosystems.

Who you are:

• A strategic communicator who can move between local advocacy and global influence with ease.

• A skilled manager (with demonstrated experience in managing small to large teams) who brings out the best in a cross-cultural team.

• A translator of complexity, able to distill technical detail into clarity and resonance for different audiences.

• A builder of narratives, systems, relationships (internal & external), and visibility.

• Someone who knows what great learning content looks like, and how to use it to shift practice or policy.

Your background:

• 7+ years of relevant professional experience, including in communications strategy, team management, global health, and/or government engagement.

• Demonstrated experience leading or contributing to successful communications strategies—especially those bridging national and global audiences.

• A proven track record of crafting compelling content across formats—technical briefs, blog posts, reports, social media, presentations, and advocacy tools.

• Comfortable with digital health, health systems, or maternal and newborn health topics (or fast to learn them).

• Bonus: experience working with or in government, or in designing knowledge management and learning strategies.

Application Deadline: 25th May, 2025