The Position

The Regional Content Manager will serve as Mercy Corps’ primary field content and storytelling lead for Africa, helping bring the forthcoming Prosper Global brand to life through compelling, community-centered narratives and multimedia content. Embedded within the region, this role will identify, capture, and produce high-quality stories, photography, video, and digital-first content that support media engagement, fundraising, marketing, communications, and brand awareness objectives.

This role will report to the Senior Manager of Regional Communications, based in Nairobi, and work closely with the Director of Global Photography to ensure regional content is strategically planned, ethically gathered and ready for use across earned, paid, and owned channels. Working closely with country teams, regional leadership, and global communications and fundraising teams, the Regional Content Manager will also build and manage a steady pipeline of timely, impactful content; strengthen storytelling capacity across the region to ensure Mercy Corps is able to respond quickly to emerging opportunities and crises. This role is a critical investment in expanding the volume, quality, and strategic value of field-based storytelling to support timely external communications that raise awareness, engage supporters, reach new audiences, and support long-term unrestricted revenue growth.

Essential Responsibilities

STORYTELLING & ASSET CAPTURE

• Lead the collection of high-quality storytelling assets across the region, including photography, video, written stories, interviews, and social-first content.
• Capture timely and compelling stories that center community voices and demonstrate the impact of our work, and deploy, as needed, to support rapid asset gathering during emerging crises.
• Support basic editing and development of captured content for use across digital, social, fundraising, donor engagement, media, and brand efforts.
• Ensure all storytelling, photography, videography, and content-gathering activities adhere to organizational standards for quality, ethics, safeguarding, informed consent, and brand alignment under the direction of Director of Photography to align with audience needs.
• Integrate safeguarding principles into all aspects of content creation, prioritizing the dignity, agency, privacy, and well-being of participants and communities.

CONTENT STRATEGY & PLANNING

• Support the development and implementation of a regional content strategy under the guidance of the Senior Manager, Africa Communications & Media and the Director of Global Photography aligned with organizational priorities, fundraising objectives, media opportunities, and brand needs.
• Proactively identify and develop a pipeline of strong storytelling opportunities across country programs, campaigns, emergencies, and strategic initiatives.
• Contribute to Global Communications editorial planning meetings and trainings, helping shape strategic communications priorities, identify newsworthy storytelling opportunities, and inform content approaches based on emerging media trends and technologies.
• Support efforts to measure content performance and continuously improve storytelling effectiveness and audience engagement

CONTENT PRODUCTION & ASSET MANAGEMENT

• Serve as the primary regional focal point for storytelling and visual asset needs with direction from Sr. Manager of Africa Communications and Media and Director of Global Photography
• Coordinate with country teams to identify content opportunities, secure access, obtain permissions, and facilitate field visits.
• Provide basic editing and production support for photography, video, and other multimedia assets for global campaigns and priority communications initiatives.
• In coordination with the Director of Photography and Multimedia Editor, organize, catalog, select, and prepare multimedia assets from regional and global teams for organization-wide use.
• Ensure captured assets are properly organized, documented, consented, and accessible for future use across communications, fundraising, media, and brand channels.

CAPACITY BUILDING

• Train and coach country teams to capture storytelling assets where direct deployment is not feasible.
• Build storytelling capacity among program teams, communications focal points, and local partners with an emphasis on ethical, audience-centered visual and human storytelling.
• Develop practical tools, guidance, and best practices to strengthen storytelling and asset capture across the region.

Accountability

Reports Directly To: Senior Manager, Africa Communications & Media

Works Directly With: Director of Global Photography, Global Communications Team, Country and Regional Teams, Philanthropic Growth & Engagement Team including but not limited to the Creative and Marketing teams, and External Content Consultants and Freelancers as needed.

Accountability to Participants and Stakeholders

Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our program participants, community partners, other stakeholders, and to international standards guiding international relief and development work. We are committed to actively engaging communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects.

Minimum Qualification & Transferable Skills

• Bachelor's degree in Journalism, Communications, Marketing, Media Production or related field preferred.
• 6-8+ years of professional experience in communications, journalism, photography, videography, multimedia storytelling, field-based content capture, or related field.
• Demonstrated experience planning and capturing compelling, high-quality storytelling assets including photography, video, interviews, and written stories suitable for media, fundraising, digital, and organizational communications.
• Strong interviewing, writing, editing, and storytelling skills.
• Experience working in complex international environments with multi-cultural teams.
• Experience working with external vendors and creative teams preferred.
• Understanding of social media audience engagement including adapting content for digital and social media platforms.
• Familiarly with digital asset management systems and production file organization preferred.
• Previous experience with basic multimedia editing and Adobe Creative Cloud tools is an advantage.
• Strong organizational skills and ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously.
• Ability to travel as needed within the region, including to remote and challenging operating environments.

• Lead the collection of high-quality storytelling assets across the region, including photography, video, written stories, interviews, and social-first content.
• Capture timely and compelling stories that center community voices and demonstrate the impact of our work, and deploy, as needed, to support rapid asset gathering during emerging crises.
• Support basic editing and development of captured content for use across digital, social, fundraising, donor engagement, media, and brand efforts.
• Ensure all storytelling, photography, videography, and content-gathering activities adhere to organizational standards for quality, ethics, safeguarding, informed consent, and brand alignment under the direction of Director of Photography to align with audience needs.
• Integrate safeguarding principles into all aspects of content creation, prioritizing the dignity, agency, privacy, and well-being of participants and communities.
• Support the development and implementation of a regional content strategy under the guidance of the Senior Manager, Africa Communications & Media and the Director of Global Photography aligned with organizational priorities, fundraising objectives, media opportunities, and brand needs.
• Proactively identify and develop a pipeline of strong storytelling opportunities across country programs, campaigns, emergencies, and strategic initiatives.
• Contribute to Global Communications editorial planning meetings and trainings, helping shape strategic communications priorities, identify newsworthy storytelling opportunities, and inform content approaches based on emerging media trends and technologies.
• Support efforts to measure content performance and continuously improve storytelling effectiveness and audience engagement
• Serve as the primary regional focal point for storytelling and visual asset needs with direction from Sr. Manager of Africa Communications and Media and Director of Global Photography
• Coordinate with country teams to identify content opportunities, secure access, obtain permissions, and facilitate field visits.
• Provide basic editing and production support for photography, video, and other multimedia assets for global campaigns and priority communications initiatives.
• In coordination with the Director of Photography and Multimedia Editor, organize, catalog, select, and prepare multimedia assets from regional and global teams for organization-wide use.
• Ensure captured assets are properly organized, documented, consented, and accessible for future use across communications, fundraising, media, and brand channels.
• Train and coach country teams to capture storytelling assets where direct deployment is not feasible.
• Build storytelling capacity among program teams, communications focal points, and local partners with an emphasis on ethical, audience-centered visual and human storytelling.
• Develop practical tools, guidance, and best practices to strengthen storytelling and asset capture across the region.

• Strong interviewing, writing, editing, and storytelling skills.
• Experience working in complex international environments with multi-cultural teams.
• Understanding of social media audience engagement including adapting content for digital and social media platforms.
• Familiarly with digital asset management systems and production file organization preferred.
• Previous experience with basic multimedia editing and Adobe Creative Cloud tools is an advantage.
• Strong organizational skills and ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously.
• Ability to travel as needed within the region, including to remote and challenging operating environments.

• Bachelor's degree in Journalism, Communications, Marketing, Media Production or related field preferred.
• 6-8+ years of professional experience in communications, journalism, photography, videography, multimedia storytelling, field-based content capture, or related field.
• Demonstrated experience planning and capturing compelling, high-quality storytelling assets including photography, video, interviews, and written stories suitable for media, fundraising, digital, and organizational communications.
• Experience working in complex international environments with multi-cultural teams.
• Experience working with external vendors and creative teams preferred.