• Salary range: 100,000 - 110,000 plus super (0.8FTE/4 days per week).
• Location: Sydney or Melbourne preferred, will consider other locations for the right candidate.
• Work arrangements: flexible arrangements available, hybrid work-from-home position.

Do you love sports? Are you concerned about the worsening impacts of climate change? Have you got a bunch of media, PR or communications experience? Well, we’ve got the job for you.

About the role:

FrontRunners is looking for a Media and Communications Director to join our team on a two-year contract.

Your job would primarily be to work with athletes, sports organisations, clubs and key journalists to generate meaningful earned media outcomes - i.e. editorial coverage with announcements and interviews - that explain the impact of climate change on sport in Australia and around the world. Secondary expectations would include ensuring the organisation upholds a clear, confident and consistent voice across all communication channels, including social media, and working with sports codes and organisations to maximise their communications around sustainability initiatives.

FrontRunners is a movement led by athletes for all Australians. We're calling for serious climate action now to protect the future for us all. Founded in the wake of the Black Summer bushfires of 2019/20, we know climate change is already impacting sport: from extreme heat to bushfire smoke, drought and flooding, it's striking at the heart of games we love. But with millions of passionate fans and followers, athletes, clubs, leagues and tournaments have the power to change the game. FrontRunners helps sport go from sideline to centre court on climate action.

Focus of the role:

As Media and Communications Director you will:

Keep up the drumbeat on sport and climate news - the match that’s cancelled due to heat? The little athletics season that gets washed out? The club that can no longer afford its insurance premium? These are the types of yarns we love to see covered in the news and online.

Support the work of athletes and sporting organisations tackling climate - ensuring no good news goes uncovered and every spokesperson is prepped and ready to deliver targeted messages to the public. Ensuring that anytime a match is affected by heat, rain, or bushfire smoke fuelled by climate change, we have spokespeople ready and able to comment, and organisations are comfortable with the storyline, which can then be amplified across social media.

Build a network of sports journalists and commentators hot on climate - working with partners and across the media landscape, you’ll help identify early adopters and build out the right mix of relationships, workshops and experiences.

Key Tasks:

Media strategy and internal focus

• Working with the CEO to develop and lead our proactive strategy to position the sport and climate conversation.
• Working with current sports journalists, sensitising them to climate change impacts and predicted future impacts.
• Maintaining strong relationships with a wide range of journalists, in sports, environment and general news teams, at a national and regional level.
• Securing proactive and reactive media stories.
• Advising on and producing FrontRunners public-facing communications materials.
• Managing relationships with key contractors, including helping to manage FrontRunners’ social and digital communications channels.
• Producing and maintaining key messaging and talent briefing documents that reflect the latest science on the current and predicted future impacts of climate change on sport.
• Working with the FrontRunners team and external researchers to ensure research reports are produced with communications objectives in mind.

External support

• Working with athletes, and sporting administrators and organisations, from grassroots to professional, to tell effective climate stories, and ensure they’re prepared for interviews.
• Advising environmental organisations on communications about sport and climate.
• Supporting communications initiatives with FrontRunners partner organisations, Footy for Climate and Cricket for Climate and others as relevant.

Benefits of working for FrontRunners:

• A competitive salary with a four-day working week.
• Flexible & hybrid working options.
• Great conditions, including great leave arrangements.

To be successful in this role you should:

• Have a proven track record in storytelling and shaping stories with powerful content, to either protect or enhance the reputation of an organisation, preferably in industries such as sport, climate or the not-for-profit sector.
• Have a hands-on understanding of the media environment in Australia and knowledge of both traditional and emerging platforms and content formats to reach diverse audiences.
• Have experience in working within dynamic stakeholder environments - preferably in sport - with an understanding of the workings of governing bodies and professional associations, clubs, athletes and venues.
• Be comfortable working autonomously while also being an excellent team player, with the ability to build, foster and nurture strong relationships with internal and external partners.
• And finally, have a natural passion for Australian sport and drawing attention to both the impacts of climate change and the solutions we have available.

If you think this sounds like you, please click 'Apply Now' and submit your application via the form.

If you have any questions, please contact [email protected] using the subject line: Media and Communications Director - Sydney / Melbourne enquiry via EthicalJobs.