Storytelling Executive

Full time | Permanent | £22,000 to £30,000 per annum | UK, Rwanda or Kenya

Deadline: 9am GMT +1, 4th September 2023

Brink is privileged to work on some of the world’s most interesting and important challenges with partners ranging from globally recognised institutions like UCL, TRANSFORM, FCDO, and University of Cambridge, to small grassroots innovators across Africa, South Asia and the Middle East. Together, we’re able to push the boundaries of what’s possible and imagine new futures, using stories to shift long-held, unhelpful narratives and encourage bold, new thinking.

Now we have an exciting opportunity for a Storytelling Executive to join our ranks and support this work.

The Storytelling practice team explore questions like:

Within complex, gnarly subjects such as testing technology in high-stakes environments where there are social, environmental and ethical issues at play, what is the story layer that brings research and evidence to life and helps someone learn from it?
How do you best package up a story that cuts through the noise online? And what gets unlocked when you use audio, video and creative formats?
When anticipating potential changes in the future, how can stories and artifacts prompt discussion, and inform decision making?

We’re looking for a Storytelling Executive who enjoys diving deep into topic areas and breaking down complex ideas into accessible stories, but also understands the need to run a tight ship in order to be as impactful as possible.

The role

The role involves amplifying learning and stories from our Oxygen CoLab grantees testing how to create access to oxygen in low-resource settings through product and business model innovation. The role will also include supporting the storytelling practice team to operate and deliver efficiently across Brink’s programmes, working closely with the Practice Lead to manage resourcing across our team and freelancers we work with.

You’re likely a recent graduate or in your first years of work. This might even be your first job, but it certainly won’t be your first experience of getting creative and curious about stories and how they inform the bigger narratives that influence our behavior across the world.

You know that you want to do work that matters and has a real impact on people’s lives. You love to dive deep into topics and nerd out on research, but deep down, you know that you’re a creative person, even if you don’t consider yourself “artistic” in the traditional sense. To you it’s about cultivating imagination to unlock new ideas, finding compelling ways to connect deeply with diverse audiences and challenging accepted norms in creative ways.

Brink is full of passionate, big thinkers who spend their days challenging the status quo and making things happen with oomph. Our team is made up of people with backgrounds spanning civil service, fashion design, international development, marketing and more. There's not one set type of Brinkster and we're always looking for people with new experiences to join us. If this sounds like you and the kinds of people you want to be surrounded by and learning from every day, then read on.

Here’s an overview of what’s expected:

Research: You’re a curious being who loves to nerd out and dive deep on topics such as systems change, oxygen provision and the informal workforce in Kenya. This job will lead you to learn about multiple new topic areas, and before you create stories about each, you’ll need to grapple with some desk research first.

Breaking down information: You’re not afraid of complexity, and enjoy breaking it down for others to understand. You’re deeply passionate about the power of evidence, insight and information to affect change, but you know that people are more likely to take notice when it’s packaged up in resonant, exciting ways.

Team delivery and operations: Our practice team is growing, so you’ll be working with the Storytelling Practice Lead to remove obstacles to delivery, supporting scheduling and coordinating activities.

Creating content: You enjoy the power of words, visuals and bringing things to life. You aren’t precious about sharing a first bad draft early for feedback, whether it’s a slide deck, a rough infographic or a blog post. You’ll make some of the content yourself or brief an expert (e.g. designer or podcaster) to elevate to the next level.

Rolling up your sleeves: a key part of this job is keeping things organised and removing obstacles so that other people can do their work more efficiently. This might mean running and following social media schedules, digging up engagement analytics, transcribing interviews or rooting around in a website back-end to clean up tagging on blog posts.

Keeping an eye on design: When it comes to visual formatting on documents, you naturally look out for the details which others don’t notice. You can follow our designer’s brand guidelines to elevate slide decks, documents and web pages to ensure that they are professional, slick and most importantly, accessible. You know those details matter.

Context switching: we often work across multiple projects and you’ll need to be comfortable switching between different topics, teams and formats frequently. You may even thrive on this sort of style of working.

How we work:

A team of around 30 (and growing) that genuinely enjoy spending time together, online and in person where possible
Remote-first approach
If based in the UK, you can work outside of the UK for a maximum of 100 days within the tax year. If based elsewhere, local tax laws regarding working abroad apply.
Flexible working hours; you take ownership over how you get your work done
Dedicated learning time at our ‘Dojo Days’
Certain set days over the year where we require the team to be together in real life. This is usually for around one week in mid January and for another week in mid July. It may also include travel and overnight stays.

How to apply

If you’re interested in joining us, please click on the ‘apply here’ button below. This will take you to an online application form where we will ask you to upload your CV as well as a response to the following questions:

Please write us a one page letter telling us...
- Your story and why you believe this is the right role for you
- A case study or piece of work you’re proud of - include links out to websites, videos or other places where we can see your work. Ideally this work will be ‘live’ and out in the world
- Offer us a recommendation for a book, article, podcast or something else that’s shaped your thinking lately, and briefly tell us what made this so special for you
Answer one of these 36 questions in a 2 minute video, 500 words, voice recording or any other format which you would prefer - we’re open to the weird and wonderful

You are encouraged to be as creative as you are comfortable with and choose any structure or layout to present your information, as long as you keep it under 50mb.

📅 The deadline for this application is 9am GMT +1, Monday 4th September 2023. You will receive an email from the system to confirm your application has been received and we will be in touch (we aim for within 2 weeks) to let you know if we’ll be taking it further. If you have any questions please email [email protected] and someone will get back to you as soon as possible.

💻 We’ll be hosting a Virtual Hiring Open Day on Tuesday 29th August at 1pm BST (GMT+1). This is your chance to hear more about Brink and what it's like to work here. The session will also include space to join individual breakout rooms to learn more about the specific role you are interested in applying for, where you'll have the chance to ask any questions you have. Sign up now.

Apply here

🔗 Our commitment as Brink

Diversity is in our DNA at Brink and we’re proud of the broad range of Brinksters we have on board. We also know there is always room for improvement which is why we track diversity in all its guises to see how we’re doing, and make efforts to cast our hiring net as wide as possible. Our latest survey shows we could do better in some areas, so we’re particularly encouraging applications from people of the Global Ethnic Majority, people over 50, parents, neurodiverse people and/or those living with a disability.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, disability or age. We are happy to discuss any reasonable adjustments individuals may require in the recruitment process, on commencement, or once in post.

❓❗ Questions that people often ask us

How many years of experience do I have to have?
Higher education qualifications are not needed for this role. It’s a remarkable opportunity to work with some of the best changemakers in the world and the right person will have an opportunity to establish their career.

Where is this role based?
Brink is a remote team and we work all over the place from London, Nairobi, Cape Town, Amsterdam and Kigali. For this role our preference is for UK, Rwanda or Kenya based applicants only.

Please note that we are unable to employ anyone that does not have the right to work in the country they live in and work from. If you plan to work on an existing visa, there is a section on the application form where you can let us know the type and expiry date.