Africa Marketing & Communications Manager

Job Description

Are you ready to use your strategic marketing and communications skills to work with a pioneering social enterprise to expand access to clear vision and improve the lives of millions across Africa?
 
VisionSpring seeks a collaborative and creative Africa Marketing & Communications Manager to elevate our brand presence, strengthen partner relationships, and support our sales growth across Sub-Saharan Africa. This role develops and executes regional marketing and communications strategies that increase awareness of the power of VisionSpring eyeglasses as a simple, proven tool for learning, earning, safety, and well-being.
 
You will work closely with country teams across Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, Zambia, and Malawi to ensure they have the collateral, messaging, and branded assets they need for vision screening camps, outreach activities, and stakeholder events. You will work collaboratively to enable sales team to promote eyeglasses to institutional customers and ensure loyal purchases.  You will gather stories and data from the field, shape compelling narratives, and distribute content across owned, earned, and paid channels. You will also support strategic partner engagement, donor communications, and co-branded initiatives with organizations who share our mission.

This role is ideal for someone who thrives at the intersection of impact and execution—someone who wants to build, refine, tell, and amplify meaningful stories that move people to action.  This role offers a significant growth pathway inside a rapidly scaling global social enterprise. You will help shape how VisionSpring is seen and understood across the African continent, and your work will directly contribute to improving livelihoods for workers, students, drivers, farmers, artisans, caregivers, and entrepreneurs whose lives change when they can see clearly.
 
ABOUT YOU 

• A strong communicator and storyteller, exceptional in written and verbal English and confident in at least one major African regional language.
• Experienced in communicating to B2B, B2P (partner), and donor audiences, and able to articulate both product value and social impact.
• Fundamentally sales-minded and ROI-driven, ensuring that all marketing & communications activities are driving cost-effective business growth
• Skilled at content gathering and packaging—you know how to find stories and shape them for partners, donors, customers, and media.
• A operational and practical project manager that finds quick solutions to barriers
• Brand-centric and detail-oriented, able to ensure visual and narrative consistency across markets and materials.
• Comfortable working across departments (finance, supply chain, sales, resource mobilization, programs) to align priorities and support execution.
• Strong in Microsoft Office, particularly PowerPoint (story + visual presentation), Word (clear narrative writing), and Excel (planning, budgeting, tracking).
• Energized by collaboration across cultures, time zones, and thematic areas.
• Motivated by the opportunity to support frontline teams to dispense eyeglasses and collect the impact stories of workers, students, drivers, and families whose lives are improved through clear vision.
• Flexible, resourceful, and able to navigate change with focus and follow-through.

ABOUT US

• VisionSpring increases lifelong earning, learning, safety, and well-being through eyeglasses for people vulnerable to poverty. We believe in the wonder of clear vision for everybody. Our vision is to ensure that everyone who needs eyeglasses will have them by 2050, and your role as a Senior Proposal Writer will be instrumental in achieving this inspiring goal. 
• We sell and deliver radically affordable optical products and services and develop markets for eyeglasses. This 700-year-old technology has failed to reach 1 billion people in need of vision correction, most of whom live on less than $4 a day.
• We serve low-income consumers, not as beneficiaries but as customers. Our customers expect high-quality, affordable products and eyecare services, and are willing to spend their limited discretionary income on the immediate and tangible benefits of vision correction.
• As a social enterprise, we are purpose first. We blend philanthropic and earned revenue, drawing on nonprofit and business practices, and utilize sales and efficiency metrics, as well as social impact measures, to bring vision correction to an ever-growing number of people. 
• We catalyze collaborative action in an expansive, multisector partner network and use our evidence and experience to influence systems change and close the global clear vision gap.
• We believe in scaling our impact, not our organization. We are a lean team of doers, which means you'll have the opportunity to take on significant responsibilities and make a direct impact on our mission.
• Our big goal: Everyone who needs eyeglasses will have them by 2050.

Job Requirements

• 5 – 8 years of relevant work experience.

• Demonstrated experience in B2B, partner-oriented, and/or donor-facing marketing.

• Excellent writing and narrative development skills in English; proficiency in a major African regional language preferred.

• Experience planning and implementing campaigns, managing events, and coordinating across multiple teams.
• Demonstrated Microsoft Office capabilities (PowerPoint, Excel, Word, Outlook), and experience with internal collaboration platforms
• Impeccable attention to detail with strong project management, organizational, and analytical skills. Strong prioritization, organization, and accountability. 
• A strong ability to write copy, drive content creation, marketing program implementation, design, and events  
• Comfort with a flexible work schedule and working across multiple time zones, including some late evenings to sync with global teams
• Experience, and a commitment to, working respectfully with a diverse team; experience collaborating with outside consultants to move projects forward.
• Demonstrated interest in social enterprise models and desire to learn how to articulate and share VisionSpring’s unique approach. 
• Must meet the highest standards of ethics and personal integrity, with a demonstrated capacity for discretion and for handling sensitive information with care.
• Must be legally and permanently authorized to work in Nigeria or Ghana.
• Must be able to travel, up to 25% of time, for domestic and international assignments to locations with limited infrastructure.
• You will impress us if you have any of the following: (1) Advanced degree in marketing, branding, communications, journalism, public relations, or another related field; (2) Experience working with the media (print, television, online) including the development, successful delivery, and uptake of press releases; (3) Experience working/studying across languages and cultures; (4) Experience crafting communications for social enterprises and/or nonprofits. (5) Understanding of the PR supply chain; and/or (6) Experience using marketing automation platforms.

Job Responsibilities

Content Creation / Communications

• Drive development of high-quality written, visual, and digital content rooted in the VisionSpring brand voice, messaging, and identity.
• Work with regional sales, program, and field teams across six African markets to source, shape, and refine compelling story material.
• Ensure country teams have on-brand collateral for partner engagements, screenings, and community-facing activities.
• Produce and adapt content for donor communications, partner outreach, media opportunities, and programs.
• Contribute to website content, social media campaigns, newsletters, fact sheets, pitch decks, one-pagers, scripts, and impact stories.
• Help develop branding and communication strategies that increase awareness, engagement and commitment with all stakeholders (consumers, educational and health institutions, government agencies, NGOs, CSR and philanthropic investors, and VisionSpring team members.
• Coordinate with the Global Multimedia Manager, Global Communications Manager, and external creatives as needed.

 Marketing Strategy, Planning, and Campaigns.

• Develop and execute marketing plans that engage institutional partners, B2B customers, communities, and donors to amplify VisionSpring’s products and impact, and generate new leads
• Support messaging and sales enablement for VisionSpring’s programs, products, and fundraising efforts, including sales kits, external/internal presentations and reporting templates
• Track marketing KPIs (including lead generation and loyalty) and contribute to reports for internal leadership and donor audiences.
• Maintain inventory of all marketing, campaign and promotional material available in region, and plan for refreshment and new assets aligned with branding requirements
• Collaborate with stakeholders to plan and manage marketing budgets using Excel and internal planning processes, with an eye towards cost-efficiency and alignment with organizational and regional goals
• Project manage campaigns, events and promotional activities, with a focus on lead acquisition, nurturing and follow-through

 Events & Stakeholder Engagement

• Manage engagements with marketing and/or creative agencies and other outsourced support.
• Plan and manage virtual and in-person events, including partner convenings, donor visits, media engagements, conferences, and activations.
• Support vision screening camp visibility, community events, and partner campaigns with clear, compelling branding.
• Represent VisionSpring at regional industry forums and coalition working groups.

Job Benefits

• Based on experience, education, and location.
• We offer comprehensive benefits, including health insurance.

Please note, only candidates invited to interview will be contacted.

At VisionSpring, diversity, equity, and inclusion are directly aligned with our core value to advance equity. Our mission is predicated on removing a fundamental barrier to full economic and social participation—uncorrected blurry vision. The values that underpin our mission energize our commitment to a diverse and inclusive team. A diverse team also allows VisionSpring to approach problems with nuance and develop unique insights that drive an outsized positive impact in the world. We actively recruit, develop, and retain talented people from diverse backgrounds and support everyone in being exactly who they are. VisionSpring is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes people from all experiences, abilities, and perspectives to apply.