Content Writer

The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) has an outstanding opportunity for a full-time Content Writer.

The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) is an independent research center at the University of Washington. Its mission is to deliver to the world timely, relevant, and scientifically valid evidence to improve health policy and practice. IHME carries out its mission through a range of projects within different research areas including the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors; Future Health Scenarios; Cost Effectiveness and Efficiency; Resource Tracking; and Impact Evaluations. Our vision is to provide policymakers, donors, and researchers with the highest-quality quantitative evidence base so all people live long lives in full health.

IHME is committed to providing the evidence base necessary to help solve the world’s most important health problems. This requires creativity and innovation, which is cultivated by an inclusive, diverse, and equitable environment that respects and appreciates differences, embraces collaboration, and invites the voices of all IHME team members.

About the team

The Global Impact Group (GIG) serves IHME’s vision of all people living long lives in full health through cutting edge communication and collaboration. GIG runs campaigns to amplify awareness of the most critical health challenges, and works with scientists and decision-makers to strengthen the evidence base of research and to take informed action. Within GIG, the Global Campaigns team works with media and social media, creating compelling content to help IHME advance policy windows by furnishing evidence to inform decision-making.

About the position

The Content Writer will achieve policy impact by creating audience-centric content. They will work closely with other team members to understand the needs of policy influencers and policymakers, and will generate materials that raise awareness among these target audiences and increases their engagement with IHME’s work. The Content Writer will be a skilled communicator, and able to quickly understand, form conclusions, and articulate key elements of research in a manner that is useful to key stakeholders in the policy sphere and beyond.

This position directly contributes to the uptake and understanding of cutting-edge scientific analysis that establishes UW’s credibility and high bar of excellence in the field of population health by cultivating strong relationships with senior faculty and staff at IHME to understand research processes and products, to create content, and to liaise between IHME and external audiences.

The individual in this position will need to develop an understanding of specific international target audiences and their information needs in order to develop audience-relevant content. They must be able to understand and translate complex research findings into key messages that inform policy priorities and debates in order to create positive impact on population health. Overall, the Content Writer will be an essential member of a collaborative team in a challenging and exciting work environment, helping shape the strategy for audience-centered content to meet IHME’s objectives.

This position is contingent upon project funding availability.

Responsibilities:

Research Command and Audience Awareness

• Assess and understand the landscape, stakeholders, politics, and priorities in the global and public health fields, and the interest, motivations, knowledge, and information needs of target audiences. Identify and learn from best practices across similar disciplines for communication strategy to maximize uptake. 
• Cultivate a strong understanding of the key concepts, methods, inputs, results, priorities and implications of IHME’s research portfolio, including emergent projects and key issues in population health.

Content Writing

• Write and produce custom content such as reports, briefs, web content, infographics, blog posts, and presentations that communicate key aspects of complex research projects in concise and comprehensible ways for decision makers, policy influencers, and other key stakeholders to help them better understand, communicate, and utilize IHME’s data.
• Innovate ways to seed uptake of IHME findings by communicating research concepts, methods, and results to decision makers and policy influencers.
• Contribute to the creation of training activities in collaboration with IHME training professionals.

Project Coordination/Management and Content Production

• Build project timelines and tracking progress.
• Communicate with collaborators and target audiences to understand information needs.
• Liaise with IHME staff in various departments such as data analysts, visualization, and graphic design to produce visuals and overseeing fact checking.
• Other duties as assigned

As a UW employee, you will enjoy generous benefits and work/life programs. For a complete description of our benefits for this position, please visit our website, click here.

REQUIREMENTS

• Bachelor’s degree in Social Sciences, Communications, Mathematics, Engineering, Public Health, or related field plus three years of work experience, or equivalent combination of education and experience.

Equivalent education/experience will substitute for all minimum qualifications except when there are legal requirements, such as a license/certification/registration.

Additional Requirements:

• Superior written, oral, and listening skills with the ability to adjust message and tone for a variety of audiences.
• Ability to take complex scientific research and transform it into compelling stories for a variety of audiences, particularly non-technical audiences.
• A strong awareness and understanding of power dynamics in population health, and a firm commitment to engaging partners equitably and with cultural humility.
• Ability to work both independently and collaboratively to achieve objectives, and be flexible to adapt to changing priorities.
• Past success at project management, including a demonstrated ability to manage multiple priorities, creatively solve problems, and reliably meet deadlines with minimal supervision.
• Strong attention to detail and accuracy.
• Strong interpersonal skills; a cooperative team player, perceptive, and emotionally intelligent.
• A commitment to working to alongside others at IHME to illuminate the health impacts of systemic racism and to work within IHME to make our organization more diverse and inclusive.  See IHME’s DEI statement here:  http://www.healthdata.org/get-involved/careers/dei

DESIRED

• Previous experience in communications, policy, advocacy, or global health.
• Previous experience creating content about science for non-technical audiences.
• Skilled at guiding the creation of easy-to-understand visuals.
• Proficiency in more than one of the official UN languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish).

CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT

• This position works on a global team and with a global network of stakeholders; as such evening and weekend work may be required to fulfill job duties.
• This position is open to anyone authorized to work in the U.S. The UW is not able to sponsor visas for staff positions.
• Office is located in Seattle, Washington. This position is eligible to work fully remote within the United States; work schedule required to overlap 50% of IHME office hours between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. Pacific Time.
• Committed to attracting and retaining a diverse staff, the University of Washington will honor your experiences, perspectives and unique identity. Together, our community strives to create and maintain working and learning environments that are inclusive, equitable and welcoming.

Application Process:

The application process for UW positions may include completion of a variety of online assessments to obtain additional information that will be used in the evaluation process.  These assessments may include Workforce Authorization, Cover Letter and/or others.  Any assessments that you need to complete will appear on your screen as soon as you select “Apply to this position”. Once you begin an assessment, it must be completed at that time; if you do not complete the assessment you will be prompted to do so the next time you access your “My Jobs” page. If you select to take it later, it will appear on your "My Jobs" page to take when you are ready. Please note that your application will not be reviewed, and you will not be considered for this position until all required assessments have been completed.