Position: Managing Director, Women in News (WIN), WAN-IFRA
Engagement length: 36 months
Engagement type: Milestone-based contract – 100% time input
Start date: 1 December 2025
Location: Global (flexible)
About the Role
WAN-IFRA is seeking a Managing Director to lead and grow Women in News (WIN), WAN-IFRA’s flagship gender and media leadership programme. WIN is currently active in more than 18 countries across Africa, the Arab Region, Eurasia and Southeast Asia, and has become recognised globally for its innovative, high-impact approach to advancing gender equality and inclusive leadership in the media sector.
This is a senior leadership role reporting to the Chair of the newly established WIN Steering Council and the Executive Director of Media Freedom. The Managing Director will oversee WIN’s global strategy, operations and impact, leading a diverse and multicultural team of over 40 experts and project managers.
The role requires deep experience running a media organisation in an ODA (Official Development Assistance) country, proven people management skills, and strong expertise in gender equality in the media or advocacy space.
Programme & Financial Oversight
- Closely manage and adjust a €1–2 million annual budget, ensuring HR and activity budgets remain tightly aligned to planned allocations.
- Lead annual programme planning in coordination with division directors and project managers, setting clear priorities, milestones and resource allocations.
- Drive strategic planning processes that establish KPIs against annual programme targets, ensuring accountability and continuous progress tracking.
- Ensure programme results frameworks are consistently met, including monitoring, evaluation, and reporting.
- Communicate findings, lessons learned and necessary adjustments effectively to the WIN leadership and extended operations team, ensuring coherence and alignment across the portfolio.
- Guarantee compliance with donor and WAN-IFRA financial and operational standards, and prepare timely narrative and financial reports of the highest quality.
Leadership & Strategy
- Lead the development of multi-year strategies and annual workplans, integrating regional inputs to ensure programming is relevant, locally grounded and globally coherent.
- Establish and monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) tied to programme targets, ensuring clear accountability across all levels of the team.
- Ensure programme design and delivery remain flexible and adaptive, able to respond quickly to changing conditions on the ground, emerging opportunities, and evolving funding landscapes.
- Drive innovation in WIN programming, piloting new approaches to leadership development, digital transformation, newsroom sustainability, gender equality and workplace safety.
- Create robust feedback mechanisms with staff, participants and partners to continuously refine programme delivery and maximise impact.
- Ensure all programme elements—including but not limited to Accelerators, Networks, Advocacy and SIRI—contribute to the overall WIN vision and results framework.
- Serve as a thought leader and global representative for WIN, advocating for gender equality in media at international forums and strengthening WAN-IFRA’s role as a sector leader.
Fundraising & Sustainability
- Lead and expand fundraising efforts to sustain and grow WIN, including bilateral, multilateral, foundation and corporate partnerships regionally and globally to broaden and diversify funding streams.
- Develop strategies to diversify funding and strengthen WIN’s long-term sustainability.
Governance & Representation
- Serve as primary liaison with the WIN Steering Council, preparing reports, strategies and updates for formal Council meetings which take place on a quarterly basis.
- Represent WIN externally at high-level international forums, partnerships and events, raising the profile of WIN as a global leader in gender equality in media.
Required Qualifications & Experience
- 10–15 years of progressively senior leadership experience running a media organisation in an ODA country, with proven expertise in people management and organisational leadership.
- Strong track record leading gender equality or gender-focused programmes in the media or advocacy space.
- Demonstrated experience managing large and diverse teams across cultures and geographies.
- Significant experience in programme oversight, including budgeting, financial accountability, monitoring and evaluation.
- Fundraising experience with public donors, foundations, and/or corporate partners.
- Excellent communication, negotiation, and partnership-building skills.
- Fluency in English (additional languages an asset).
Key Attributes
- Visionary and strategic thinker with the ability to drive large-scale change.
- Strong leader who empowers and motivates diverse teams.
- Collaborative, communicative, and culturally sensitive.
- Highly organised and detail-oriented.
- Ability to respond to and enact change, quickly and strategically
- Deep commitment to gender equality, diversity, and media freedom.
Recruitment Process
- Posting period: 30 September – 25 October 2025
- Interviews: 25 October to 7 November 2025
- Start date: 1 December 2025
How to Apply
Interested applicants should send their CV and a cover letter to HR@wan-ifra.org by 25
October 2025. Please include the position title in the subject line of your email. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.
About WAN-IFRA
WAN-IFRA is the global organisation of the world’s newspapers and news publishers, representing more than 18,000 publications, 15,000 online sites and over 3,000 companies in more than 120 countries. WAN-IFRA has a dual mission: to defend media freedom and to promote the sustainability of news media worldwide.
Through Women in News and other media freedom programmes, WAN-IFRA works to strengthen inclusive leadership, gender equality, newsroom safety and the long-term viability of independent media.
www.wan-ifra.org