External Relations Manager

Mohamed bin Zayed Foundation for Humanity

Abu Dhabi Emirate

On-site

AED 300,000 - 520,000

Full time

14 days+

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Job summary

The Mohamed bin Zayed Foundation for Humanity in Abu Dhabi is seeking an External Relations Manager to lead engagement, partnerships, communications, and stakeholder management across global health and development partners.

Reporting to the Director of External Relations, you will coordinate engagement planning, prepare briefing materials, and support high‑level events and missions while ensuring consistent, evidence‑based messaging across the organisation.

Qualifications

7–10 years of relevant experience in external relations, public affairs, or philanthropy.
Experience engaging with governments, multilateral organizations, and foundations.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
Ability to manage multiple engagements and coordinate cross-functional teams.
Fluency in English; Arabic language capability is a plus.

Responsibilities

Support implementation of external relations and stakeholder engagement strategy.
Coordinate stakeholder mapping and engagement planning across governments, multilaterals, foundations, NGOs, and UAE partners.
Prepare engagement calendars, briefing notes, and meeting packs for the Director, DG, and senior leadership.
Support planning and delivery of strategic convenings, missions, forums, and high‑level events.
Contribute to external communications and messaging.

Skills

Stakeholder management

Written & verbal communication

Project coordination

Cross-functional collaboration

Discretion & professionalism

Public affairs / diplomacy

Strategic thinking

Cultural sensitivity

Job description

SRI Executive Search has been contracted by the Mohamed bin Zayed Foundation for Humanity to assist with the search for an exceptional candidate to fill the position of External Relations Manager.

About the Mohamed Bin Zayed Foundation

The Mohamed bin Zayed Foundation for Humanity (MBZFH) is an innovative philanthropy headquartered in Abu Dhabi, dedicated to advancing human potential and opportunity through global health and inclusive development. Building on the UAE’s longstanding legacy of investing in health outcomes worldwide, MBZFH works across health systems strengthening, healthcare infrastructure, health workforce, preventable diseases, maternal, newborn and child health, assistive technology, and thriving communities.

By 2030, MBZFH aims to reach more than 500 million people across 50+ countries. The Foundation is now seeking an External Relations Manager to support the department’s engagement, partnership, communications, and stakeholder management activities, helping MBZFH strengthen its visibility, credibility, and influence across the global health, philanthropy, development, and UAE ecosystem. Reporting to the Director, External Relations, the role offers an opportunity to contribute to a growing institution with a clear mission to improve access to public health and advance inclusive human development worldwide.

For more information, please visit: https://mohamedbinzayedfoundation.org/en/

Role Purpose

Reporting to the Director, External Relations, the External Relations Manager will support MBZFH’s engagement, partnership, and stakeholder management activities, helping to strengthen the Foundation’s visibility, credibility, and influence across the global health, philanthropy, development, and UAE ecosystem. The role will coordinate external engagement planning, prepare high-quality communications and briefing materials, maintain stakeholder intelligence, and support the delivery of convenings, missions, forums, and leadership engagements.

Major Duties and Responsibilities

Strategy, Stakeholder Engagement & Relationship Management

Support implementation of MBZFH’s external relations and stakeholder engagement strategy, ensuring activities are aligned with institutional priorities, advocacy goals, and leadership objectives.
Coordinate stakeholder mapping, relationship tracking, and targeted engagement planning across governments, multilaterals, foundations, NGOs, private sector actors, research institutions, advocacy coalitions, and UAE partners.
Identify and structure opportunities for co-investment, collaboration, and partnership models that extend beyond grant-making into policy, advocacy, innovation, and systems change.
Partner directly with Programs and Infrastructure teams to understand their open strategic questions, ensuring intelligence‑gathering and partnership outreach are targeted, relevant, and actionable.

Executive Engagement & Briefing Support

Prepare and maintain engagement calendars, briefing notes, meeting packs, talking points, partner profiles, and follow‑up materials for the Director, DG, and senior leadership.
Support the planning and delivery of strategic convenings, missions, forums, pledging moments, and high‑level events, including objectives, messaging, stakeholder coordination, logistics inputs, and post‑event follow‑up.

Communications, Advocacy & Cross‑Functional Alignment

Contribute to external communications materials, including speeches, remarks, press releases, web updates, social media content, advocacy messaging, and thought leadership products.
Work closely with Programs, Strategy/Planning/MEL, Legal Affairs, Operations, and the Executive Office to ensure external messaging is accurate, consistent, evidence‑based, and aligned across teams.
Support reputational risk management and crisis communications preparedness by contributing to messaging, stakeholder intelligence, and coordinated response materials as required.

Knowledge Management

Monitor relevant global health, philanthropy, development, and policy developments, identifying opportunities, risks, and stakeholder insights that may inform MBZFH’s positioning and engagement.
Design and maintain a structured pipeline for capturing intelligence from bilateral, exploratory, and convening‑based engagements, including emerging models, financing mechanisms, partner priorities, field‑level trends, commitments, action items, and follow‑up requirements.
Develop simple, durable knowledge management systems, such as a shared insights log, to ensure intelligence gathered through partnerships and convenings is institutionalised and readily accessible.
Produce regular synthesis briefs for Programs and Infrastructure leadership, translating external intelligence into clear implications for program design, infrastructure investment, and sustainability planning.

Profile

Experience and Expertise

7–10 years of relevant experience in external relations, stakeholder engagement, public affairs, communications, partnerships, diplomacy, international development, or philanthropy.
Proven ability to support engagement with senior external stakeholders, ideally including governments, multilaterals, philanthropic foundations, global health partners, NGOs, international platforms, (and ideally UAE or Gulf stakeholders).
Strong stakeholder management and relationship‑building skills, with confidence engaging diverse internal and external audiences and exercising political awareness, cultural sensitivity, discretion, and sound judgment.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to prepare concise, high‑quality briefs, talking points, meeting notes, partner profiles, speeches, external communications materials, and clear messaging from technical or programmatic information.
Excellent project coordination and organisational skills, with strong attention to detail and the ability to manage multiple engagements, events, products, deadlines, commitments, and action items in a fast‑paced environment.
Collaborative working style, with the ability to coordinate effectively across programs, communications, strategy, operations, legal, leadership offices, and other internal teams.
Proactive, solutions‑oriented mindset, with the ability to anticipate needs, manage ambiguity, follow through, and operate with professionalism under pressure.
Good understanding of global health, inclusive development, humanitarian action, philanthropy, advocacy, or international cooperation is strongly desirable.

Languages