Sr. Lead, Community Engagement

Forest Carbon; Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta; On-site; USD 45.000 - 70.000; Full time

Job summary

A leading organization is seeking a Senior Lead for community engagement in Southeast Asia. This role involves providing strategic leadership and developing measures to strengthen community legal empowerment against issues like forced labor and online exploitation. Ideal candidates will possess significant experience in supporting vulnerable populations and demonstrate strong leadership and communication skills.

Benefits

Regular travel across the Asia Pacific Region

Qualifications

• Minimum 5 years of experience in supporting victims and communities.
• Experience with human trafficking or forced labor issues preferred.
• Demonstrated experience in developing community-based groups.

Responsibilities

• Developing community engagement strategies and interventions.
• Supporting vulnerable community members in legal empowerment.
• Nurturing partnerships with NGOs and coalitions.

Skills

Communication

Community Engagement

Leadership

Mentoring

Training

Cultural Sensitivity

Education

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in relevant field

Job description

Who We Are

International Justice Mission (IJM) is the global leader in protecting vulnerable people from violence around the world. Our team of over 1,200 professionals are at work worldwide in over 30 offices. Together we are on a mission to rescue millions, protect half a billion, and make justice unstoppable.

We are a global community that cares for one another. We believe that the way we work is as important as the results we achieve. We provide professional excellence with joy and celebration to all those we serve.

The Need

IJM is seeking a Senior Lead to provide leadership to IJM’s programs in Southeast Asia in the area of community engagement. The Senior Lead will equip IJM teams and implementing partner NGOs to strengthen community legal empowerment and build connections with the public justice system in communities vulnerable to forced labor slavery (FLS) and online sexual exploitation of children (OSEC). The Senior Lead will advise stakeholders, build innovative partnerships and coalitions, and establish best practices for IJM APAC programming, driving continuous program improvement with a sense of urgency. They will produce quality products, standards, and training for IJM and partners while also sharing knowledge with professionals from other IJM teams and organizations around the world. The Senior Lead will directly support the development, documentation and measurement of promising community engagement interventions, strengthening the capacity of community leaders and groups, including both formal and informal organizations, faith-based groups, worker associations, NGOs and coalitions, to support survivors in accessing justice and legal remedies, and advocating for consistent and trauma-informed enforcement of laws against FLS and OSEC. The Senior Lead will bring a deep understanding of community dynamics and cultural sensitivity, use relational approaches and respond to community needs and motivations, including the use of appropriate incentives (social, informational, or material) to encourage proactive identification and reporting of FLS and OSEC cases.

This position reports to the Regional Vice President, Program Impact, Asia Pacific.

This position can be based in the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia or Thailand and is available for candidates with the right to work in the above-mentioned countries.

This position will require regular travel across the Asia Pacific Region.

Responsibilities

Strategy, Knowledge Development, & Implementation:

• In collaboration with APAC program leaders and community engagement focal points, facilitate processes of developing and updating community engagement aspects of protection program strategies.
• Develop interventions and plans to help vulnerable community members form, strengthen and sustain formal and informal groups that lead initiatives to protect vulnerable people from FLS and OSEC.
• In collaboration with communications and media focused staff from IJM projects and partners, develop interventions and plans to spread key messages critical to increasing legal empowerment of victims and vulnerable communities through traditional and social media platforms.
• Ensure that the design, development, and implementation of community engagement interventions and activities are aligned with IJM’s protection model, global standards and best practices, and are relational, culturally sensitive, and responsive to local motivations to encourage community participation in protection efforts.
• Support cross-border collaboration and coordination between IJM projects, partners, national governments, community-based groups and survivor networks for the achievement of program and project outcomes, including advocacy and individual case goals.
• Develop knowledge products and tools to support capacity building for community leaders, groups and coalitions as well as governments, partners and IJM teams working with community-based groups.
• Remain up to date on innovative trends and developments in community legal empowerment and access to justice globally and regionally through research, exposure/learning trips, and networking; propose enhancements or integration of best practices into existing IJM programs.
• Support assessments and contribute to thedesignanddevelopmentof community engagement strategies for new projects in alignment with IJM’s overall Asia Pacific strategy.
• Support the development of proposals for funding and program design as needed.

Policies & Procedures:

• Develop and contextualize replicable policies, guidelines, best practices, and other processes related to community engagement in the context of IJM’s programs in APAC.
• Ensure all community engagement activities adhere to IJM’s internal policies and guidelines, including IJM’s safeguarding and ethical conduct standards, with mechanisms for risk assessment and mitigation.
• Ensure that best practices and lessons learned are well documented and disseminated.

Networking & Partnership:

• Establish and nurture cooperative relationships with other NGOs, coalitions, survivor networks and other organizations involved in legal empowerment and access to justice in the APAC region, establishing collaborations and sharing best practices and learning.
• Represent IJM’s APAC programs in relevant meetings, conferences, and workshops.

Communication

• In collaboration with regional and country level communications colleagues, support development of key messages, briefs, fact sheets, and other communication resources as necessary that articulate IJM’s approach and strategy in engaging communities to advocate for greater protection from FLS and OSEC crimes.
• Ensure knowledge sharing and lessons learned among IJM APAC country projects, promoting avenues for shared learnings and collaboration.
• Prepare and contribute to presentations and talking points for delivery yourself or by other IJM leaders onFLS and OSEC-related matters in various meetings and platforms.

Training and Development:

• Equip APAC teams and partners to implement effective community engagement strategies through ongoing consultation, coaching, training, and mentoring.
• Equip IJM teams and partners with skills to build trust-based relationships with communities, including techniques for identifying and offering ethical, context-appropriate incentives that align with community values and IJM’s safeguarding standards.
• In collaboration with other regional program leaders, support the onboarding of new staff in APAC program offices and identify internal capacity building needs for staff working on community engagement initiatives; develop resources and training or mentoring plans to equip teams with necessary knowledge and skills.
• In collaboration with APAC program teams, develop or adapt capacity building training resources and curricula for internal and external stakeholders.
• Facilitate training, coaching, and mentoring for IJM staff and partners, promoting local ownership and long-term sustainability of initiatives through intentional capacity transfer and strategic exit planning.
• Consult with IJM teams, partners and target governments to build government systems that will engage productively at local levels with community leaders and groups.

Research, Program Management, and M&E:

• In collaboration with regional program/MERL staff, consult on the design of M&E plans, support research studies, and support collection and analysis of data for relevant global standardized indicators and to monitor and measure the outcomes of community engagement interventions for the APAC programs.
• Collaborate with regional and country level MERL staff to analyze community engagement related results, use data and research and incorporate findings into documented learning, further program design and strategic decisions.

Supervisory: This position does not directly supervise any other positions; but provides guidance to country leaders and survivor leadership focal points, in APAC program offices.

Education & Experience

• Bachelor’s or master’s degree in relevant field.
• Minimum5years of experience supporting victims and communities in accessing justice and/or legal remedies; experience responding to human trafficking or forced labor issues preferred.
• Demonstrated experience supporting formation and development of community-based groups or coalitions.

Technical Competencies

• Familiarity with trauma-informed approaches to engaging with vulnerable community members, including survivors of violent crimes.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to make complex technical concepts easy to understandand present to large audiences.
• Prior experience living and working in Southeast Asia is required.
• Fluency in oral and writtenEnglish.
• Leadership,team building,mentoring,coaching,consulting,and trainingskills.
• International/cross-cultural experience in development, relief, social work, or other fields.

Application Process

Please submit your Resume/CV and Cover Letter to [e-mail] not later than 18 July 2025.

Remarks: Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

IJM holds strict safeguarding principles and a zero tolerance to violations of the Safeguarding Policy, Protection against Sexual Exploitation, Abuse and Harassment Policy, and Code of Ethics. Candidate selection is based on technical competence, recruitment, selection and hiring criteria subject to assess the candidates’ value congruence and thorough background, police clearance, and reference check processes. IJM requires a background check, police clearance and thorough review of references with an employment offer and/or employment contract.