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

• Fluency in English is essential. Arabic language capability would be an asset.

Terms of Appointment

This is a two-year renewable contract.

Role Location

The role is based in Abu Dhabi, UAE, with some travel.

How to Apply

To apply for this position, please ensure you complete the Application Form provided below by 14 September 2026 (23:59 hrs, GMT +4). It is essential that you submit your CV in English, specifically in Microsoft Word format (.doc/.docx), not exceeding 10MB.

Applications in other languages or formats will not be considered.

Rest assured, all information will be handled with the utmost confidentiality.

SRI Executive is exclusively retained by the Mohamed bin Zayed Foundation for Humanity to undertake this assignment.