Global Vice President, Marketing and Communications

Position description

VisionSpring, an international social enterprise, seeks a dynamic global vice president of marketing and communications to accelerate the uptake of eyeglasses in low-income communities. Why eyeglasses? Eyeglasses are a low-cost, high-impact, scalable product that enable people to maintain their livelihoods, achieve in school, stay safe on roads, and participate fully in society, yet more than one billion people do not have the eyeglasses they need to see well and do well.

In 2021, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the ‘Vision for Everyone’ resolution recognizing eye health and vision correction as a driver of multiple sustainable development goals. The resolution gave rise to the global strategy, WHO SPECS 2030, to achieve the target adopted by UN member states of increasing the effective coverage of refractive errors with eyeglasses by 40 percentage points by 2030.

Once an outside voice championing eyeglasses as a social and economic development tool, VisionSpring is at the heart of a global movement to close the clear vision gap. Our most recent randomized controlled trial conducted with third-party researchers revealed that reading glasses increased monthly income in rural Bangladesh by 33% (THRIVE, 2024). With new evidence, systems change momentum, a transformational gift from MacKenzie Scott, and VisionSpring’s 20+ year track record of delivering vision access solutions, we are scaling up our product and service delivery models that serve people living on less than $4 per day.

The global vice president leads the brand, marketing, and communication strategies for VisionSpring’s next growth stage, aiming to double our impact to correct the vision of our 20-millionth customer by 2026. The role is responsible for developing and executing marketing and communications initiatives for products (B2B), programs (B2C), and fundraising.

The global vice president oversees strategy; eyeglasses design and introduction; behavior change and demand generation; external and internal communications, and associated content development; and social/digital/web platform management. The person in this role collaborates with and supports the growth of VisionSpring’s business units, clients, and end customers in our key markets—Bangladesh, Ghana, India, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Uganda, Vietnam, and Zambia—and approximately ten additional countries served annually.

The global vice president reports to the CEO, is a member of the global leadership team, and leads a team of 13 marketing and communications professionals (and consultants/freelancers as needed) located in key markets and the U.S. support office. Eligible candidates are located between UTC-05:00 and UTC+05:30, with Ghana, India, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Uganda, the United Kingdom, the U.S. Eastern Time Zone, or Zambia preferred, and must be legally eligible to work in their country of residence.

ABOUT YOU

• Strategic Ideation: You foster the development of ideas and solutions, drawing on and synthesizing insights from customers and data. You inspire unique strategies, testing and improving upon them to bring about desired customer behaviors.
• Adaptability: You adapt to different cultural contexts, market dynamics, and unforeseen challenges. You are flexible and adjust to suit diverse customer needs and experiences.
• Relator: You build strong relationships within your team and with partners and clients with diverse perspectives. You build trust, and are a player-coach who helps others excel.
• Maximizer: You apply lean principles to optimize resources. You analyze the return on investment in marketing and communications activities to improve their efficacy.
• Communication: You shine in conveying ideas and information in clear, expressive language—written, spoken, and visual. You are the editor-in-chief.

ABOUT US

• VisionSpring is creating access to affordable eyewear, everywhere. Clear vision creates opportunities for increased learning, work, safety, civic participation, and quality of life.
• As a social enterprise, social change motivates us first. Our focus on sales and revenue targets serves and advances our mission objective—to increase functioning, productivity, and income earning potential for our low-income consumers by correcting refractive error and presbyopia with eyeglasses.
• We are working to transform the systemic dysfunction of an optical market that has failed to deliver eyeglasses—a 700-year-old technology—to one billion consumers in need of vision correction, most of whom live on less than $4 per day.
• We serve low-income consumers, not as beneficiaries but as customers. Our customers expect a high-quality and affordable product, and they will spend limited discretionary income for the immediate and tangible benefits of vision correction.
• By selling eyeglasses, we awaken new demand and seed a viable market. To efficiently scale, we must deliver each new unit with lower cost.
• We run our business on both sales metrics and social impact measures. We use a range of organizational forms and practices to get the job done.
• We believe in scaling our impact, not our organization. We are a lean team of doers.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

Strategy

• Develop and implement a forward-thinking marketing and communications strategy that embodies VisionSpring’s mission, ambition, and values; conveys our impact and sector leadership; elevates brand visibility; and drives revenue growth.
• Collaborate with organizational leadership and stakeholders to serve VisionSpring’s four customers/audiences: eyeglasses wearers, institutional wholesale partners, funders, and policy makers.
• Strengthen, promote, and safeguard VisionSpring’s brand, maintaining consistent positioning and messaging across all channels and platforms.
• Manage the performance of three-year rolling plans, set and achieve annual goals and objectives, and manage the department budget.

Eyeglasses Product Development and Marketing

• Oversee the establishment and performance of the product development and institutional marketing function to increase sales and revenue.
• Provide strategic direction for the design, production, and launch of eyeglasses collections within VisionSpring’s programs and across a network of 800 institutional customers.
• Guide the product design specialist in leveraging customer insights and market trends, and collaborate with procurement and manufacturing partners to develop radically affordable collections that offer quality, style, and choice to low-income consumers.
• Lead new product introductions, including pricing strategies, merchandising, sales training, catalogues and collateral, and B2B marketing initiatives.
• Collaborate with the supply chain team, using sales data and customer feedback, to maintain a high-demand, high-performing selection of eyeglasses and inventory.

Communications

• Provide strategic leadership for integrated global communications initiatives that drive VisionSpring’s program, sales, fundraising, systems change, and impact goals.
• Guide messaging architecture, narrative development, social media/digital strategy, media relations, and stakeholder engagement.
• Establish and monitor performance metrics to assess communication effectiveness, using data-driven insights to maximize reach, engagement, and revenue.
• Oversee public and media relations, building opportunities for earned media and speaking engagements, and equipping teams with resources and training to consistently deliver compelling messages.
• Elevate donor engagement and fundraising campaigns with powerful narratives, persuasive reporting, and multimedia content that inspire participation and support.

Behavior Change and Demand Generation

• Guide the development and execution of behavior change and demand generation campaigns that enhance the efficacy of our Vision Access Programs, bringing vision screening and eyeglasses to first-time customers in low-income communities.
• Support research, and campaign/creative development, informed by customers’ journeys, knowledge, attitudes, and practices, and input from country experts.
• Oversee piloting and replication of innovative strategies and campaigns that drive awareness, demand for vision services, and conversion to glasses wearing.
• Monitor campaign effectiveness across markets, review performance data, and synthesize insights into actionable recommendations, best practices, and learning.
• Facilitate knowledge sharing through training and dissemination of evidence-based toolkits to enhance marketing and behavior change efforts across VisionSpring and the eyecare sector.

Team Leadership and Development

• Lead, manage, and mentor a team of global communication and marketing specialists, and consultants/freelancers as needed, through a matrixed reporting structure.
• Facilitate talent development by identifying and supporting growth opportunities and championing professional development.
• Evolve the composition and functions of a geographically distributed team to meet VisionSpring’s changing needs.
• Promote a team culture that embodies VisionSpring’s core values: help others to do well; advance equity; constantly adapt, relentlessly improve; default to transparency, reveal hard truths; learn together.

WHAT’S REQUIRED

• Minimum of 15 years of experience leading global teams in marketing strategy roles, with progressive levels of responsibility, in multiple international markets and/or international social impact organizations.
• Experience with B2B and B2C end-consumer marketing in global geographies, preferably in frontier and/or emerging markets.
• Strategic thinking with the ability to anticipate trends, craft strategies, and adapt in response to opportunities and challenges.
• Exceptional leadership and team management skills.
• Outstanding writing, editing, public speaking, and interpersonal communications skills, with the ability to convey complex ideas clearly and persuasively in English.
• Degree in marketing, communications, media, or another relevant field; advanced degree preferred.
• Ability to travel, up to 20% of time, to locations with limited infrastructure.
• Preferred experience: (1) Tenure in a senior leadership-level role; (2) History with and/or commitment to social enterprise, social impact work, or community service; (3) Living or working in a low-income setting and/or working across languages and cultures; (4) Sector experience in optical, fast moving consumer goods, health, pharmaceuticals, venture-backed startups, or service industries, including software as a service; (5) Marketing to low-income consumers.

COMPENSATION

• VisionSpring offers competitive benefits, including a performance-based bonus, health insurance, and five weeks of paid time off.
• Salary range will be disclosed to candidates invited to interview.

Application instructions

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