Senior Investor Engagement Manager

Are you concerned about the growing power that internet, mobile, and telecommunications companies have over people’s lives? Do you believe that corporations as well as governments have a responsibility to respect human rights? Can you manage multiple projects and people decisively and on deadline? If so, Ranking Digital Rights (RDR) encourages you to apply to become our Investor Engagement Manager.

RDR seeks a full-time senior investor engagement manager to lead the integration of RDR’s research methods and findings into the ecosystem of ESG and impact investing, to help support shareholder resolutions and other finance-focused strategies for holding technology and telecom companies accountable for their impact on human rights, particularly the rights to freedom of expression and privacy.

The Senior Investor Engagement Manager will be responsible for developing and executing RDR’s strategy for working with ESG (environmental, social, and governance) and human rights investors to pressure companies to demonstrate better respect for human rights. This includes identifying the needs and goals of the ESG and responsible investing community, interacting with investors in both individual and collective settings, and articulating RDR’s human rights-based standards in the context of investors’ priorities and reporting processes. It will also involve connecting these influential stakeholders to digital rights advocates worldwide to increase knowledge exchange and the impact of finance-focused strategies, such as developing shareholder resolutions and joint campaigns. They will also participate in conferences, workshops, and other fora, contribute to high-level public statements, and write for both RDR and external publications. The Senior Investor Engagement Manager will report to RDR leadership, be responsible for briefing New America’s other tech programs on their activities, and will work in close coordination with RDR partners and other members of the team.

About Ranking Digital Rights

RDR works to promote freedom of expression and privacy on the internet by creating global standards and incentives for companies to respect and protect users' rights. We do this by scoring and ranking the world's most powerful digital platforms and telecommunications companies on relevant commitments and policies, based on international human rights standards. We work with companies as well as advocates, researchers, investors, and
policymakers to establish and advance global standards for corporate accountability. RDR is a part of the Technology & Democracy Cluster of programs at New America, a Washington, D.C.–based nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank that invests in new thinkers and new ideas to address the next generation of policy challenges. We are a distributed team, working from Washington, D.C., Paris, Barcelona, Montreal, and other locations around the world.

Responsibilities:

• Design and lead the implementation of RDR’s investor engagement strategy,
• Set measurable goals, metrics, and milestones to monitor progress and evaluate impact;
• Manage and track ESG issues relevant to the companies ranked in the RDR Corporate Accountability Index (RDR Index) and Scorecards (Big Tech Scorecard, Telco Giants Scorecard);
• Provide direct support to investors developing shareholder proposals focused on digital rights, drawing on RDR’s findings;
• Communicate RDR’s human rights-based standards to key investor stakeholders through active and regular participation in collective investor-driven engagements (e.g., Investor Alliance for Human Rights, PRI) as well as individual asset managers and asset owners, emphasizing the intersection of our standards with established materiality frameworks;
• Identify and promote opportunities for investors to gain awareness of, use, and reference the RDR methodology in a variety of settings, including portfolio construction, public letters, investor-driven campaigns, and individual engagement with companies;
• Communicate priority issues for investors to highlight in relation to the human rights risks of individual companies’ operations based on the findings and recommendations produced by RDR and its civil society partners;
• Engage with other benchmarking and standard-setting initiatives and develop approaches to link them more effectively to RDR’s standards;
• Draft custom investor-facing reports on behalf of RDR, prepare internal talking points and other strategic written resources, and oversee the integration of investor-facing themes in RDR’s outputs;
• Maintain RDR’s shareholder resolutions database, keep the RDR team informed of upcoming resolutions, and ensure an open internal flow of information about issues expected to be highlighted in each proxy season;
• Conduct focused outreach to investors leading engagement with non-ranked companies;
• Track engagement with investors by maintaining RDR’s repository of interactions, metrics, and notes from investor interactions;
• Articulate RDR’s position in industry publications directed at investors, particularly news and analysis hubs focusing on ESG;
• Occasionally review company policies and communicate insights to the RDR team as needed, focusing on ESG reporting;
• Contribute to external engagement efforts relevant to individual companies and business and human rights more broadly (e.g., sign-ons, advocacy efforts), working with other team members.

Preferred qualifications:

Ideal candidates for this position will possess the following characteristics:

• Strong commitment to protecting human rights in the context of business and technology;
• Bachelor’s degree or higher, preferably in a field relevant to responsible investing and/or digital rights; At least 3 years of demonstrated professional experience working with institutional investors, preferably with some experience focusing on business and human rights;
• Strong understanding of key performance indicators (KPIs) and ESG benchmarking criteria used by the responsible investing community;
• Demonstrated experience implementing strategies used by investors to hold companies accountable, including engagement, coalition building, and/or proxy voting;
• Strong command of international human rights principles, the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, and other legal principles and instruments that affect tech and telecom sector policies, particularly with regard to the protection of free expression, privacy, and the right to nondiscrimination;
• Excellent written and oral communication skills in English, and research skills;
• Professional fluency in one or more additional languages is a plus, but not required;
• Experience with remote teams and ability to work with collaborators from diverse backgrounds and with diverse skill sets.

Location & physical demands:

RDR operates as a distributed team, with some staff based at New America in Washington,
D.C., while other staff and contractors work from other locations around the world. We will
prioritize candidates with U.S. work authorization and who work +/- 1 hour from EST or who can
offer a compelling reason why their specific time zone, if outside the +/- 1 zone, would be
advantageous to RDR.

This position often requires completing work at a computer and may require occasional travel.
 

Compensation and Benefits: This position is a full-time role with benefits. The annual salary will be between $83,500.00 – $104,475.00, depending on experience. New America offers a highly competitive benefits package that includes health care, dental, and vision coverage; a generous retirement plan; paid time off; observes all federal holidays; and an office-wide closure between Christmas and New Year’s Day.
 

How to apply:

Please submit a cover letter and resume. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, with priority for review given to those received by May 5, 2023. We would like to fill the position as soon as possible. 

Please No Phone Calls, No Emails
Please submit your application through the New America portal. We are not able to respond to
phone calls or emails.
 

Diversity, equity & inclusion
Technological disruption, online discrimination, and the digital divide disproportionately affect the most historically marginalized communities in society, including people of color, women, LGBTQIA+ people, and people with a disability. RDR is committed to centering the needs of these communities in our work, and we strongly encourage applications from people with a diverse array of backgrounds to support this mission. We encourage candidates to apply even if they do not match all the qualifications listed above.

Ranking Digital Rights and New America is an equal opportunity employer committed to hiring a diverse workforce at all levels of the organization thereby creating a culture that allows us to better serve our mission, our employees, and our communities. We value and encourage the contributions of our employees and strive to create an environment where everyone can reach their full potential and drive outstanding results. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, national origin, age, sex, religion, disability, sexual orientation, marital status, veteran status, gender identity or expression, or any other basis protected by local, state, or federal law. This policy applies with regard to all aspects of one’s employment, including hiring, transfer, promotion, compensation, eligibility for benefits, and termination. This is not a bargaining unit position.