The opportunity
We’re looking for a proactive, resourceful Communications Operations Associate to help our Communications team stay organized, connected, and on track.
Reporting to the
Director, Strategic Communications, you’ll work across the Communications team, with colleagues throughout the organization, and external partners.
This is a hands-on coordination and operations role embedded in the Communications team. On any given project, you might be building a workback plan for a major announcement, put together a presentation or briefing deck, coordinate inputs and approvals, research and book an event venue, work with a vendor, manage a translation request with our agency, keep our project-management systems current or spot a missing step before it becomes a problem. Your job is to create the structures that help good work happen, making sure that the right people have the right information, decisions happen when they need to, details don’t get lost, and projects keep moving from idea to delivery.
What you'll do
· Manage and triage incoming requests: Monitor the team inbox, clarify what is needed, rout requests appropriately, track follow-up and make sure each request has a clear next step and owner.
· Keep communications projects moving: Build workback plans, timelines and trackers; coordinate inputs, decisions and approvals; and flag dependencies, risks or capacity issues before they become problems;
· Support key moments and events: Help plan and coordinate major events, announces, launches, convenings, meetings and other priority moments, making sure that communications, logistics, materials and follow-up are well organized.
· Help keep Communications priorities on track: Support the team tracking key dates, deliverables, dependencies and follow ups; surface risks or conflicts early; and ensure that agreed work keeps moving.
· Turn discussions into action: Capture clear next steps, owners and deadlines from meetings and conversations, and follow through to make sure that commitments are carried forward
· Put together decks, presentations and briefing materials: Coordinate content and inputs to ensure that materials are clear, polished, accurate and ready for use.
· Coordinate communications production: Manage the practical steps required to produce materials and assets, including timelines, specifications, proofs, printing, shipping, vendor coordination, delivery and invoicing.
· Keep contracts, invoices and expenses moving: Coordinate the administrative steps that support Communications work, including contracts, invoices, expense tracking and approvals; follow up with internal teams and external vendors as needed to keep things moving.
· Manage recurring operational workflows: Coordinate translation and other recurring processes that support Communications delivery
· Own team systems and tracking: Keep Monday.com, SharePoint and other shared tools current, useful and easy to navigate, including trackers for projects, requests, approvals and recurring work.
· Keep Communications materials organized: Own the ongoing organization, clean-up and archiving of team files and shared folders, and ensure that templates, decks, boilerplate language, visual assets and other core materials are current and easy to find.
· Improve how the team works: Find practical ways to simplify processes, reduce duplication, improve visibility, and make recurring work easier to manage.
What you’ll bring
We’re looking for someone who is exceptionally organized, proactive and reliable - someone who gets satisfaction from making complex work run smoothly and who is curious enough to figure things out when the answer isn’t obvious.
· Exceptional organization: You can manage multiple moving pieces, keep track of details and deadlines, and create structure where it’s needed.
· Strong follow-through: You close loops, keep commitments visible and make sure important tasks don’t quietly fall off the radar.
· Curiosity and resourcefulness: You ask good questions, learn quickly, dig for the information you need and are comfortable figuring out how things work.
· Proactive thinking: You anticipate what will be needed next, spot gaps or risks early and take action before they become problems.
· Diplomatic and proactive communication: You’re comfortable following up, asking for what’s needed, clarifying expectations and helping keep people to agreed timelines while maintaining positive working relationships.
· Sound judgement: You can assess what is urgent, what is important, what can wait and what needs to be escalated.
· Comfort with systems and process: You like creating order - whether that means improving a tracker, organizing shared materials, building a workback plan or finding a simpler way to manage recurring work.
· Clear communication: You write clearly, capture decisions accurately, and can turn a conversation into concrete next steps.
· Attention to detail: You notice the missing approval, inconsistent date, outdated file or overlooked dependency that could otherwise create a problem.
· A collaborative mindset: You enjoy helping a team work well together and understand that strong operations often means making it easier for other people to do their best work.
Experience
· The successful candidate will typically bring 3–5 years of relevant professional experience in a role requiring strong coordination, organization and follow-through.
· Experience in communications, creative, marketing, or media environments is strongly preferred, because an understanding of how communications work gets made - approvals, deadlines, audiences, channels, production and competing priorities - will help you succeed in the role.
· That said, we are also open to candidates from operations, project coordination, events, production, administration or other environments who can demonstrate strong curiosity, resourcefulness, judgement and an ability to get complex work organized and moving.
· Experience with project-management, collaboration, and communications platforms is an asset. Our team uses tools including Monday.com, SharePoint, Canva, PowerPoint, Mailchimp and WordPress. You do not need to know every system we use; the ability to learn new tools quickly and use them thoughtfully matters more.
· Experience coordinating events, production, vendors, or other multi-step operational processes is an asset.
· French-language proficiency is a strong asset.
People from historically excluded communities with lived experiences in relevant thematic areas are encouraged to apply. People with lived experience and/or work experience in the communities or countries we are supporting are especially encouraged to apply.
Don’t meet every requirement? Studies have shown that women, people of colour, people from LGBTQ2S+ and disabilities communities are less likely to apply to jobs when they do not meet every qualification. At Grand Challenges Canada, we are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive, authentic, and accountable workplace, so if you are excited about this role but your experience does not align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply, as you may be the ideal candidate we are looking for.
What you’ll get from the role
· You’ll have the opportunity to work across a wide range of communications priorities, build relationships across the organization and with external partners, improve how the team works and take meaningful ownership of projects and processes.
· This role will be especially rewarding for someone who likes variety, cares about doing things well, and gets genuine satisfaction from turning a lot of moving pieces into something that works.
Location and Work Requirements
· We are currently working in a hybrid model. GCC staff are to live in or near the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and available to travel to, and work from the Toronto main office, as business operational needs require; some domestic and international travel required.
· Applicants must be eligible to work in Canada.
Permanent Full-Time Benefits
· Health and Dental provided by Sunlife Canada effective on start date.
· Enrollment in the Healthcare of Ontario (HOOPP) Defined-Benefit Pension Plan.
· Four (4) weeks of paid vacation per calendar year (prorated).
· Four (4) day work week (with Friday as a flex/off day), excluding weeks with Statutory holiday (program reviewed annually).
· Access to Employee Assistance Program (EAP), and added value benefits such as fitness, spas and wellbeing, hotels and travel services, and retail discounts.
· International SOS (ISOS) travel safety and supports around the world.
· Bring-your-own-device (BYOD) cell phone allowance.
· Professional development allowance.
· New Temporary Work Relocation – work remotely for up to 90 days, almost anywhere in the world.
AI Use in Application Processing
Please be advised that Grand Challenges Canada may use artificial intelligence tools to assist in the processing and evaluation of applications submitted for this position. These tools may be used to support activities such as résumé screening, candidate assessment, or scheduling, and are used as an aid to, and not a replacement for, human decision-making. All hiring decisions are made by qualified personnel who review AI-assisted outputs before any determination is made regarding a candidate's application. Grand Challenges Canada is committed to ensuring that its use of AI in recruitment is fair, transparent, and free from unlawful discrimination, in accordance with applicable federal and provincial human rights and privacy legislation. If you have questions about how AI is used in our hiring process, or if you require an accommodation at any stage of the recruitment process, please contact GCC’s HR Team at hr@grandchallenges.ca.
