Communications Lead

Restore, Assert and Defend (RAD) Network

Why RAD

To respond to the intertwined crises of climate change, biodiversity loss, and economic extraction, transformative change is required. Indigenous Peoples’ laws, knowledge systems, and responsibilities to lands and waters offer essential pathways forward.

The RAD Network works to ensure that emerging climate and nature finance systems do not reproduce colonial patterns of control, but instead uphold Indigenous jurisdiction, regenerate relationships, and seed current economies rooted in reciprocity, responsibility, and natural law.

About RAD

RAD (Restore, Assert, Defend) is an Indigenous-led network grounded in:

- Indigenous sovereignty and Nation-building
- Reciprocity and relationship
- Ethical Space
- Spirit-led practice, guided by ceremony and integrity

RAD advances:

- Indigenous-led nature-based solutions and stewardship economies
- Financing pathways for Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs)
- Ethical finance and resource flow to Nations
- Carbon rights and atmospheric benefit sharing
- Policy influence across federal and provincial systems
- Investment readiness, fund development and accelerator initiatives
- Indigenous-led finance infrastructure
- Knowledge sharing and mobilization

Position Overview

RAD Network is seeking a Communications Lead to develop and implement our network communications strategy, ensuring alignment with strategic goals. The Communications Lead will co-develop the strategy and produce high-quality public communications, telling stories to inform and inspire while communicating in accessible, practical ways that reach Indigenous communities and Network partners across Canada.

RAD Network engages with Indigenous communities,Indigenous and non-Indigenous organizations, governments, businesses and ENGOs to support our goals. The Communications Lead will be responsible for meeting the needs of this diverse audience.

Indigenous Nations and communities need practical, trustworthy information about complex finance and policy including carbon rights, IPCA financing and nature-based solutions without jargon or extraction. Market actors, ENGOs, philanthropy and governments need to understand both the opportunities for Indigenous-led nature-based solutions and the challenges around jurisdiction, Indigenous Rights and Title – creating space to shift practices and engagement with such challenges.

The Communications Lead is the senior communications mind for both audiences.

The Communications Lead will set RAD Network's communications direction, advise the Leadership Circle and Staff Team on voice and positioning, and build the protocols that keep our storytelling grounded in Indigenous voice, cultural experience and consent. The ideal candidate will hold a budget and can onboard new contractors, content producers, designers, editors, podcast team, and videographers to move the strategy forward.

Indigenous nature based solutions are alive and contested. Federal and provincial governments are fast-tracking resource development through legislation like Bill C-5, Ontario's Bill 5, and B.C.'s Bills 14 and 15, with Climate, Reconciliation and Biodiversity largely absent from federal mandate letters. There are over 200 declared IPCAs across Canada that need funding and Crown recognition. Nature markets are forming right now, and whether they uplift Indigenous Rights or repeat dispossession is still being decided. Communication is an essential part of how this work moves forward in a good way; in alignment with Treaties, Constitutional Agreements & Sui Generis Rights.

Responsibilities

Set and steward the communications strategy

- Build and hold a multi-year communications strategy that delivers on RAD Network's goals, with explicit audiences, priorities and measures/metrics.
- Advise RAD Leadership Circle, Executive Director and Staff Team on positioning, public voice, reputational questions and communications risks.




- Manage content production that ensures a consistent and engaging voice across social media, website, in person events, online convening spaces and podcasts.
- Establish communications protocols grounded in Indigenous ways of knowing’ i.e., Indigenous data sovereignty, OCAP®, Free, Prior and Informed Consent and Ethical Space.
- Develop and manage a communications budget including contractors, producers, designers, editors and translators.
- Build communications capacity across the Staff Team, and support Nations and network members who want to strengthen their own communications.
- Collaborate with Network partners and RAD Staff Team on community engagement pathways, policy communications, and events.

Goal 1 – Uphold Indigenous jurisdiction, rights and responsibilities

- Work with RAD policy and research teams to produce materials that move decision-makers, including recommendations on Indigenous Rights in nature markets, responses to initiatives like the Forest Carbon Offset Protocol, IPCAs and related Indigenous led stewardship, forestry and land use initiatives.
- Develop content to uplift and support the work of network members – this may include success or challenges of NbS in Indigenous communities such as project developments, land back, nature finance policies, and rights and title cases.
- Develop messaging and campaign approaches for advocacy priorities, in coordination with Nations, Indigenous organizations and coalition partners across regional, provincial, federal and, where appropriate, international scales.
- Collaborate with ENGOs to recognize and effectively message support for jurisdiction, rights and responsibilities in their NbS and conservation practice, including communications around RAD Network partner Reciprocity Dialogues.
- Lead media relations, building relationships with Indigenous and mainstream outlets, prepare spokespeople, produce briefing notes and Q&As;, and respond quickly when policy moves.

Goal 2 – Generate new financial pathways and equitable funding

- Build visions and connect stories that bring forward the Indigenous-led regenerative economy through podcasts, storytelling and webinars.
- Communicate the economic and cultural value case for Indigenous-led nature-based solutions to funders, investors and philanthropy, drawing on RAD Network's research.
- Support Ethical Space convenings with market and policy actors: framing, materials, facilitation support and follow-up that make decolonizing work possible rather than performative.
- Package tools and resources such as investment guides, ecosystem maps, Ethical Space frameworks, honest-broker criteria – developed for use by applicable audience(s).
- Help Nations and Indigenous-led projects be seen by the funders, investors and intermediaries.

Goal 3 – Advance knowledge, practice and relationships of Indigenous-led natural climate solutions

- Lead storytelling that reaches communities first: Nation and Guardian profiles, case studies, blogs, photo and video features, and RAD Network newsletter, all grounded in Indigenous voices and traditional knowledge.
- Oversee and manage the RAD Story Lodge podcast end to end including editorial planning, production, publication and promotion.
- Maintain and update the RAD Network website covering structure, content, accessibility and continuous improvement, so Nations can easily access our resources.
- Provide communications support for RAD Network's convenings such as Full Moon Gatherings, Healing Circles, Network Circles, Accelerator Circles, seasonal gatherings, webinars and conferences – including promotion, materials, on-site documentation and follow-up.




- Support growing RAD Network in onboarding and member communications, outreach to communities with IPCAs or INCS
- Support communications for regional and hub partnerships, including the Grasslands, Coastal Wetlands and Forests, and Indigenous partners
- Help create pathways for youth and emerging leaders to contribute, tell their own stories and build skills through RAD Network's communications work.

Qualifications

Required

- 5+ years of communications management experience, including responsibility for strategy development and execution.
- Demonstrated experience working with or within First Nations, Inuit or Métis communities, organizations or governments.
- Knowledge and understanding of Indigenous Rights, jurisdiction, and the barriers for Indigenous-led nature climate solutions within colonial land and resource policies.
- Experience in developing and managing project budgets to support work planning and strategic goals.
- Excellent writing and editing skills with ability to write from an Indigenous perspective and plain language as required for policy and political briefs.
- Exceptional organizational and time-management skills, with a detail-oriented, strategic, and quality-focused approach to communications.
- Sound political judgment, discretion with confidential and sensitive material, and the steadiness to communicate well in a contested and fast-moving policy environment.
- Hands-on capability across digital channels: CMS (WordPress or similar), Canva, email platforms, CRM/Mailchimp, all social media platforms and project management tools (e.g., Asana).
- Demonstrated ability to work independently within a fast-paced working environment that is remote, distributed, and highly relational while effectively managing multiple concurrent priorities, remaining proactive and adaptable as priorities evolve.
- Willingness and ability to travel periodically within Canada, including to remote and rural communities.

Preferred

- Lived experience as a First Nations, Inuit or Metis person
- Familiarity with conservation finance, nature markets, carbon, IPCAs, Guardians programs, 30x30 conservation commitments, or Indigenous-led natural climate solutions
- Experience with consent-based and community-led storytelling using Indigenous data sovereignty frameworks
- Understanding of Ethical Space and Two-Eyed Seeing as working practice, not just vocabulary
- Media relations experience, including acting as or preparing a spokesperson
- Audio, video or visual production skills, or experience directing creative contractors

Working here

Location: Remote, anywhere within Canada

Travel: 3-6 trips annually for gatherings, community visits, team retreats and events

Status: Full-time, contract

Reports to: Executive Director

Compensation: $90,000-$110,000 annually, commensurate with experience.

Application deadline: October 15, 2026

Indigenous hiring preference

The RAD Network hires based on skills, ability, and qualifications; however, in support of our strategy to achieve our employment goals for Indigenous Peoples, qualified Indigenous applicants of First Nation, Inuit, and/or Métis ancestry will be given priority. Persons of Indigenous ancestry will be given preference. s16(1) CHRA

If you wish to be considered under this preference, please self-identify in your cover letter. Self-identification is voluntary, and applicants who do not self-identify will still be fully considered.

How to apply

Send both a cover letter and resume to with the subject line Communications Lead, [YOUR NAME] by October 15th, 2026. Applications that do not include both a cover letter and a resume will not be accepted.

In your cover letter, we'd like to hear about your interest in Indigenous-led nature climate solutions and uplifting stories that belong to Indigenous people. Please share how your experience aligns with our goals. We look forward to reading your application!

Pay: $90,000.00-$110,000.00 per year

Work Location: Remote

📌 Communications Lead (Canada)
🏢 Restore, Assert and Defend (RAD) Network
📍 Canada