Senior Research & Project Manager - Media Ownership Monitor

About GMR

Global Media Registry (GMR) is a German non-profit social enterprise working at the intersection of media, technology, and regulation. GMR supports transparency, accountability, and pluralism in the media and information space, working with partner organisations, regulators, academia and civil society worldwide.

About MOM

The Media Ownership Monitor (MOM) is GMR's flagship media transparency initiative, active in over 26 countries worldwide. MOM identifies the most audience-relevant, opinion shaping media outlets in a given country, documents their ownership and affiliated interests, and contextualises findings against the local legal and market environment. Results are published on a multi-lingual website produced with a local partner organisation.

About the Role

The Senior MOM Project Manager leads the editorial output and overall delivery of one or more MOM country projects. Day-to-day management of the partner organisation is conducted remotely, with international travel required at key moments in the project cycle (kick-off, training, and other milestones). Research, data collection and content production are carried out by the local partner organisation; the Senior PM instructs, trains, and supervises that research and production process, and is responsible for the relevance, appeal, quality and methodological rigor of the entire output.

Key Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end delivery of assigned MOM country project(s) against defined and continuously further developed format, as well as donor contracts, budgets, and timelines: profiles of news-influencers, media outlets, owners, and companies, Context and Findings narrative sections, indicators of risk to media pluralism, visuals, and the country website.
• Instruct, train, and supervise the partner organisation's research team throughout data collection and content production, ensuring methodological rigor and timely delivery.
• Provide editorial review and final feedback on partner-produced content, ensuring adherence to MOM format and methodology.
• Plan and lead internal and external kick-off workshops, and maintain advisory group consultation throughout the research process, building broad community engagement and transparency vis-à-vis key stakeholders in target countries.
• Plan and lead the project's public launch/dissemination event, presenting findings to diverse audiences.
• Serve as the primary operational interlocutor with partner organisations and external stakeholders.
• Document key decisions and their rationale for clarity and continuity.
• Supervise and develop the Junior MOM Project Manager, delegating production and coordination work.
• Monitor progress, identify, escalate and mitigate risks, and report according to donor requirements; manage and control allocation of resources on a rolling basis to ensure compliance with operational planning.

Candidate Profile

• 5+ years' progressive experience in investigative/data journalism, online publishing, media research, or media policy, ideally combined with project or team management experience. This is a hybrid role requiring both PM discipline, editorial leadership and judgment to shape the overall product and evaluate investigative research content, not just track deadlines.
• Demonstrated understanding of media ownership structures, company/beneficial-ownership research, or comparable OSINT-based investigation.
• Demonstrated understanding of media pluralism and market concentration issues.
• Working knowledge of core journalistic standards and data protection principles; both essential to MOM's credibility as a journalism product.
• Decisive under ambiguity and in volatile, fast-changing environments, comfortable acting on the best available information.
• Experience managing donor-funded projects and multiple concurrent workstreams.
• Experience supervising junior team members, or instructing and overseeing researchers.
• Intercultural sensitivity and curiosity; committed to the do-no-harm principle when working in politically sensitive or volatile contexts.
• Comfortable working in a fully digital, cloud-based environment (GSuite, Slack); experience working with structured data or databases is a plus, to quickly grasp the logic of GMR's Pimcore database.

Practical Details

• Languages: English fluency required; French a strong asset; additional languages a plus.
• Travel: International travel required at key project milestones.

• Leadership responsibilities combined with direct involvement in implementation.
• International collaboration within a dynamic, diverse, and highly experienced team.
• Flexible hybrid working arrangements, with partial on-site presence in our Berlin office.