Community Engagement Specialist, Autonomous Systems

The World Economic Forum is an independent, not-for-profit organization, headquartered in Geneva, with offices in New York, San Francisco, Beijing, and Tokyo.

We are the trusted platform for public-private cooperation where leaders come together to understand global challenges and drive action across sectors and regions. We create spaces where different stakeholders engage openly, build trust, and collaborate to help solve shared global challenges. 

Context and why we are recruiting?

Robotics and embodied AI are emerging as defining technologies of the next decade, with the potential to transform industries, economies and societies. As these technologies move from research and pilots towards real-world deployment, the World Economic Forum is expanding its work in this area to help leaders better understand and shape the responsible development of this emerging sector.

To support this portfolio, we are looking for a Community Engagement Specialist to help build and engage a global community of leaders across industry, government, academia, start-ups and international organizations working on robotics, embodied AI and autonomous systems.

The successful candidate will play a central role in coordinating the portfolio's communities and activities, supporting executive engagement, contributing to ecosystem intelligence, and helping connect the Forum's global work with the Network of Centres for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (C4IR).

Reporting line and how is this role embedded in the wider team?

The Community Engagement Specialist reports to the Autonomous Systems Lead within the Centre for Frontier Technologies and Innovation.

The Community Engagement Specialist will work closely with colleagues across the Centre and with other teams across the Forum, as well as with external stakeholders from industry, government, academia, start-ups and international organizations.

Building productive relationships internally and externally will be essential for succeeding in this role.

What will you be responsible for?

• Coordinate the delivery of the Forum's robotics, embodied AI and autonomous systems work, including executive communities, publications, workshops and institutional events.

• Support the growth and engagement of high-level communities of business leaders, government representatives, researchers, investors, entrepreneurs and international organizations working across the robotics and embodied AI ecosystem.

• Build and maintain productive relationships with internal and external stakeholders, ensuring timely follow-up, engagement tracking and community development.

• Monitor developments across the robotics and embodied AI ecosystem, identifying emerging companies, technologies, research institutions, investors and trends that can inform the Forum's work.

• Support the development of executive briefings, publications and thought leadership by contributing stakeholder intelligence and ecosystem mapping.

• Work closely with colleagues across the Centre and other teams across the Forum to support and coordinate activities across related Forum initiatives.

• Support collaboration with the Network of Centres for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (C4IR) by connecting regional initiatives with the Forum's global portfolio and facilitating knowledge exchange across Centres.

• Coordinate stakeholder engagement surrounding key institutional events, including the Annual Meeting, the Annual Meeting of the New Champions and regional meetings, ensuring effective preparation, follow-up and community activation.

What core knowledge, skills and experience are we looking to add to our team?

Domain Knowledge and Experience

• University degree in robotics, autonomous systems, engineering, technology policy, business administration, international relations or a related field.

• 3+ years of experience in programme management, stakeholder engagement, consulting or ecosystem development, ideally related to robotics or other frontier technologies.

• Familiarity with the global robotics and embodied AI ecosystem, including the leading companies, start-ups, research institutions, investors and other organizations shaping the field.

• Experience engaging stakeholders across industry, government, academia, start-ups and international organizations.

Core Skills

• Excellent programme and project management skills, with the ability to coordinate multiple workstreams and deliver high-quality outputs in a fast-paced environment.

• Strong organizational skills, with excellent attention to detail, reliability and follow-through.

• Highly collaborative team player with strong presentation and interpersonal skills. Ideally proven experience of thriving in multicultural environments.

• Strong analytical skills and intellectual curiosity, with the ability to synthesize information, identify emerging trends and derive actionable insights.

• Experience supporting stakeholder engagement and community management, with the ability to build productive working relationships across diverse stakeholder groups.

• Experience supporting knowledge management and executive engagement, including the preparation of high-quality presentations, briefing materials, meeting documentation and other executive-facing materials.

• Proficiency in Microsoft Office applications; experience with digital collaboration platforms and tools; familiarity with Salesforce or comparable CRM platforms is an advantage.

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English; additional languages are a plus.

Why join us?

Join an independent and impartial organization with over 55 years of connecting leaders to make sense of global challenges and move the world forward together.