Group Director, PR & Communications

<p>Material is a leading integrated marketing services company that leverages deep human understanding to help brands deliver material outcomes and experiences for their customers and the communities they serve. We build B2C and B2B brands from the insight out by providing a seamless journey that combines data and analytics, insights-led consulting, and experience activation into one integrated offering.</p>

Los Angeles; New York; Chicago; Philadelphia; San

Material

<strong>Material is a collaborative built from legendary practices across research, strategy, design, and brand building. Eleven pioneering companies united as one to solve wider, deeper, and more innovative challenges together.</strong><br /><br /><strong>We uncover what&rsquo;s important to people and create experiences that pull them in and open our worlds. We seek curious, experienced, and deeply empathetic humans to enrich our diverse teams of leaders and do-ers. Want in?</strong><br /> <h5>LRW | Kelton | T3 | Karma | Greenberg | Tonic | MotiveQuest | Salt Branding | Killer Visual Strategies | Strativity | Aruliden</h5> https://materialplus.io/

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Full-Time

Overview: A key leader in our Media Engagement group, which also includes specialists in social and paid media, the Group Director for PR &amp; Communications is a practice-area leader and plays a key role in building the PR business. This role requires a seasoned PR executive with demonstrated ability to deliver and implement strategies that build brands, elevate reputations and earn stakeholder trust. Both clients and team members must be able to rely on this leader for expert communications counsel, message strategy and craft, and a nose for news.
Responsibilities: <ul> <li>Develop storytelling campaigns that deliver across marketing channels.</li> <li>Make client news newsworthy.</li> <li>Mitigate news in the context of issues or crisis. &nbsp;</li> <li>Devise, develop and lead reputational strategies and campaigns.</li> <li>Collaborate with strategy, creative, brand management and media colleagues to deliver integrated campaign initiatives.</li> <li>Manage and develop a team of public relations and communications professionals.</li> <li>Lead definition of the work and scoping of engagements. Manage both client expectations and quality of delivery by the team.</li> <li>Demonstrate leadership in the financial performance of the PR and communications practice</li> </ul> &nbsp; Client Engagement and Accountabilities <ul> <li>Serve as a primary or escalation contact for clients, as appropriate.</li> <li>Create research-driven, creative communications programs that meet or exceed client objectives.</li> <li>Display understanding of and develop communications consulting processes that advance the work including messaging workshops, master narrative assignments, stakeholder mapping exercises and issues management; lead aspects of these assignments.</li> <li>Demonstrate advanced writing skills, ideally including the capability to ghostwrite for senior client executives, and executive positioning expertise (conferences, earned media, social media, etc.</li> <li>Oversee the development of newsworthy pitches, recommend appropriate media strategies, and build relationships with journalists and social media influencers to achieve clients&rsquo; business goals.</li> <li>Demonstrate understanding of visual communications, social media and the digital content landscape and how to incorporate these channels into client programs.</li> <li>Seek out, coordinate and facilitate cross-disciplinary work to provide clients and prospects with the most compelling work and cultivate business growth opportunities.</li> <li>Lead and/or contribute to new business proposals and the identification of new client opportunities.</li> <li>Take immediate action upon client feedback and help solve client problems.</li> <li>Understand core financial constructs including revenue, profitability, pricing structures (hourly vs. retainer accounts), utilization, realization, budgeting and forecasting.</li> <li>Steward resources respectfully and thoughtfully.</li> <li>Participate in opportunities to promote and advance the reputation of the company and build familiarity with prospective targets.</li> </ul> &nbsp; Team and Talent Development <ul> <li>Proactively plan and support team prioritization and assignments to ensure high performance, appropriate workloads, optimized utilization, accommodation of skills and experience to projects and budget changes.</li> <li>Develop and oversee the team&rsquo;s performance, ensuring quality work, efficient processes and client responsiveness.</li> <li>Lead performance management for the team, mentoring, coaching and supporting colleagues as appropriate.</li> <li>Provide ongoing, constructive feedback to direct reports and junior colleagues.</li> <li>Help attract new talent and work to build a team with diverse views and background.</li> <li>Lead by example; demonstrate strong work ethic, creative thinking and industry expertise</li> </ul>
Requirements: Qualifications <ul> <li>This role requires at least 10 years of strong PR experience and must demonstrate understanding of a client-centric professional services model.</li> <li>A bachelor&rsquo;s degree in a relevant field is required. And proven problem solving and analytical skills, strong presentation skills and the confidence to lead and counsel clients through strategic initiatives and new approaches, are all essential.</li> <li>We are looking for an individual who will demonstrate behaviors consistent with our values and uphold the standards of the international code of ethics for public relations professionals.</li> <li>Strong candidates will be citizens of the world, curious and constant learners, as well as daily consumers of news and media.</li> </ul>