PR Director

Key responsibilities

• Possesses a deep understanding of client businesses.
• Ability to think and program across a variety of platforms, channels, and audiences.
• Consistently identifies the business problem(s) that clients are looking to solve and ensures they are understood by the team.
• Maintains an intimate understanding of the clients’ businesses, priorities, pain points, and competitive landscape and helps the team do the same.
• Stays knowledgeable about markets, sectors, and channels in which clients operate; uses internal/external resources to address knowledge gaps for self and team.
• Anticipates what’s next; helps clients get ahead of issues and capitalize on new opportunities.
• Demonstrates empathy for clients – understands clients’ mindset, challenges (personal, professional, internal, and external), and barriers to success and takes appropriate action.
• Balances the needs of the client and the needs of the firm with grace and understanding.
• Cultivate business growth opportunities among existing and prospective clients.
• Lead and contribute to new business proposals.
• Negotiate client and vendor contracts and manage client budgeting and authorization process before beginning work.
• Manages client relationship mapping and development across a portfolio.
• Actively listens – asks smart questions, listens to what’s not being said, is willing to have honest, ongoing dialogue about what’s working and what isn’t.
• Identifies and acknowledges problems swiftly and directly, offers solutions, and course-corrects as needed.
• Measures what matters – tracks progress and reports results based on agreed-upon metrics and achievement of business and communications goals.
• Manages and monitors client relationships using formal and informal tools and touchpoints.
• Navigate conflicts with other businesses.
• Escalates client problems and client opportunities to senior leadership with equal amounts of urgency.
• Oversees client budget management and forecasting; proactively addresses changes in scope and delays in client invoice payment.
• Creates growth plans for bringing in new capabilities against client needs.
• Seeks out new clients and actively participates in full new business processes.
• Ensure performance expectations, career development plan, and goals are set and reviewed annually during the formal performance review process for all direct reports.
• Provide ongoing, constructive feedback to staff, consistently hold them accountable, and address underperformance in a timely manner.
• Mentor, coach, and support all team members, and ensure you and your staff are constantly developing abilities.
• Develop staff to become capable of assuming more senior roles
• Set achievable goals and tasks, delegate opportunities, and provide resources for direct reports to meet their goals, consistently measure and recognize goal achievement.
• Oversee quality control of teams’ assignments including writing, pitching, proposals, reporting, and delivery.
• Encourage teams to participate in and talk about company-wide initiatives.
• Establish achievable revenue growth targets annually.
• Understand core financial constructs including revenue, profitability, pricing structures, utilization, actuals, budgeting, and forecasting.
• Proactively plan and maintain team structures to ensure reasonable workloads, optimized profitability, accommodation to project and budget changes, and to avoid over-servicing.
• Accurately record your time correctly to the right project codes on a timely basis
• Approve time, expenses, and POs accurately and regularly.
• Use the firm’s financial system to bill clients accurately and minimize delays and adjustments.
• Lead by example; demonstrate strong work ethic, creative abilities, and industry expertise.
• Communicate and inspire colleagues and staff through vision, goals, and strategy for client teams and guide them to produce creative and effective outcomes.
• Set and pursue goals for you and your staff.
• Build your leadership skills.
• Manage conflicts well.
• Create a climate that encourages ethical conduct and a commitment to compliance with the law.
• Participate in and lead the development and adoption of new products, services, intellectual property, and thought leadership materials related to your areas of expertise.