This role is to cover the maternity leave of SHIFT Active Media’s Head of PR & Social Media. We’re looking for an experienced leader who can help SHIFT maintain quality and commercial success during the Head of Department’s absence.
Ideally, we are looking for someone who can guide and manage our multi skilled PR & Social Media team, with an emphasis on supporting the development of PR strategies, driving team proactivity, and ensuring brilliant basics, whilst also personally running some key PR client relationships.
You will act as a trusted PR expert to our PR clients, sometimes working as part of an integrated team across the agency and at other times leading PR only clients with additional commercial support from Senior Management or Business Director leads.
PR & Social Media Expertise and Excellence
- Maintain the quality of our PR & Social Media output through innovation, learning, and a deep understanding of the earned media and social landscape including being well versed in the impact AI is having on PR.
- Champion best practice across PR and Social, ensuring work is strategic, culturally relevant, and commercially impactful.
- Help develop and sell in bigger and more ambitious PR ideas and plans.
- Build and own senior level client relationships, acting as a trusted advisor with honesty, confidence, and pragmatism.
- Lead key PR & Social relationships in close collaboration with Account Management on integrated accounts, ensuring best in class service, retention, and growth.
Commercial & Business Growth
- Work closely with the commercial and new business teams to pitch, win, and grow PR & Social Media opportunities.
- Be comfortable in the detail while maintaining a clear view of the bigger picture.
- Be across your own and the team's (as appropriate) utilisation and burn rates against client retainers and projects.
Team Management & Development
- Lead by example in behaviour, energy and standards, continue to build a positive, collaborative and ambitious team culture.
- Be on hand to help with difficult or complex decisions and identify when to seek counsel from other senior team members.
- Ensure clear communication, regular feedback and accountability across the team.
Industry & Media Relationships
- Lead the team in building and maintaining strong relationships with endemic media, journalists, influencers, and industry partners.
- Ensure the team is proactively meeting, engaging, and generating coverage across relevant industry and consumer media, as well as understanding how to leverage social and AI to deepen reach.
- Represent SHIFT confidently within the industry.
Skills & Behaviours
- Creativity: Drives the PR & editorial strategy. Leads a team to deliver highly targeted PR campaigns, defines measurement metrics, and analyses effectiveness to inform future activity.
- Approach, Commitment & Passion: Objective, maintains a cool head under pressure, acts as a trusted advisor in a crisis, and sets the benchmark for professionalism.
- Collaboration & Leadership: Motivates and inspires agency wide collaboration and process through great leadership and integrated thinking.
- Communication & Relationships: Communicates with gravitas to influence across all levels internally and externally. Functions as a trusted advisor to senior clients.
- Delivery & Expertise: Builds senior client relationships, develops a deep understanding of their business, and ensures that the agency is focused on delivery against their goals and objectives.
- Strategic Thinking: Sees the bigger picture, counsels clients on PR and broader comms strategy, and develops and leads campaigns.
- Commercial Understanding: Takes direct accountability for delivering PR income and understands how to do that profitably.
- Decision Making: Owns tough business decisions, takes responsibility, and challenges where necessary.
Required experience
- Experience working in a senior PR role within an agency, or in a relevant client side comms role within a cycling business.
- A proven track record of developing and delivering PR & communication strategies and plans over a number of years.
- Has good evidence of understanding how social and AI are integral to shaping a modern PR offering.
- Experience managing a team to deliver PR campaigns and run press office services.
- A passion for cycling and outdoor pursuits, whilst not always essential, is looked upon very favourably.
Reports to: CEO
Direct reports: PR Managers & Execs and Social Media Manager
This role is primarily office-based, with the team currently working 4 days out of 5 in the office.
Think you'd be a good fit so far? Click here to apply.
