Associate Director Public Relations

Summary
Associate Director Public Relations
As the Associate Director of PR, your primary function is PR account oversight - fiscally, strategically, and creatively. You are often the client relationship manager to help ensure all projects with us are successful. You are focused on success in your client's eyes, including managing client communication, expectations, and feedback while overseeing teams assigned to each account you support.
There is an expectation that Associate Directors:

• Have strong leadership and team management skills
• Are experts in the areas of PR, media relations, reputation management, and communications
• Can train and teach foundational PR principles and best practices and other relevant skills related to the function
• Have strong presentation skills
• Collaborate on strategy development and implementation
• Supervise and foster a growing PR team, including direct reports, by monitoring and approving time and conducting reviews
• Are capable multi-taskers and can juggle multiple projects at once
• Demonstrate strong client service skills, are responsive and professional in client communication
• Establish and maintain warm relationships with both members of the media and client spokespersons
• Proactively originate out-of-the-box ideas that strengthen the client's positioning within the industry

Your qualifications include:

• You have at least 7+ years of relevant experience (agency experience preferred)
• You're in tune with trending topics, technologies, and the key stakeholders
• You're able to develop and lead PR strategies and campaigns
• You're able to lead a PR team through campaign execution
• You're comfortable advising clients about their PR strategy
• You're an expert at managing members of the media, monitoring publications, and identifying optimization opportunities
• You're an expert at creating and maintaining a strong rapport and trust with clients
• You can consistently guide clients with strategic and tactical recommendations, even if that means pushing back when appropriate
• You're proficient at communicating program updates, challenges, and changes to clients
• You can identify client needs
• You can shepherd clients through the project intake process and understand their goals
• You can confidently navigate crises in partnership with Directors/VPs when necessary
• You're comfortable supervising multiple direct reports, and you're able to balance and assign team members to projects
• You're experienced in overseeing the success of 1-3 projects operating concurrently
• You are comfortable acting as the primary escalation point for Senior Managers and Managers
• You can forecast the overall health of the account fiscally and emotionally
• You have experience in contributing to new business efforts

How You'll Create Impact:

• You have an extensive list of media friendlies across a variety of verticals
• You've co-authored creative communications strategies for brands that have consistently resulted in feature-length coverage in top publications and helped to further your clients' brand mission and vision
• You're not afraid to share your craziest ideas and turn them into inspiring campaigns that drive results for your clients
• You love hosting brainstorms, you reverse engineer virality, and you consistently lead the creation of ownable moments for your clients
• You direct thoughtful media strategy, brand messaging, and creative comms for your accounts
• You oversee the day-to-day work, as well as the long-term professional development of 1-2 direct reports while embracing team, departmental, and agency values and culture
• You are a key player in new business, responding to inbound inquiries, as well as developing the proposals and concepts that cut through the noise of our competitors
• You have a finger on the pulse of the industry, ensuring AMP is out-performing the competition with original campaign ideas, ownable moment ideation, and strategic insights
• You are comfortable partnering with the department lead to drive innovation and unlock new revenue streams by pairing services and identifying opportunities for integration (Influencer, Experiential, SEO, Search, etc.)

Position will remain open until filled
Responsibilities
The Company is one of North America's leading sales and marketing agencies specializing in outsourced sales, merchandising, category management and marketing services to manufacturers, suppliers and producers of food products and consumer packaged goods. The Company services a variety of trade channels including grocery, mass merchandise, specialty, convenience, drug, dollar, club, hardware, consumer electronics and home centers. We bridge the gap between manufacturers and retailers, providing consumers access to the best products available in the marketplace today.
Job Duty

• Oversees department performance as measured against major KPIs and goals; monitors trends to proactively identify risks and opportunities
• Manages Account Services employee relations, working in conjunction with People & Culture to facilitate teamwork and address questions and conflicts
• Responsible for Account Services financial management, including client forecasting/projections, budgets, and billing
• Fosters a high performance and high-quality environment to produce excellent results for our clients
• Coaches people managers in all aspects with in Account Services on leading teams effectively while also driving employee engagement
• Collaborates with the leadership team to develop, track, and achieve departmental goals

Supervisory Responsibilities
Direct Reports
- Hires, retains, trains, coaches, guides, directs, and develops direct reports using company-wide processes, tools and resources
Indirect Reports
- May delegate work of others and provide guidance, direction and mentoring to indirect reports
Travel and/or Driving Requirements
- Travel and Driving are not essential duties or functions of this job
Minimum Qualifications
The following are the minimum job-related qualifications which an individual needs in order to successfully perform the essential duties and responsibilities of the job
Education Level: (Required): Bachelor's Degree or equivalent experience
Field of Study/Area of Experience:
6+ Years of experience in account or management experience in PPC advertising, preferably managing multi-million dollar budget SEM programs through Google AdWords and Bing Ads
Retail experience, including but not limited to: eCommerce; merchandising and promotions; multi-channel marketing; branding a plus
Skills, Knowledge and Abilities

• Proven people manager skills developing employees and optimizing organizational effectiveness, including a minimum of two years building and leading teams
• Strong track record of delivering outstanding service to clients, both internal and external, as well as business results and ROI
• Demonstrated ability to improve existing systems and implement new structures to build an effective learning environment
• Ability to communicate complex data with clarity and simplicity
• Strong problem-solving and analytical skills
• Keen eye for excellent client service and account performance
• Creative self-start with strong relationship, organization, negotiation, and problem solving skills
• Able to work with third party properties, agencies, suppliers and media organizations

Environmental & Physical Requirements
Office / Sedentary Requirements
Incumbent must be able to perform the essential functions of the job. Work is performed primarily in an office environment. Typically requires the ability to sit for extended periods of time (66%+ each day), ability to hear the telephone, ability to enter data on a computer and may also require the ability to lift up to 10 pounds.
Job duties include additional responsibilities as assigned by one's supervisor or other manager related to the position/department. This job description is meant to describe the general nature and level of work being performed; it is not intended to be construed as an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties and skills required for the position. The Company reserves the right at any time with or without notice to alter or change job responsibilities, reassign or transfer job position or assign additional job responsibilities, subject to applicable law. The Company shall provide reasonable accommodations of known disabilities to enable a qualified applicant or employee to apply for employment, perform the essential functions of the job, or enjoy the benefits and privileges of employment as required by the law.
Any estimate, schedule, or guideline provided to associates in this job description or elsewhere in connection with their jobs is only intended to help describe job duties and for planning purposes. Regardless of any such estimate, schedule, or guideline, associates must always record all time worked for our company (which includes but is not limited to on-site work time in an assigned store, office, or other work location; required waiting time; administrative time; and work-related travel time).
Important Information
The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by people assigned to this position. They are not intended to be an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties and skills required of associates so classified.
The Company is committed to providing equal opportunity in all employment practices without regard to age, race, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, religion, physical or mental disability, or any other category protected by law. As part of this commitment, the Company shall provide reasonable accommodations of known disabilities to enable an applicant or employee to apply for employment, perform the essential functions of the job, or enjoy the benefits and privileges of employment as required by the law.