The Role
Leads communications, public relations, public affairs, social media, and agency strategy for Cirque du Soleil shows across the Americas and international markets. Drives demand, ticket revenue, cultural relevance, market entry, and corporate reputation. Oversees distributed PR teams, agency partners, media relationships, stakeholder engagement, show launches, social performance, and cross-functional coordination with legal, HR, operations, sustainability, and partnerships.
Summary Generated by Built In
***Le poste étant situé aux États-Unis, la description de poste est disponible uniquement en anglais.***
***As this position in based in the United States, the job description is available in English only.***
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Director of Communications - Americas (Touring & Corporate)
Sales, Marketing and Communications
Reports to: Reports to Vice President - Commercial, Americas with a functional reporting line to SVP, Communication
Scope: All shows in the Americas + Corporate Communications + Public Affairs
Teams: Touring show PR teams (embedded on tour) + Resident show PR teams, and their respective agency rosters
Role Purpose
The Director of Communications – Americas (Touring & Corporate) is responsible for driving demand, shaping reputation, and ensuring cultural relevance for Cirque du Soleil across touring markets and corporate narratives in Canada and the Americas.
This role elevates communications into a strategic growth engine, integrating PR, corporate narrative, and public affairs to build anticipation, unlock market opportunities, and support commercial performance across all touring shows.
Based in Montreal, this role acts as the central communications and public affairs lead, ensuring alignment between show storytelling, corporate positioning, and cross-functional execution.
Core Mission
- Drive anticipation, urgency, and sustained demand for international touring and resident shows
- Make communications a core lever of the show marketing mix, fully integrated with paid, CRM, and ticketing
- Lead, develop, and set standards for the touring and resident show PR teams and the agencies that support them
- Own the strategy and governance of show-specific social media channels as an earned and owned demand driver
- Leverage public affairs as a growth enabler to unlock market access, market entry, and partnerships
- Ensure communications is a core driver of ticket revenue and brand equity
- Orchestrate cross-functional alignment to deliver cohesive show launches across diverse international markets
Key Responsibilities
1. Show Communications Strategy – International Touring, Resident Shows & Public Affairs
- Lead and oversee an international show communications strategy spanning touring productions, resident shows, and public affairs
- Embed communications within the end-to-end demand engine (onsale → launch → sustain), in lockstep with market marketing plans
- Integrate public affairs into market entry and growth strategies for new territories
- Lead communications strategy in support of sponsorships and business development, including building relationships with key stakeholders, and developing joint communication plans with partners
2. Show Communications Leadership
- Own communications strategy and performance across all international touring and resident productions
- Ensure each show delivers:
- Clear, differentiated narrative
- Strong local and cultural relevance, adapted per market and language
- Full lifecycle comms (pre-onsale → launch → sustain)
- Implement standards, playbooks, and governance that scale across markets and local agency partners
- Act as spokesperson for international shows and manage show-level issues in market, escalating to corporate communications at HQ where required
3. Show-Specific Social Media Ownership
- Ensure each show PR team owns the strategy, management, and community engagement for its show-specific social media channels
- Set the content, tone, and publishing standards that keep show channels distinctive while consistent with the masterbrand
- Align show channel activity to the onsale, launch, and sustain calendar in each market
- Drive creator, influencer, and talent-led content through show channels to build cultural relevance and organic reach
- Set and track channel performance measures (growth, engagement, referral to ticketing) alongside earned media KPIs
- Ensure coordination with central brand and social teams on shared assets, escalation paths, and community management protocols
4. Public Affairs & Stakeholder Engagement
- Leverage public affairs as a strategic growth enabler by building relationships with:
- Government and public sector stakeholders across international markets
- Tourism boards, city partners, venues, and cultural institutions
- Unlock opportunities to:
- Support market entry for touring and resident shows
- Facilitate partnerships and local integration
- Strengthen Cirque du Soleil’s institutional influence for the Americas
- Coordinate closely with internal stakeholders to align on regulatory, reputational, and market access considerations, including visas, work permits, and cross-border touring requirements
5. Cross-Functional Orchestration
- Own coordination across non-marketing functions to ensure aligned execution and messaging around shows, including:
- Legal
- HR (incl. talent mobility, immigration)
- Sustainability
- Operations
- Sponsorship & partnerships
- Act as the central orchestrator ensuring communications supports and amplifies show and market decisions
- Ensure consistency between internal decisions, external messaging, and market execution, and act as the two-way bridge between international markets and HQ
6. Cultural Relevance & Media Impact
- Position Cirque du Soleil’s shows as culturally relevant and premium in international markets
- Build relationships with Tier 1 media, creators, and influencers across the UK, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific
- Activate cultural moments and partnerships tied to international show launches and runs
7. Team Leadership, Agency Governance & Performance
- Lead and develop the PR teams embedded with the touring shows and the PR teams responsible for the resident shows, across multiple markets, time zones, and languages
- Build a consistent operating model, capability plan, and career path across both team groups, including onboarding for new tours and openings
- Approve and sign off on all agency appointments, scopes, and budgets proposed by the touring and resident show PR teams
- Define and manage the international agency ecosystem, setting selection criteria, performance standards, and review cadence
- Set KPIs tied to business impact (demand, awareness, launch momentum, ticket sales, social channel performance)
- Partner with marketing and analytics to link comms and social to revenue outcomes
Profile & Experience
Required
- 10+ years in communications/PR with multi-market, international leadership experience
- Proven ability to operate communications as a growth and demand lever tied to sales outcomes
- Strong experience in consumer, brand, or entertainment PR, ideally with campaign or launch ownership
- Experience working with government or public sector stakeholders in international markets
- Deep media relationships across the United States and Canada, with demonstrated reach into additional international markets
- Experience directly leading distributed, multi-time-zone in-house teams, including teams embedded with touring operations
- Proven track record appointing, contracting, and managing PR agencies across multiple markets
- Strong command of organic social media strategy and community management for consumer or entertainment brands
- Ability to operate in a matrixed, cross-functional environment
- Fluent in English (mandatory); willingness to travel frequently across international markets
- Additional language(s) relevant to key international markets (e.g. French, Spanish)
- Experience in entertainment, touring productions, live events, or premium brands
- Strong understanding of how communications integrates with marketing, CRM, and revenue generation
Cirque du Soleil Entertainment Group is committed to creating and maintaining an accessible and inclusive workplace. Proud ambassador of equality in employment, Cirque du Soleil Entertainment Group is committed to eliminating discrimination based on age, skin color, origins, religion, sex, sexual orientation and any other characteristic. Neutral and inclusive writing is now preferred for all new job postings.
Skills Required
- 10+ years of experience in communications or public relations
- Multi-market, international leadership experience
- Experience operating communications as a growth and demand lever tied to sales outcomes
- Strong consumer, brand, or entertainment public relations experience
- Experience with campaigns or launch ownership
- Experience working with government or public sector stakeholders in international markets
- Deep media relationships across the United States and Canada, with reach into additional international markets
- Experience directly leading distributed, multi-time-zone in-house teams, including teams embedded with touring operations
- Experience appointing, contracting, and managing public relations agencies across multiple markets
- Strong organic social media strategy and community management experience for consumer or entertainment brands
- Ability to operate in a matrixed, cross-functional environment
- Fluent English
- Willingness to travel frequently across international markets
- Additional language relevant to key international markets, such as French or Spanish
- Experience in entertainment, touring productions, live events, or premium brands
- Strong understanding of communications integration with marketing, CRM, and revenue generation
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The Company
What We Do
Originally composed of 20 street performers in 1984, Cirque du Soleil Entertainment Group completely reinvented circus arts and went on to become a world leader in live entertainment. On top of producing world-renowned shows, Cirque du Soleil Entertainment Group extends its creative approach to a large variety of entertainment forms such as multimedia productions, immersive experiences, theme parks and special events. Going beyond its various creations, Cirque du Soleil Entertainment Group aims to make a positive impact on people, communities and the planet with its most important tools: creativity and art.
