Vice President, Peppercomm

Peppercomm, a Ruder Finn Group Company, seeks a Vice President (VP) to join our growing team! The VP must be news obsessed, scrappy, trend focused, always curious, entrepreneurially minded, a lifelong learner, data driven and, above all, a superb listener. The VP must strive to exceed client expectations on what they thought was possible from a trusted partner, evidenced by feedback and account growth. The VP in this role is expected to drive the day-to-day account responsibilities and deliver solid communications results (media, social, etc.) across our portfolio of accounts in B2B, fintech, and financial services.

This is a hybrid role based in our New York office.

About Peppercomm

Peppercomm, a Ruder Finn company, is an award-winning, strategic, integrated communications and marketing agency headquartered in New York City. With 30 years of expertise serving blue chip and breakout clients, the firm has made a science of communication, combining wit and wisdom with proven public relations discipline and innovative offerings to break through, build deeper connections and ensure our clients' success. Peppercomm has received numerous accolades throughout its history, being named one of the top 10 Crain's Best Places to Work in NYC, the PRNews Agency Elite 100 and PR Daily's Top Agencies, as well as recent campaign award recognitions from the PR Daily Awards (thought leadership communications), Provoke SABRE Awards (Integrated Campaign), PRNews Platinum PR Awards (Media Relations), and the Bulldog PR Awards (Media Relations), among others. For more information visit www.peppercomm.com.

Responsibilities:

• Serve as an account lead across multiple client accounts across different verticals, developing strong relationships with clients, and deliver sound counsel and recommendations

• Do a deep dive into the clients' business, products, markets and influencers and contribute strategic ideas and recommendations to help build integrated public relations programs

• Develop client programs/projects and drive program implementation, leading campaigns from inception through execution

• Play a key role driving earned media for your clients through significant media relations efforts including data driven story development, growing and maintaining media relationships with trade and top tier press, creating and executing media strategies for clients, etc.

• Regularly conduct proactive media outreach, including opportunistic and feature coverage, leveraging traditional media, as well as digital/emerging technologies, for PR programming

• Stay abreast with media on a regular basis to gain an understanding of your clients’ industry topics of coverage and gain insights from media coverage, including potential newsjacking opportunities

• Offer creative and innovative ideas to brainstorms, client programs, new business presentations and internal initiatives

• Oversee and manage multiple workstreams, ensuring deadlines are being met and quality is assured

• Create informative, engaging and compelling content including writing press releases, pitches, by-lined articles, key message documents, fact sheets, media statements, social media copy, etc.

• Serve as a leader to the account team and keep them updated and engaged on client activities, projects and assignments

• Actively participate in the agency’s business development efforts, supporting RFPs, developing proposals and being a part of the pitch team

• Offer strategic advice about programs and measurement analytics

• Provide mentoring and coaching to junior staff

Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in communications, journalism, or a related field

• 8+ years of PR agency or in-house experience within public relations/communications, with strong experience in earned media and in working across multiple client verticals

• Strong and reliable industry relationships with media

• Ability to multitask and organize multiple deadlines across various accounts

• Proven ability to write strategic documents as a clear, concise and persuasive writer

• Critical thinking and strategic problem solving

• Demonstrated experience supporting new business efforts, including identifying growth opportunities, collaborating on pitch development, and partnering with team to gain new client assignments

• A “never quit” attitude and a great sense of humor

Benefits and More

• Health, Dental, Vision, company paid Life Insurance, Flexible Spending Accounts, transit benefits, as well as 401k (match) plan.

• Monthly allowance for cell phone, office equipment, etc.

• Annual Wellbeing Stipend

• Generous time off policy

• Paid maternity/paternity leave

• Workplace flexibility

The anticipated salary range for this position, at the time of posting, is $120,000 – $145,000. The salary of the applicant selected for this role will be based on a variety of factors, including but not limited to, education, internal equity, geography, relevant years of experience, certifications, skills, abilities of the selected applicant, and other job-related qualifications. In addition, a range of medical, dental, vision, disability, 401(k) matching, paid time off, and/or other benefits also are available by the company.

Ruder Finn provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy (including childbirth, lactation and related medical conditions), national origin, age, physical and mental disability, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, genetic information, military and veteran status, and any other characteristic protected by applicable law. Ruder Finn will not tolerate discrimination or harassment based on any of these characteristics. Ruder Finn believes that diversity and inclusion among our employees is critical to our success as a global company, and we seek to recruit, develop and retain the most talented people from a diverse candidate pool.