Position Title: PR Manager
Position Reports To: Director - PR
Relevant Experience (Years): 4 Years
About the Role
We're looking for a seasoned communications leader who brings equal strength in team building, business development, strategic thinking, and operational execution. This role goes beyond day-to-day account management: you'll build and lead a high-performing team, shape the direction of our PR practice, and drive business growth. The ideal candidate comes with a track record of scaling teams, running efficient operations, and winning new business.
Key Roles & Responsibilities
1. Team Leadership & Development
- Build, lead, and grow a high-performing PR team, not just manage existing headcount.
- Define team structure, hiring goals, and capability-building priorities as the practice scales.
- Mentor and develop team members across all levels; establish clear performance expectations and growth paths.
- Foster a culture of accountability, creative ambition, and continuous learning.
- Actively coach on craft: media strategy, writing, client counsel, and presentation skills.
2. Business Development & Pipeline Building
- Lead and contribute to new business efforts, from prospecting and proposal development to pitch delivery.
- Build and maintain a healthy pipeline; identify organic growth opportunities within existing client relationships.
- Spot whitespace opportunities across accounts and develop strategies to expand scope and value.
- Represent the agency's capabilities and positioning with credibility and conviction in client-facing settings.
- Partner with leadership to shape the agency's go-to-market narrative and sector positioning.
3. Strategy & Client Counsel
- Develop and execute integrated communications strategies across diverse sectors and audience segments.
- Serve as a trusted strategic advisor to senior clients and not just a day-to-day contact.
- Provide proactive counsel on issues, reputational risks, competitive landscape, and emerging trends.
- Translate business objectives into communications frameworks that deliver measurable outcomes.
- Lead senior-level client relationships with confidence; align stakeholders and manage expectations effectively.
4. Operations & Practice Management
- Own the operational health of the team: resource allocation, utilization, workflow design, and delivery quality.
- Establish and refine processes that improve efficiency without sacrificing output quality.
- Manage budgets at the account and team level; identify opportunities to optimise cost and performance.
- Evaluate and implement tools or technologies that improve team productivity and reporting.
- Identify and resolve operational bottlenecks proactively; build systems that scale with the team.
5. Media Relations & Communications Excellence
- Drive high-impact media strategy with a strong personal network across national, trade, and digital media.
- Oversee quality and consistency of all client-facing outputs: press materials, messaging, pitches, and reports.
- Stay ahead of the evolving media landscape; proactively identify and brief teams on emerging formats and platforms.
- Set the editorial standard for the team; actively review and elevate written work.
6. Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Work closely with leadership, digital, and research teams to deliver integrated programmes.
- Act as a connector within the organisation, building relationships across functions and geographies.
- Contribute to agency-wide initiatives beyond your immediate accounts: thought leadership, culture, capabilities.
What You'll Bring
- 4+ years in communications, with meaningful experience spanning both agency and corporate environments.
- Demonstrated ability to build teams from the ground up not just inherit and manage them.
- Deep grounding in corporate reputation, issues and crisis management, and strategic communications across varied sectors and audiences.
- Sector-agnostic capability you've worked across industries and can adapt quickly to new contexts.
- Strong media relations credentials with a proven track record of securing high-value coverage.
- Proven experience owning or contributing to business development, pitches, proposals, and pipeline management.
- Operational instincts: you understand how a team runs and can make it run better.
- Confidence and credibility to counsel senior clients and navigate complex stakeholder environments.
- A collaborative, solutions-first mindset with the ability to lead through ambiguity.
