Director of Public Relations

About the role

Level is seeking a Director of Public Relations to build and ultimately own our press function end-to-end, working in close partnership with the Director of Communications. The goal is to eliminate Level’s reliance on outside PR agencies entirely, and absorb the strategic narrative, senior media relationships, and placement work that agencies currently provide.

Responsibilities

• Execute Level’s press strategy and execution including senior/national media placements.
• Make day-to-day calls on which stories and opportunities to pursue and personally drive them to placement.
• Execute the transition of PR ownership from Level’s two current agency partners to an in-house model, absorbing their relationships, institutional knowledge, and functions.
• Run Level’s day-to-day press function, including managing inbound media inquiries, considering and triaging inbound requests, drafting initial responses/holding lines, scheduling and prepping interviews, managing briefing docs, and coordinating spokespeople.
• Own and maintain Level’s full press toolkit — fact sheets, FAQs, executive bios, boilerplate, product backgrounders, image and B-roll libraries, press kits, and the Level press page.
• Build and maintain direct, senior-level relationships with reporters, editors, and producers covering K-12, edtech, learning sciences, and education policy at U.S. trade and national outlets.
• Embed across product, research, partnerships, and marketing to surface story-worthy moments and shape how they’re framed and pitched.
• Own Level’s rolling editorial calendar across PR moments, product launches/updates, marketing campaigns, and partnerships.
• Prepare and brief Level spokespeople for interviews, panels, and conference appearances, and develop talking points, anticipate tough questions, run prep sessions, and advise on media strategy and positioning.
• Own media monitoring, social listening, and competitive intelligence, evaluating and managing whatever tools or vendors are needed, and turn insights into actionable recommendations for the Director and Level leadership.
• Steward sensitive pre-launch information, embargoes, and reactive scenarios day-to-day, and maintain strict confidentiality protocols across internal and external stakeholders.

Qualifications

The following qualifications are required:

• 10+ years of progressive experience in public relations or communications, including experience operating as the primary or sole owner of an organization’s earned media strategy.
• Demonstrated track record independently securing senior and national media placements.
• Experience transitioning a PR function from agency-led to in-house, or building an in-house PR function from the ground up.
• Demonstrated experience in the education space; K-12, edtech, education nonprofit or education policy, with established direct, senior-level relationships among education reporters, editors, and producers.
• Strong writing skills across formats including press releases, pitches, briefing docs, FAQs, talking points.
• Calm, organized presence under press pressure; comfortable serving as a senior point of contact for reporters and making judgment calls on inquiry flow against tight deadlines.
• Hands-on proficiency with media-monitoring and outreach tools and the ability to translate tool outputs into actionable recommendations.
• High judgment and discretion; comfortable holding embargoed and pre-launch information and advising leadership on sensitive scenarios.
• Comfortable operating in a pre-launch environment with strict confidentiality protocols.

The following qualifications are nice to have:

• Experience launching or managing PR for a kid-tech product, in a space with heightened scrutiny around child safety, privacy, and parent trust.
• Prior experience leading PR for a high-profile launch, brand reveal, or major announcement at a startup.
• Experience on the client side managing strategic communications agencies, including having led or supported a wind-down or in-sourcing of agency-owned work.
• Relationships with influencers and creators in the parenting, youth-tech, or education-creator space.
• Experience preparing executive spokespeople for interviews and conference appearances.
• Familiarity with podcast and broadcast-booking workflows.
• Working knowledge of education research, policy, or curriculum standards strong enough to translate technical content for general audiences and shape narrative.
• Experience building press infrastructure (e.g., press page, kits, databases) from scratch.
• Experience hiring, managing, or mentoring junior communications staff as a function scales.