Head of Narrative, Reputation & Content

About the Role

The Head of Narrative, Reputation & Content shapes and activates EY Africa's strategic narrative, ensuring the firm is credible, distinctive, and discoverable across both human and AI-driven audiences. This includes defining narrative frameworks and standards while partnering with channel and Go-To-Market (GTM) teams to execute across campaigns, events, digital platforms, and media. The role leads integrated narrative frameworks, executive positioning, and reputation strategies, overseeing scalable, high-quality content systems that support business priorities, GTM activity, and brand objectives.

The role is based in Sandton, South Africa, and is part of the Africa Brand, Marketing & Communications (BMC) team, responsible for external brand and communications, design, digital communications, events, thought leadership, the alumni program, and internal communications. The BMC team is part of Accounts & Business Development (ABD) within Core Business Services. The Africa Region operates as a single business across 33 countries with over 260 partners and 5,000+ employees, spanning four service lines: Assurance, Consulting, Tax, and Strategy and Transactions.

At EY, we support your personal and professional growth through rewarding experiences in an environment built on integrity, collaboration, and innovation. You’ll work alongside global organizations while maintaining flexibility to focus on what matters most to you.

Responsibilities

• Define and own EY Africa's overarching narrative framework, ensuring clear, compelling, and consistent positioning across markets, sectors, and audiences.
• Translate business strategy into distinct, repeatable storylines and points of view on priority topics (e.g., growth, AI, and sector themes).
• Act as a trusted strategic advisor to the Africa Leadership Team on messaging, positioning, and reputation.
• Lead the development of executive and leadership communications to influence internal alignment, external perception, and high-impact moments (e.g., results announcements and reputation issues).
• Ensure alignment and consistency across internal, external, and leadership communications.
• Design integrated influence strategies across earned, owned, and emerging channels, collaborating with PR, digital, and campaign teams to activate them.
• Evolve traditional PR into a modern influence model spanning media, digital platforms, and ecosystem amplification.
• Define and enable an always-on content ecosystem, including editorial governance, content reuse models, and clearly defined roles across teams.
• Oversee the development of high-quality, modular, and reusable content frameworks deployable across channels and formats.
• Provide editorial leadership across major outputs (EY.com, social media, and thought leadership), ensuring content is insight-led and optimized for discoverability.
• Design audience-led engagement strategies to tailor content to audience needs and drive meaningful interaction.
• Partner with Go-To-Market leadership to ensure narrative informs campaigns, content supports pipeline growth, and communications drive measurable engagement.
• Use audience insights, content performance data, and market signals to continuously refine messaging and optimize impact, establishing feedback loops with Analytics and GTM teams.
• Define governance models and decision rights for narrative, messaging, and content approval across the organization.
• Manage and ensure the effectiveness of communications processes, including identifying and mitigating strategic risks and aligning narrative decisions across teams.
• Contribute to budget planning, ensuring appropriate resource allocation to achieve divisional objectives.
• Manage project demand, prioritize resources, and lead projects from inception to completion, including stakeholder engagement.
• Balance competing priorities and multiple concurrent projects while engaging effectively with senior stakeholders.

Communication Objectives

• Build and maintain a strong, differentiated EY Africa narrative in the market.
• Drive measurable improvement in:
  • Leadership visibility
  • Quality of engagement
  • Content consumption and relevance
• Ensure consistency, clarity, and quality across all communication outputs.
• Strengthen EY's position as a trusted advisor on priority issues, supported by clearly defined KPIs and baselines aligned to business priorities.

Requirements

• Recognized qualification in Marketing, Communications, Public Relations, Journalism, or a related field.
• 8-10 years of relevant experience, including:
  • A minimum of 3 years at Senior Management level; or
  • A minimum of 5 years at Management level.
• Professional services experience or experience managing a communications function within a complex matrix organization is preferred.

Skills

• Strong strategic storytelling and narrative development capability, with the ability to translate complex concepts into clear, compelling messages.
• Excellent editorial judgment, ensuring high-quality, consistent, and impactful content across all platforms.
• Deep understanding of modern content ecosystems, including digital platforms, search optimization, and AI-driven discoverability.
• Proven ability to operate as a trusted advisor to senior executives and influence leadership-level decision-making.
• Strong integration mindset, with the ability to collaborate effectively across Marketing, GTM, Business Development, and Leadership teams.
• Broad marketing and communications expertise, with experience across multiple channels and disciplines.
• Advanced written and verbal communication skills, ideally gained within a professional services environment.
• Strong leadership capability, with the ability to inspire, guide, and develop high-performing teams.
• Highly organized and results-driven, with the ability to prioritize effectively, manage complexity, and deliver in a fast-paced environment.
• Strong attention to detail combined with strategic thinking and commercial awareness.

Behavioural Requirements

• Build a reputation as a subject matter expert among internal and external stakeholders within your functional discipline and program areas.
• Identify and share best practices by leveraging leading practices and market developments, addressing gaps in current ways of working, and initiating improvements.
• Seek and value input from others in decision-making and problem-solving processes.
• Serve as a positive role model by demonstrating EY's values through words and actions.
• Support the development of a strong team culture and provide constructive feedback on strengths and development opportunities.
• Demonstrate adaptability to diverse cultural and interpersonal styles.
• Translate complex ideas into simple, clear, and compelling messages.
• Effectively manage and resolve conflict.
• Work independently with minimal supervision.
• Demonstrate a collaborative, enthusiastic, and results-oriented mindset with a commitment to excellence.
• Display flexibility regarding working hours when required.
• Influence senior stakeholders and build strong, lasting working relationships.
• Adapt to changing business requirements while assimilating new information and applying sound judgment.
• Bring innovative thinking to content development opportunities.
• Take initiative and remain proactive in a fast-paced, high-performance environment.
• Quickly define problems, gather input, conduct assessments, draw conclusions, and implement solutions.