Senior Communications Manager

About the role

SEEN Group is looking for an experienced Senior Communications Manager to join our New York team, working across an exciting portfolio of beauty brands. This is a senior role within our Communications team for someone who knows the beauty and earned media landscape inside out and is ready to take real ownership of client relationships, strategy and team delivery. You’ll work closely with our Communications Directors to shape and deliver best-in-class communications strategies, acting as a trusted day-to-day counsel to clients and bringing a strong point of view on the cultural, media and consumer conversations shaping beauty. You’ll also play an important leadership role within the team, developing junior talent and helping create the high standard of work and client service SEEN is known for.

Responsibilities

• Lead the day-to-day direction of your accounts, building strong client relationships and developing a deep understanding of their businesses, ambitions and challenges.
• Our clients should see you as an extension of their team - someone who brings solutions, challenges thinking when needed and is always looking ahead.
• Turn that understanding into smart, culturally relevant communications strategies and creative ideas that earn attention.
• Have a strong understanding of the US beauty media landscape and know how earned media works alongside influencer, social and wider integrated marketing activity.
• Media relationships will be a significant part of the role. Bring an established network across beauty, lifestyle and relevant cultural media, while continuing to build new relationships and spot opportunities for your clients.
• Guide pitching and seeding strategies, identify the stories that have the potential to cut through and support the team in delivering high-quality results.
• Alongside your client work, lead and mentor more junior members of the team. That means setting clear priorities, helping people manage their workload, giving useful feedback and supporting their development through regular conversations, objectives and reviews.
• Work collaboratively across SEEN Group, contributing ideas beyond your own client portfolio and supporting new business and pitches where your experience and perspective can add value.
• As a senior account lead, have responsibility for the commercial health of your accounts too - keeping budgets and scopes on track, working closely with our Finance team and identifying opportunities to grow existing client relationships through broader SEEN Group capabilities.

Requirements

• Around 6-8 years’ experience in communications/PR, ideally with significant experience working with beauty brands.
• Strong knowledge of the US beauty, media and influencer landscape, with established press relationships and a genuine interest in where the industry is heading.
• Experience leading client relationships and the confidence to provide thoughtful, strategic counsel to senior stakeholders.
• A strong track record of developing earned media strategies and converting ideas and pitches into meaningful coverage and results.
• Excellent written, verbal and presentation skills, with the ability to turn insight into a clear recommendation or compelling creative idea.
• An instinct for culture, social media and emerging trends, and an understanding of how these should influence communications strategy.
• Experience managing and developing junior team members, with a collaborative and supportive leadership style.
• Strong commercial awareness, including experience managing account budgets and identifying opportunities for organic growth.
• The ability to move comfortably between the strategic and the practical – you can shape the thinking, but you’re equally happy getting into the work and making things happen.
• Most importantly, you’ll be someone who is curious, proactive and excited by great beauty communications. You’ll care about the quality of the work