Senior PR Manager [AQ-12739]

Location: New York (fully remote, but must live in NY)
Work Hours: Pacific/PST

About the role

Aquent is partnering with a leading and rapidly transforming premium platform that is redefining its space. This innovative company is charting a new course, moving beyond its past to become the definitive platform for ambitious individuals building extraordinary lives. This is an unparalleled opportunity to join a team where your expertise will directly shape the brand’s public narrative and strategic direction. As a vital contributor, you will be instrumental in positioning the brand as a definitive voice in modern lifestyle, treating the news cycle as a dynamic marketplace and ensuring the company is a constant presence in relevant conversations. Your strategic acumen and hands-on execution will directly impact how millions perceive the brand, making this one of the most consequential roles in their transformation journey.

We are seeking a visionary Public Relations leader to take the helm of this organization’s PR and Communications strategy. This is an unparalleled opportunity to build a function, shape a brand, and grow a team, all while directly influencing executive leadership from day one.

Responsibilities

• Lead and mentor at least one direct report, setting priorities, coaching their development, and fostering their growth into a stronger PR operator.
• Own the end-to-end PR and Communications strategy, with explicit responsibility for Share of Voice against competitors and earned media impressions.
• Build and maintain a rolling 90-day PR calendar, aligning with product launches, cultural moments, and emerging trends.
• Define quarterly themes and narratives to establish the brand’s ownership in tier-one media.
• Write and edit a wide range of communications, including press releases, media alerts, pitch letters, op-eds, talking points, and briefing books, ensuring minimal editing is required.
• Pitch directly to journalists, editors, podcast bookers, producers, bloggers, and influencers, leveraging and growing a personal network across relationships, lifestyle, business, consumer tech, and culture beats.
• Respond to inbound media requests with speed and precision, gathering information cross-functionally to prepare approved messaging.
• Proactively insert the brand into the news cycle by identifying and hijacking trends, delivering timely pitches.
• Build and manage a podcast, interview, and speaking pipeline for executive leadership, preparing them with comprehensive briefing materials.
• Identify and submit the company and its executives for relevant industry, business, and culture awards.
• Serve as a spokesperson for the brand when needed, participating in interviews and representing the company’s perspective.
• Build and maintain a curated ‘book’ of diverse members willing and prepared to speak to the press, managing all aspects from recruitment and vetting to prep and follow-up.
• Serve as the day-to-day client lead for external US and UK agencies, driving deliverables, ensuring quality control, and coordinating trans-Atlantic narrative consistency.
• Continuously monitor the news cycle for relevant stories, track competitor PR activity, and bring actionable trend memos to marketing leadership.
• Anticipate and manage reputational issues, maintaining holding statements and crisis trees, and quarterbacking any incoming reputational stories.
• Plan, organize, and execute integrated marketing campaigns in collaboration with creative, social, product, and digital teams.
• Manage PR operations, including project management tasks, standard operating procedures, media lists, asset libraries, and budget, while monitoring and analyzing PR metrics for leadership reporting.

Requirements

• 5 to 8 years of combined experience across PR agency, in-house PR, and/or journalism, with the right mix being more critical than years alone.
• Bachelor’s degree in Public Relations, Communications, Marketing, Journalism, or a related field, or an equivalent professional track record.
• Demonstrated record securing tier-one media coverage that you personally pitched.
• Exceptional writing and editing skills, with a portfolio of published or placed work that showcases versatility and brand consistency.
• Experience managing PR agency or vendor relationships as the client, or experience inside a top agency running accounts as a senior individual contributor.
• AI fluency, with proven experience using modern AI tools for research, drafting, media list building, and coverage analysis.
• Strong personal media relationships with journalists, podcast bookers, or producers in at least one of the following areas: relationships, lifestyle, business, consumer tech, or culture.
• Strong project management and operational discipline, with a track record of shipping things on time and maintaining organized systems.
• Working knowledge of industry-standard PR and project management tools, plus relevant style guides.
• Comfort operating as a player-coach, capable of both setting priorities and personally executing work, while also hiring, managing, and developing at least one direct report.
• Demonstrated experience mentoring or managing junior talent, whether formally or informally.

Nice-to-Have Qualifications

• Experience at a top consumer or lifestyle PR agency.
• Newsroom experience as a reporter or editor at a recognized outlet, with a deep understanding of newsroom operations and news judgment.
• Experience working at an entrepreneurial or founder-led company where PR was being built from the ground up.
• Existing relationships with relationships, sex-and-culture, or modern-love beat reporters.
• Track record of award wins (industry, business, or culture awards) that you personally drove the submission for.
• Experience helping executives become recognizable voices in the media.
• Comfort with reputation management for brands that carry public-perception challenges.
• Experience with influencer marketing, social media coordination, or modern earned-and-paid integration.
• Experience with member, customer, or talent casting for media stories, including managing consent and NDA workflows.
• Experience building or scaling a small in-house PR team from scratch.
• Familiarity with luxury, lifestyle, consumer technology, or relationship brands.
• APR or similar professional certification.

Benefits

Our eligible talent get access to amazing benefits like subsidized health, vision, and dental plans, paid sick leave, and retirement plans with a match. We also offer free online training through Aquent Gymnasium.