Communications Manager

Life Surge•Palmetto, FL

5d•Onsite

About The Position

SurgeU is looking for a Manager of Earned Media & Communications to help shape how the company is understood by the outside world. This person will own the strategy behind SurgeU’s public narrative, media presence, executive communications, thought leadership, and proactive brand storytelling. We’re looking for a communications strategist, not someone whose definition of PR is writing press releases and pitching reporters.

Requirements

7+ years of experience in public relations, corporate communications, earned media, brand communications, or a related discipline.
Meaningful experience building proactive earned-media and communications strategies.
Experience developing messaging architecture and positioning for complex organizations or products.
Strong relationships with media or a demonstrated ability to build them.
Excellent story judgment and a strong instinct for what journalists and audiences will actually care about.
Experience preparing senior executives and other public-facing leaders for interviews and media appearances.
Strong writing and editing ability across executive messaging, statements, pitches, talking points, FAQs, bylines, press materials, and long-form narratives.
Experience working on sensitive reputation issues or crisis communications.
Strong understanding of how earned media, owned content, social, search, and reputation influence one another.
Ability to work closely with Legal without allowing communications to become unnecessarily institutional or defensive.
Strong fact-checking instincts and respect for substantiated claims.
Experience managing employees, agencies, freelancers, or communications partners.
Ability to operate calmly and decisively when issues move quickly.
Executive presence and the ability to advise senior leaders with confidence.

Nice To Haves

High-consideration consumer brands in the following industries: education or professional development, financial services or financial education, entrepreneurship or business education, healthcare or other reputation-sensitive categories.
Founder-led organizations.
Companies undergoing rapid growth or transformation.
Organizations that have navigated meaningful public scrutiny.
Executive thought leadership programs.
National media relations.
Broadcast media.
Crisis and issues management.
Digital PR.
Reputation recovery or repositioning.
Building communications functions internally after relying heavily on agencies.
Using data, search trends, social listening, or reputation intelligence to inform communications strategy.

Responsibilities

Developing and owning SurgeU’s overall earned media and external communications strategy.
Building the annual communications and editorial roadmap around company priorities, launches, student outcomes, leadership visibility, thought leadership, and reputation opportunities.
Developing and maintaining SurgeU’s core message architecture, including positioning, key messages, proof points, FAQs, executive talking points, and responses to sensitive topics.
Ensuring SurgeU has clear, credible language around topics that may influence trust, including program experience, pricing, mentorship, student expectations, outcomes, and faith-based positioning.
Identifying the narratives SurgeU should proactively own rather than waiting for outside parties to define them.
Developing press strategies around company announcements, initiatives, partnerships, research, student stories, leadership, and other newsworthy moments.
Building and maintaining relationships with journalists, editors, producers, podcasters, creators, industry voices, and other credible third parties.
Creating opportunities for SurgeU executives and subject-matter experts to participate meaningfully in relevant public conversations.
Developing thought-leadership strategies for executives, founders, educators, speakers, and other key voices.
Preparing executives and spokespeople for interviews, panels, podcasts, difficult questions, and high-visibility appearances.
Managing inbound media requests and ensuring responses are accurate, timely, coordinated, and strategically sound.
Leading communications strategy during reputation-sensitive moments in partnership with ORM, Legal, Customer Experience, and leadership.
Developing holding statements, response frameworks, FAQs, executive messaging, and other crisis communications materials when necessary.
Partnering closely with the Head of ORM to understand emerging search, review, and reputation themes.
Translating recurring reputation issues into proactive communications and storytelling opportunities.
Identifying credible proof points, student outcomes, stories, data, expertise, and third-party validation that can strengthen SurgeU’s public narrative.
Leading the Narrative & Content Strategist and ensuring the organization develops a consistent pipeline of substantiated stories.
Partnering with Creative to turn strong narratives into video, social, digital, and multimedia storytelling.
Working with Education and other business leaders to fact-check claims and ensure public communications accurately reflect the student experience.
Building communications processes that allow SurgeU to move quickly without compromising judgment or accuracy.
Measuring the quality and impact of earned coverage rather than simply counting media mentions.