Director, Communications

Exa • San Francisco, CA

14d • $200,000 - $300,000 • Onsite

About The Position

Exa is building the search engine for the AI era. Our Search API currently powers Agents, Fortune 500s and AI labs as we transform an industry that hasn't been disrupted since the 90s. We're a largely SF-based team of ~100 from Harvard, MIT, Meta, Google Research, ex-founders & dropouts alike. We are rapidly building the most intelligent search engine in history. We're high agency, low-ego, and united by the feeling that this is one of the last problems worth getting right. We are looking for a Director of Communications to build the public voice of Exa and the people who lead it. The most valuable communications asset a company like ours has is the credibility of its founders and leaders. In the AI space, people follow people. Your first job is to build that: to develop a genuine point of view with our founders and executives, put it into words in their voice, and place it where the audiences that matter will encounter it. Ghostwriting is core to this role. You will write essays, posts, op-eds, and talk narratives that sound like the person whose name is on them, on a fast cadence, about technically substantive topics. Around that sits the rest of the function: a speaking pipeline that positions us alongside the world’s frontier AI labs, our social and owned channels, and press. Press runs through an agency today and you'll manage it. You'll also be the person who shepherds a response plan if something goes wrong. This role is based in-person at our San Francisco HQ. Proximity to the founders and other thought-leaders is key.

Requirements

• 8+ years in communications, PR, or editorial roles, including time inside a high-growth technology company rather than only agency-side.
• Exceptional writing craft, specifically ghostwriting. Bring samples you wrote for someone else's byline, with permission to discuss them.
• A track record building an executive's public profile and social followers, with evidence of what drove the growth.
• Real press results in technology or enterprise media.
• Experience securing meaningful speaking placements and prepping people to perform in them.
• Experience managing an agency well: setting the brief, holding them to results, and knowing when to override them.
• Sound judgment under pressure. You have handled at least one genuinely difficult public moment.
• Enough technical literacy to write credibly about AI, search, and infrastructure without embarrassing the person you are writing for.

Nice To Haves

• A journalism or editorial background.
• Experience in AI, developer tools, or deep technology, and existing relationships with reporters in that beat.
• Analyst relations experience, since this becomes relevant as we sell more to the enterprise.
• Experience building a comms function in-house from an agency-first setup.
• Comfort producing beyond text: video, podcast, or event formats.

Responsibilities

• Own the development and expression of our leaders' public points of view: essays, tweets, op-eds, interviews, and the editorial calendar behind them. Ghostwrite at volume and at quality.
• Own the pipeline of conferences, podcasts, panels, and industry moments: sourcing, evaluating, securing, prepping, and coaching.
• Own media strategy and results, managing our agency today and building the in-house function over time. Own launch coverage, reactive and inbound press, relationships with the reporters who matter in AI infrastructure, and the messaging discipline behind every conversation.
• Own company social presence and editorial cadence: what we say, when, in what voice, and how we amplify the work of our engineers. Coordinate employee engagement to amplify company socials.
• Own the story and calendar for announcements, launches, milestones, and anything that requires a coordinated public position.
• Own the playbook before we need it: escalation paths, holding statements, spokesperson prep, and judgment about when to engage versus stay quiet. Be ready with a rapid response when reporters need a soundbite.
• Use AI in research, drafting, and measurement, but show good judgment in keeping human authenticity in our public statements and thought leadership.

Benefits

• Premium medical, dental, and vision coverage
• Monthly wellness benefit
• Monthly commuter benefit for our SF team
• Reimbursement for eligible egg freezing and related medical expenses up to a $15,000 lifetime maximum
• 16 weeks of fully paid parental leave for all new parents, whether through birth, adoption, surrogacy, or foster placement.
• Lunch and dinner served daily
• Office stocked with snacks, coffee, and health supplements
• Fresh bread from a local bakery every morning
• Weekly milk tea deliveries
• Monthly picnics
• Parties to celebrate the wins (and each other)
• Visa sponsorship for exceptional candidates

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Education Level: No Education Listed