Senior Director, Employee Communications

Zillow

1d•$201,500 - $338,900•Remote

About The Position

As a Sr. Director, Employee Communications within the Corporate Affairs team, you'll be part of a group that shapes how the world, and Zillow's employees, understands what we're building and why it matters. Corporate Affairs spans communications, public affairs, industry relations, and employee communications, all working toward the same goal: making sure Zillow's story is told well. The Sr. Director, Employee Communications will play a central role in that mission, leading the function responsible for keeping ~8,000 employees across a global distributed workforce informed, connected, and inspired by where the company is headed. Home is the biggest thing most people will ever do — and the people helping make that possible deserve to feel it. As Sr. Director, Employee Communications, you'll own how Zillow talks to its employees at a pivotal moment in the company's growth. This is a genuine opportunity to build and establish the strategy, the systems, and the leadership voice that makes internal communication feel less like corporate messaging and more like honest conversation. If you've been waiting for the role where you get to shape something from the ground up, this is it.

Requirements

12+ years in communications, with meaningful experience in internal or employee communications — you've been close enough to the strategy to have a real point of view on what good looks like
4+ years of experience leading people leaders
A strong, instinctive writer who can take a complex business decision and turn it into something employees actually want to read
Someone who has worked directly with senior leaders on sensitive or nuanced messaging — and has earned their trust doing it
Experienced navigating change communications — restructures, policy shifts, moments that require precision, empathy, and speed at the same time
A builder at heart — excited by the idea of creating governance, measurement frameworks, and operating rhythms, not inheriting them
A strong cross-functional partner, especially with People/HR, who knows how to align stakeholders and move work forward without a lot of noise
Comfortable with ambiguity — you make good decisions with incomplete information and you adjust when things shift
Hands-on by nature — you're willing to get into the work yourself, not just manage from a distance
Bachelor's degree required; Journalism, Communications, or a related field preferred

Nice To Haves

Experience bringing AI tools into communications workflows — with a real point of view on how they make the function better
Fluency with internal communications platforms — Slack, intranet, video, newsletters — and a thoughtful perspective on which channel does what job
Background in a high-growth tech company, marketplace business, or similarly fast-paced environment where the communications function had to scale alongside the business
A track record of helping leaders find their voice — so when employees read something, it actually sounds like the person who sent it

Responsibilities

Define and own Zillow's employee communications strategy — the framework, governance, and operating model that makes it consistent, scalable, and actually useful across a distributed workforce
Partner directly with senior leaders to help them communicate with clarity and authenticity — ghostwriting, coaching, advising, and pushing back when something won't land
Lead communications for Zillow's company all-hands and other large-scale internal moments — business updates, org changes, and policy shifts in close coordination with Legal, HR, and Finance
Build and scale a leadership communications program — developing the tools, frameworks, and coaching infrastructure that help senior leaders communicate with their teams consistently and confidently
Establish channel strategy and governance across intranet, newsletters, Slack, video, and executive cascade — making sure every channel has a clear job and reaches the right people
Build measurement practices that go beyond open rates — tracking whether communications are actually landing and driving understanding
Spot gaps before they become problems and bring solutions, not just observations
Explore how AI can make the team smarter and faster — and help define what that looks like for this function
Lead and grow a small, high-performing team, setting the priorities and conditions that let people do their best work