Sr. Business Communications Manager

Sr. Business Communications Manager

Location: Redmond, Wa (will be largely remote, but the contractor should be able to come on-site for infrequent meetings & recordings)

Duration: 5 Month contract (extension is highly likely, finance would like the contractor to be extended every 6 months)

Pay Rate: $75/hr – $80/hr

TOP SKILLSET:

1. Digital Marketing Campaigns| 10+ Years of Experience
2. Executive Communications | 7+ Years of Experience
3. Rhythm of Business | 7+ Years of Experience

Job Description:

The Senior Business and Communications Manager for the Digital Acquisition team will liaise with teams and key stakeholders in the Digital Acq team and SMC broadly to create and execute a communications strategy designed to help amplify our strategic investments.

The ideal candidate will be steeped in a selling culture and have prior experience planning both external and internal communications strategies, be skilled in written and verbal communications, and have experience in a variety of communications disciplines, including but not limited to executive comms, employee communications, event planning and public speaking. The role will require strong project management capabilities.

• Strategy: Develop, maintain, execute, and measure a communications strategy that supports our business goals. Execution includes working within a Rhythm of the Business.

Content development:

• Write presentations, blogs, LinkedIn posts and articles, social media content, video scripts, and other talking points and digital content for CVP responsible for Digital Acquisition
• Story sourcing and creation for the Digital Acquisition team to highlight our employees’ stories, our successes, and our culture.
• Develop materials for internal and external communications including briefing materials, scripting/messaging for internal keynotes, presentations, media engagements, social media, and events
• Manage the speaking event calendar and workback scheduled for speaking engagements; ensure operational rigor in our process and sufficient lead time in our preparedness approach
• Manage and evaluate incoming speaking requests to determine and manage appropriate format, content, and deliverables end-to-end with key stakeholders
• Proactively seek out speaking and authorship opportunities aligned to thought leadership priorities
• Research content subject matter to find the most impactful stories and synthesize talking points and messaging from other teams
• Measure the outcomes of engagements to evaluate impact, learn, and improve

Community and media engagement: Develop and maintain relationships with other communication experts and Business Managers in SMC, MCAPS broadly, and key stakeholders to support the communications strategy.

Qualifications

7+ years Program Management experience

2+ years SMC (Small Medium Corporate) communications and program management experience

Business group – Digital Acquisition Exec Office

Purpose of this team – The digital acquisitions team is part of the SMC group for Small-Medium Corporate scale customers with 1-100 members in the customer company. Any small-medium customer that flags interest in a MSFT product will send a signal to this team, then one of the sellers on the team acts on their request.

Reason for the request – The team needs support in their communications output.

Surrounding team & key projects – In addition to everything in the job description above, this contractor will have a heavy focus on employee engagement and internal communications. This will include monthly communications and strategy for Viva.

Typical task breakdown and operating rhythm – 50% content strategy and content writing, 10% daily interaction with the CVP, 10% interaction with sponsor, 10-15% collaborating with other staff members in SMC as coordinator, the remainder will consist of managing employee engagement programs.

Interaction level with sponsor/team – Lots of 1:1 planning and coordination, as well as direct interaction with the CVP when doing recordings or meetings near Redmond. The contractor will also coordinate with other content teams in SMC.

Expected working hours – M-F typically 40 hours/week, although some weeks could have more than 40 hours. This will be balanced with lighter weeks of less than 40 hours to avoid working overtime.

What makes this role interesting? – Digital selling is where selling is moving to, so this field has lots of attention and investment from stakeholders.

Team Culture – The team is very dynamic, not necessarily casual but friendly in a professional way.

Value added or experience gained – This contractor will be working directly with the CVP and the content they create will have a lot of visibility in the broader company. They will help build the brand and speaking platform for the CVP.

Years of Experience Required – 7-10+

Degrees or certifications required – None required, but an undergrad degree is preferred.

Disqualifiers – Candidates should have previous experience.

Best vs. Average – The best candidate has previous experience in the SMC group, as well as a background in employee engagement and D&I initiatives.

Performance indicators – The contractors performance will be measured with the growth of CVPs viva engagement and LinkedIn numbers, as well as employee insight scores.

Hard Skills Assessments:

• Process – 1 round with sponsor and 1 round with the CVP.
• Preparation – The candidate should be prepared to talk about their previous experience with communications strategy and have samples of their previous work available.

Apex Systems