Vice President, Corporate Communications

The Vice President Corporate Communications is responsible for PR, internal and executive communications, and analyst relations for Akamai globally. This role is a critical part of Akamai’s marketing efforts and requires exceptional strategic leadership, deep external media and influencer relationships, strong understanding of strategic employee communications, and the ability to drive communications efforts, in coordination and collaboration with the broader marketing team, that deliver material business benefit.

This individual will lead the strategic development, implementation and management of internal and external communication strategies, programs and materials that are aligned to and support our business objectives, our brand goals, our people experience strategy, and demand generation targets.They will own the development of an overarching communications strategy, define the priorities, and design the roadmap for execution. Deep engagement and collaboration with the broader marketing organization is critical. This individual will bring outside-in best practices and innovations to both communications as well as Akamai’s broader marketing efforts.

This role requires both strong strategic vision and also deep operational experience. It requires a structured approach to developing and documenting the strategy and programs for PR, internal communications and analyst relations. This individual will also need exceptional leadership skills including experience inspiring a diverse, global team, engaging and aligning a variety of stakeholders, and influencing organizations throughout the company to partner and deliver critical inputs for the communications organization. Success will depend on effective collaborative, cross functional definition and alignment of strategies and priorities as well as the delivery of programs that deliver against concretely defined and measureable goals.

This is an ideal position for someone who understands the power of deeply integrated communications as a core part of marketing. This role is perfect for someone who is passionate about communications, defining strategies, aligning and inspiring stakeholders and building a world-class team.

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop a higher performing global team of communications professionals, ensuring  close collaboration within the team, across marketing, and across Akamai as a whole.
• Own the communications strategy and goals, and inspire the team to successfully deliver against them
• Define and oversee the implementation of the global corporate and product PR messaging strategies on an annual basis. Adapt and adjust quarterly as needed.
• Through close collaboration with product management and marketing teams, set the annual AR priorities and execution plan.
• Through close collaboration with HR and departmental communications leaders, set internal communications priorities for the company to drive the desired employee experience.
• Partner with the office of the CEO to execute ongoing internal and external communications efforts and ensure alignment to the annual plan and corporate messaging.
• Champion and develop a digital, content and social led strategy for communications. Work closely with corporate brand and divisional campaign managers to execute digital led communications ‘playbooks’ for them to activate for campaigns.
• Oversee executive communications for key individuals (CMO, Sales Exec) including social strategy, with support from executive communications specialists.
• Collaborate with HR on strategies and communications around Corporate reputation including ERGs, CSR initiatives, policies, and corporate vision/mission.
• Oversee, provide guidance, and help innovate internal communications channels (existing and new), including intranet, weekly email communications, digital signage, employee events, blogs, and more.
• Deliver ongoing reporting and measurement of communications efforts across PR, AR and Internal Communications. Work collaboratively with marketing operations on the creation of reports and manage associated vendor relationships.
• Champion the global communications function within the business, driving best practices for engagement with stakeholders across the business.
• Design and implement a crisis management communication strategy including tactics for handling crisis communications and training executives on issue and response plans.
• Develop a media training approach and content plan including annual training updates for key spokespeople as needed.
• Member of Akamai’s Marketing Leadership Team.
• Manage a budget of approximately $5M and a team of 20+.
• Serve as a media spokesperson for Akamai globally.