Public Relations Director jobs in District of Columbia

About Ogilvy

David Ogilvy famously said: "If each of us hires people who are bigger than we are, we shall become a company of giants." We're looking for the 'giants' who will help us be better, think bigger and go farther to increase growth and impact for our clients, our culture and our communities.

For nearly two decades, Ogilvy has been at the forefront of social change—advancing personal and public health and safety through innovative communication initiatives. We have developed numerous social change campaigns to successfully raise awareness, educate and prompt action regarding some of today’s largest and most complex issues, ranging from homeland security to income taxes, emergency preparedness to heart disease, violence prevention to substance abuse—the list is extensive. We take great pride in deploying solutions that improve and save lives.

Ogilvy has a long-standing relationship with FEMA and is currently working to help build a country more resilient to natural disasters. As we continue to understand and adapt to the near- and long-term effects of climate change, this work is of ever-increasing importance.

About the Role

We are seeking a Strategy Director to be a key member of our FEMA team. The next several years will see significant growth in how our team and FEMA work to strategically elevate the importance of resilience, equip and empower communities and build a truly customer-centric program. The successful candidate will be the strategic heartbeat of these efforts while working across internal teams to build on efforts already underway and plan, create and manage new ones.

This person must have the ability to think and act on both the micro and macro level, joining the dots between enterprise-level strategic vision and daily, tactical outputs. This will involve developing a deep relationship with existing strategy experts in Ogilvy and across the WPP network to help bring the best value to our client at all times.

Most of all, the Director will be a leader and strategic partner; someone who is able to lead teams or play a supporting role, to meet client needs. This may include developing strategy, managing important initiatives, aligning projects across workstreams and collaborating with key subject matter experts and strategic workstream leads.

Key Responsibilities

Responsibilities include leading strategy-focused client engagements, forming and growing trusted client relationships, creating high-impact strategic content, and maintaining client profitability. Serve as engagement manager across multiple clients and initiatives. It is essential for the candidate to be an inclusive leader, demonstrating a high degree of cultural and emotional intelligence that leads to effective collaboration across many different working styles and perspectives. Must be able to empower others and create a genuine sense of team cohesion to drive the strategic agenda forward.

• Develop role as strategic client partner and advisor across ongoing organizational and program initiatives
• Create and direct innovative and thoughtful strategic solutions to complex communications challenges on behalf of clients
• Consult with clients on a range of strategic initiatives, including positioning, analytics, internal engagement, and comms strategy
• Build upon a deepening knowledge of the organization, regions, and clients to deliver strategies that continually evolve client programs
• Collaborate with clients, internal teams, and partners to build and execute on strategic recommendations that will ultimately be brought to market across multiple channels
• Collaborate with creative teams to shape creative expression and execution
• Collaborate with project management to ensure that initiatives have appropriate resources for development, and are ultimately delivered on time and on budget
• Inspire and mentor junior team members

Qualifications

• Minimum 10 years experience professional experience in strategic communications, ideally a mix of marketing, communications, or advertising agency work as well as in organizations are purpose-driven.
• A strategic thinker with the ability to instill confidence in clients and across internal teams
• Must be an excellent verbal and written communicator, comfortable preparing proposals, presentations and speaking in front of groups
• Passion for social good with strong understanding of leading brand-based thinking and constructs
• Strong attention to detail
• Creative problem solver