PR Manager

The PR Manager sits within the Brand and Product Marketing team, that forms one of the four pillars of marketing (Brand, Product Marketing, Demand generation and Marketing operations). It is part of the Zellis BU marketing team. This is a hybrid role based between our Peterborough and Watford Offices twice per week.

This is a crucial role in shaping the company's public image day-to-day and at key events, driving awareness and business within our target markets. This role will be responsible for developing and executing strategic PR and communication campaigns, managing media relationships, leading events activity. It must ensure consistent messaging across all communication channels.

Additionally, the role requires monitoring industry trends, conducting competitive analysis, and building relationships with key industry analysts to enhance the company's position in the market.

The role will translate complex technical concepts into compelling narratives, foster strong relationships with media and analysts, and support the broader marketing team with data-driven insights to elevate the company’s brand and reputation.

The role will manage the PR agency, be responsible for crisis communication and manage our analyst relationships.

In this role your key responsibilities will be:

• PR Strategy & Execution: Develop and implement PR strategies to boost brand visibility, manage media relations, and drive coverage for the company, it’s products and leadership
• Media Relations: Build and maintain relationships with key journalists, publications and influencers to secure positive press coverage and manage media inquiries
• Analyst Relations: Cultivate relationships with industry analysts, ensuring the company’s representation in reports and rankings, and coordinating briefings
• Content & Messaging: Create clear, compelling narratives and press materials that align with the company’s value proposition and messaging
• Market & Competitive Analysis: Monitor industry trends and competitor activities, providing strategic insights to inform PR and marketing efforts
• Lead Events: Lead the team at key industry events where we may be simultaneously launching new product features or campaigns thereby maximising PR opportunities to enhance brand exposure and thought leadership.
• Cross-functional Collaboration: Work closely with marketing, product marketing, and executive teams to ensure alignment of PR strategies with company objectives.
• Crisis Communication: Lead crisis communications efforts to safeguard the company’s reputation during challenging situations.
• Reporting & Analytics: Measure and report on the effectiveness of PR and analyst programs to assess impact on brand perception.

These responsibilities drive the company’s PR efforts, enhancing visibility and reputation.

Skills & experience

Essential Skills/behaviours:

• Strong Communication: Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to craft compelling narratives and manage media relations. Ability to show 5+ years of PR agency management that has resulted in coverage in key publications.
• Relationship Building: Proven ability to build and maintain relationships with journalists, analysts, and key stakeholders. Show how the relationships have positively impacted the PR strategy.
• Strategic Thinking: Ability to develop and execute PR strategies aligned with business objectives, while staying ahead of industry trends
• Project Management: Skilled in managing multiple projects (PR and events), meeting deadlines, and coordinating across teams.
• Analytical Skills: Strong ability to analyse media coverage, market trends, and competitive activity to inform decisions. Show how the coverage trends have been impacted by PR plan.
• Adaptability: Ability to pivot quickly in response to changing market conditions and PR challenges.
• Problem-Solving: Proactive in identifying issues and finding effective solutions, especially in crisis communication.

Benefits & culture

At Zellis we create market-leading HR & Payroll products and services, to power exceptional employee experiences so that you and your people do better. Our multi-award-winning products pay over five million employees a year, with almost half (42%) of the FTSE 100, 50% of the top retailers and 30% of the top universities in the UK & Ireland as customers, making us the largest provider of Payroll and HR software and managed services.

Our vision is to be the clear leader in pay, reward, analytics, and people experiences. We're passionate about creating an environment where people want to join, belong to, and be part of a progressive organisation. Our values, which were defined with input from all of our 2,000 colleagues, we live and breathe every day:

• Unstoppable together.
• Always learning.
• Make it count.
• Think scale.

Our people are critical to our ongoing success; we’re proud of our inclusive culture that gives you the platform to grow, challenge the status quo and play a crucial role in further enhancing our market position as the leading provider of HR & Payroll software and services. With Zellis you’ll have the chance to stretch and challenge yourself in an environment that’s varied, flexible and hugely supportive.

We also love to reward and recognise our brilliant colleagues. As part of your benefits package, you’ll receive:

• A competitive base salary.
• 25 days annual leave, plus your birthday off and the opportunity to buy additional holiday.
• Private medical insurance.
• Life assurance 4x salary.
• Enhanced pension scheme with company contributions up to 8.5%.
• A huge range of additional flexible benefits across financial & personal wellbeing, lifestyle & leisure.