Director of Public Relations

The PR Director leads integrated public relations strategy and execution across Planit’s B2B client roster, ensuring campaigns directly support long-term business goals and industry authority. As a consummate thought leader and team mentor, this role champions industry trade positioning, executive visibility, and reputation management. Beyond account performance, the PR Director serves as an essential contributor to team growth, collaborating on new business pitches, writing strategic scopes, and converting agency success into new client acquisitions.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTION

• Effectively lead and manage the agency’s relationships with assigned portfolio of clients
• Serve as a trusted PR advisor, both internally and externally, proposing strategically-sound recommendations that go beyond industry best practices to achieve client goals and objectives
• Collaborate with other agency disciplines to ensure we deliver integrated, channel-agnostic programs for clients
• Consistently mine current best practices, industry trends, and competitive insights to surface new opportunities and new ways of thinking to contribute to overall agency and client success
• Demonstrate expert knowledge of industry best practices, including the latest advances in media relations strategies, PR tools, analytics and reporting
• Maintain and grow client relationships while managing expectations and profitability
• Track client success and help create case studies that help Planit win new business
• Supervises staff: sets goals, delegates work, and manages performance through ongoing coaching and counseling.

TASKS

• Responsible for overseeing assigned PR accounts, including developing and implementing PR strategies, and handling budgets for client projects and retainers
• Develop and execute robust executive visibility programs, including securing speaking engagements, industry awards, and placing bylined articles in key trade publications
• Actively partner with leadership on new business efforts, including developing speculative PR strategies for RFPs, identifying organic growth opportunities with existing clients, and playing a key role in pitch presentations
• Ability to estimate projects and retainers, including writing scopes of work for new and existing clients
• Create and deliver clear, well thought-out, and professional PR strategies and recommendations, POVs, and reports in a variety of formats, including both written and oral presentations to client executive teams
• Manage the team’s usage of PR tools and recommend renewals/upgrades and new tools as appropriate
• Helps to facilitate hiring, managing, developing, and promoting team members
• Assist with additional department management tasks as assigned by direct supervisor/ department head
• Effective and efficient management of workload across account team and with awareness, consideration for impact across departments
• Keeps department head and senior leadership team apprised of client work status and overall team dynamics/health
• Responsible for onboarding of new team members (delegating as appropriate)
• Other duties as assigned

QUALIFICATIONS

Required

• 10+ years of experience in public relations, preferably within an agency setting, with a strong portfolio of B2B, industrial, manufacturing, or commercial clients
• Experience with B2B influencer management and positioning internal Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) as thought leaders
• Proven experience in crisis communications, issues management, and corporate reputation management
• Minimum of a bachelor’s degree in public relations, marketing, communications, or related field
• Able to flexibly manage multiple accounts in a fast-paced environment while keeping a positive attitude
• Critical thinker with strong problem-solving skills
• Able to think beyond the strategic discipline and participate as a creative collaborator within an integrated agency
• Strong interpersonal skills to foster client, industry, and internal relationships; proven media and influencer relationships preferred
• Excellent written, verbal, and presentation skills
• Occasional after-hours work to respond to urgent media requests and/or client needs
• Ability to travel domestically during the work week

PHYSICAL & WORK ENVIRONMENT

Planit is an office-first hybrid workplace; we are in-office 3 days per week.

Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. The employee is occasionally required to stand; walk; sit; use hands to finger, handle, or feel objects, tools, or controls; reach with hands and arms; balance; stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl; talk or hear. The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 25 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by the job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception, and the ability to adjust focus. The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate.