Senior Art Director

The Detroit office of Weber Shandwick is seeking a Vice President, Content Strategy and Development to join our editorial team, in support of a major automotive client. This role is embedded with the automaker directly; but can be based in any of our office locations. You will be responsible for evolving the automaker’s brand and product focused storytelling, to allow its stories to thrive in a transformed information landscape, with the goal of reaching and engaging audiences – spanning external and internal audiences.

You will be instrumental in defining the internal and external stories and tone of voice for client projects and assignments across a variety of communication strategies and channels. You need to be obsessive about honing your craft and polishing your words. You also must be comfortable editing at any point in the writing process – developmental, structural and line editing, and proofreading. Understanding brand tone, a passion for problem solving, and the ability to tell compelling stories must be in your DNA.

You must work well under pressure, and be collaborative, a self-starter and resilient to ever-changing deadlines.  

What We Are Looking For: 

An external storyteller who can:

• Lead, integrate and collaborate across a matrixed organization to tell stories that change perceptions:
• Be part of and aligned with the company’s editorial leadership and strategy; you’ll participate in development of story angles for multiple channels.
• Flex editorial leadership muscle; keeping an understanding of all news and programs coming the automaker’s brand comms team; and help architect storytelling upstream. 
• Attend all editorial and bi-monthly brand meetings with brand comms leaders
• Offer a deep understanding of what makes a story a story; storymining is critical for the role:
• Explore angles, people, technologies and capabilities in a way that resonate with consumers
• Feel comfortable leading meetings with engineers, designers, manufacturing, and financial comms to enrich stories with context and anecdotes
• Reimagine video storytelling by collaborating with editorial and content leadership on vehicle reveal content, episodic possibilities, and more
• Work directly with content leadership and EIC to devise story choreography, medium, more
• Editorialize the product launch
• Focus language on messaging, formatting, content optimized for AI discoverability
• Serve as a copyeditor for materials drafted by the brand bomms teams

An internal storyteller who can:

• Deliver smart brevity at scale
• In today’s multi-platform, information-heavy world, employees need concise, memorable content to better advocate for this automaker
• Develop fresh content for the internal eco-system
• This goes beyond the content in a press release, for an internal audience
• Can include rich content gleaned from cross-functional collaboration (interviewing engineers, designers, etc.)
• Create quick-turn internal launch kits
• Partner with content and editorial leadership to codify a kit – visuals, short scripts, and talking points for every brand and product moment
• Gauge narrative recall
• Explore ways to measure internal retention and engagement
• Stay connected
• Attend bi-monthly brand meetings with Brand and Product comms leaders, leaders of editorial and content teams

Qualifications

• 7-9 years of writing/editing experience (public relations, internal communications, social media, etc. journalism experience preferred)
• Must be self-motivated, hard-working, well organized, and resilient to ever-changing timelines, requests, and deliverables
• Experience working in the automotive industry is preferred (not mandatory)
• Must have a portfolio (share anything that conveys the way you think or approach assignments, even if it was never produced

Salary range: $113,000.00 USD – $145,000.00 USD

Where an employee or prospective employee is paid within this range will depend on, among other factors, actual ranges for current/former employees in the subject position; market considerations; budgetary considerations; tenure and standing with the company (applicable to current employees); as well as the employee’s/applicant’s background, pertinent experience, and qualifications. 

Weber Shandwick is proud to be an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer. Weber Shandwick recruits qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, gender, age, ethnic or national origin, protected veteran status, physical or mental disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status or citizenship status. 

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Senior Associate, Client Experience

The Detroit office of Weber Shandwick is looking for an account specialist to join our automotive practice to drive key client business. In this role, you will be responsible for thinking across channel and discipline to manage integrated engagements that are strategically rooted in our clients’ business and brought to life through unique activations and opportunities.

Responsibilities

CLIENT AND WORK

Our client (major automaker) is seeking a motivated, detail-oriented Senior Associate to support storytelling and media engagement across its Design Comms function. This role offers a unique opportunity to work at the intersection of design, innovation, and brand storytelling — helping to shape how the automaker’s cutting-edge design and technology come to life for internal and external audiences.

The ideal candidate is a creative communicator with strong organizational, event planning and writing skills, a passion for storytelling, and an interest in automotive design. This position requires collaboration across various teams to help facilitate site visits at the Design campus in Michigan, identify great design stories and support the company’s broader technology and innovation narrative.

Key Responsibilities

• Visitor and Content Facilitation: Manage and facilitate requests for visits to the automaker’s design center, including senior executive visits as well as media programs – ensuring alignment with design, communications, and security protocols.

• Content Capture Approvals: Coordinate and manage necessary approvals for photography, video, and content capture at Design facilities.

• Story Development: Actively story mine for interesting and relevant stories that highlight the automaker’s Design’s creativity and connect to the automaker’s overarching technology and innovation narrative.

• Communications Support: Assist in developing and executing communications strategies for Design in partnership with the Global Design Communications team.

• Brand Support: Provide communications and logistics support to a couple of the automaker’s vehicle brands, as requested.

• Project Coordination: Support the planning and execution of design-related media opportunities, events, and internal activations.

Required Skills & Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in communications, Public Relations, Journalism, Marketing, or a related field

• 2-3  years of relevant experience in communications, events or media relations, roles

• Exceptional attention to detail and organizational skills

• Strong writing, research, and story development abilities

• Demonstrated interest in design, creativity, and innovation

• Ability to manage multiple projects and priorities with oversight in a fast-paced environment

• Willingness to learn, take initiative, and collaborate across teams

• Strong interpersonal and communication skills

• Interest or experience in event planning and coordination

Salary range: $58,700.00 USD – $65,000.00 USD

Where an employee or prospective employee is paid within this range will depend on, among other factors, actual ranges for current/former employees in the subject position; market considerations; budgetary considerations; tenure and standing with the company (applicable to current employees); as well as the employee’s/applicant’s background, pertinent experience, and qualifications. 

Weber Shandwick is proud to be an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer. Weber Shandwick recruits qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, gender, age, ethnic or national origin, protected veteran status, physical or mental disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status or citizenship status. 

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About the Opportunity     

The Weber Shandwick team is seeking an (Freelance) Account Director, Earned Media with exceptional earned strategy and media relations prowess to support a large-scale consumer/beauty client. The ideal candidate loves the thrill of the pitch, building relationships with media, and constantly immersing themselves in pop culture/trends.  

About you: Are you someone who knows the modern media landscape and has a unique experience telling stories that help brands earn their place in culture? We are looking for a highly collaborative, original thinker who is endlessly curious about the intersections of culture, earned media, influencer and social. We want someone who can frame a problem, develop succinct insights, and explain what it all means in a compelling story.  

Responsibilities  

• Possesses superlative AP Style writing skills 

• Builds and maintains excellent relationships with media  

• Understands industry landscape/issues that may directly and indirectly impact a client   

• Endlessly curious about our client’s business and their competitors 

• Proactively and reactively crafts and tells compelling stories on behalf of clients 

• Leads the development of and is responsible for the execution of earned and integrated media programs 

• Develops strategies/plans and writes media materials 

• Brings a client-focused attitude that results in work being performed to the highest quality standards 

Competencies 

• Business Acumen– align talent strategies to drive business goals 

• Client Service– client focus and ability to build trust and rapport across all levels 

• Proactivity – exhibit relentless pursuit for new and innovative talent strategies 

• Collaboration– build strong relationships at all levels across the organization 

• Critical Thinking– ask probing questions; anticipate and address critical talent gaps and needs 

• Conflict Resolution– possess sound judgment and savvy in navigating and resolving complex talent and organizational issues 

Basic Qualifications  

• 7+ year of public relations experience   

• Experience leading projects from start to finish, working with integrated teams across various disciplines. 

• Earned strategy and media relations experience with a focus on beauty PR 

• Experience supporting events is a plus 

• Bachelor’s degree  

Where an employee or prospective employee is paid within this range will depend on, among other factors, actual ranges for current/former employees in the subject position; market considerations; budgetary considerations; tenure and standing with the company (applicable to current employees); as well as the employee’s/applicant’s background, pertinent experience, and qualifications. 

Weber Shandwick is proud to be an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer. Weber Shandwick recruits qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, gender, age, ethnic or national origin, protected veteran status, physical or mental disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status or citizenship status. 

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