Vice President, Content Strategy and Development

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.

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; story mining 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 copy editor for materials drafted by the brand bomms teams

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

• 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: $ USD - $ USD

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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