Vice President, External Communications

Job  Type:
Regular Work Style: hybrid

Location:

Lowell,MA,United States, Weston,FL,United States, United States Role:
Vice President, External Communications Department:
Marketing Business Unit:
Marketing Why UKG:
At UKG, the work you do matters. The code you ship, the decisions you make, and the care you show a customer all add up to real impact. Today, tens of millions of workers start and end their days with our workforce operating platform. Helping people get paid, grow in their careers, and shape the future of their industries. That’s what we do.

We never stop learning. We never stop challenging the norm. We push for better, and we celebrate the wins along the way. Here, you’ll get flexibility that’s real, benefits you can count on, and a team that succeeds together. Because at UKG, your work matters—and so do you. UKG is seeking a Vice President of External Communications to lead the company’s global external reputation and influence strategy and strengthen UKG’s leadership in Workforce Operations.

Reporting to the Chief Communications Officer, this leader will turn UKG’s enterprise narrative into market belief—shaping the conversations, stories, and proof that build reputation, trust, and category authority with C-suite leaders, customers, media, analysts, influencers, and the broader market.

The VP will lead an integrated organization spanning Product & Technology PR, Industry & Customer PR, International PR, Social, AI Discovery, Thought Leadership & Newsroom, and Analyst Relations. This is both a market-facing leadership role and a transformation mandate: building a modern, externally wired communications engine that creates the reputation foundation for Marketing to build relevance and demand, and for Product and Sales to prove customer value.

What You’ll DoShape Reputation & Market Leadership
• Set and lead UKG’s global external communications strategy to strengthen UKG’s reputation, differentiation, and leadership in Workforce Operations.
• Translate UKG’s enterprise narrative into sustained external conversations that build belief in who UKG is, why we matter, and how we are different.
• Shape market perception around the forces transforming work and business, including workforce operations, frontline work, AI, productivity, and the flow of work.
• Move UKG from episodic visibility to sustained authority in the conversations we want to lead, using executives, research, customer outcomes, product innovation, and proprietary insight to reinforce a consistent story over time.

Lead a Modern External Communications Engine
• Lead an integrated global organization across PR, Social, AI Discovery, Thought Leadership & Newsroom, Analyst Relations, and international communications—bringing specialized disciplines together around one narrative and shared reputation outcomes.
• Build an audience-led, proactive operating model that starts with the conversations shaping the market rather than the moments UKG has to announce.
• Create the external foundation for the broader customer journey:
Communications builds belief and reputation;
Marketing creates buyer relevance;
Product and Sales provide proof and value.
• Oversee the external dimension of reputation risk and crisis response, including media strategy, external stakeholder communications, social response, and reputation monitoring in close partnership with Corporate Communications.

Advise Executives & Shape the Market
• Serve as a trusted senior counselor to the CEO, CCO, and executive team on reputation, media strategy, competitive narratives, industry positioning, and emerging external issues.
• Bring an outside-in perspective to executive decision-making—identifying where UKG has whitespace, where perceptions need to shift, and where the…