Senior Manager, External Communications

Journey with us! Combine your career goals and sense of adventure by joining our incredible team of employees at Royal Caribbean Group. We are proud to offer a competitive compensation and benefits package, and excellent career development opportunities, each offering unique ways to explore the world.

We are proud to be the vacation-industry leader with global brands - including Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises and Silversea Cruises - the most innovative fleet and private destinations, and the best people. Together, we are dedicated to turning the vacation of a lifetime into a lifetime of vacations for our guests.

Royal Caribbean Group's Corporate Communications Team has an exciting career opportunity for a full time Senior Manager, External Communications reporting to the AVP, External Communications.

This role will work onsite in Miami, Florida.

Position Summary:

The Senior Manager of External Communications will support Royal Caribbean Group's (RCG) Corporate Communications department with incident/risk and issues management communications on behalf of the corporation. The candidate will also be responsible for project management for assignments that require collaboration from the corporate communications team and other internal departments. Moreover, the candidate will provide media relations support for financial communications work.

Reporting to the AVP of External Communications, the candidate will join a highly collaborative team, work with the broader Corporate Communications team and other departments and stakeholders to respond to incidents and issues as they emerge. The candidate will serve as a company spokesperson.

The Senior Manager of External Communications will be a detailed-oriented and deadline-driven strategic communicator, and possess solid media relations contacts in vacation, travel & leisure, and cruise trade publications, and have experience in managing incidents/issues experience in vacation, hospitality and transportation sectors.

Project Management:

• Lead and manage communications alignment projects from start to finish that require contributions from internal and external departments.
• Help drive adoption, engagement, and interaction across departments for use of alignment tools.
• Continuously update a master communications calendar and support others on the team by creating, editing and updating other reports as needed.
• Prepare briefing materials, presentations, and reports for the external communication team for internal meetings.
• Streamline processes, implement best practices, and identify opportunities for continuous improvement.

Media Relations:

• Superb media relations skills, ability to communicate with multiple newsrooms/journalists at a time.
• Strong planning capabilities to identify and prioritize communication strategies and activities, execute upon them and meet fast-moving deadlines.
• Outstanding writing and editing skills for different formats including reactive statements, briefing memos, press releases, social media, pitches, etc.
• Journalistic curiosity, newsroom focused approach to media relations, and/or find gaps in stories.

Incident and Risk Communications:

• Responsible for incident and risk communications, which includes working directly with the AVP of External Communications and Chief Communications Officer, and senior stakeholders on potential issues, including being available on weekends and evenings and for fixed weekend rotation coverage.
• Represent department as communications leader on important cross-disciplinary teams, including multi-market teams and situation management incidents.
• Be highly organized and detailed-oriented and have proven examples of executing varied incident/risk management projects, simultaneously, in a fast-paced global environment, acting with urgency and accuracy.
• Collaborative partner that can build trusted relationships internally across a matrixed and global organization.
• In partnership with key stakeholders across multiple departments, pre-empt and assess situations for potential reputation impacts, draft communications materials and engage with media directly.
• Writer and editor of press materials including media statements, background points, talking points, Q&As, press releases, fact sheets, press lists, and others as needed.
• Experience in writing summaries/briefs for senior leadership audience using concise language with clear recommendations.
• Keep organized records and continuously update internal documents and plans that prepare the organization for potential future scenarios.
• Monitor the corporate communications team's email inbox and promptly respond to media inquiries.
• Experience using analytics and data to evaluate and drive communications strategies.
• Make smart and efficient use of staff, vendors, agencies, existing materials, and resources available.
• Travel and flexibility to support business events outside of regular hours including holidays and weekends.
• Complete other tasks assigned by the AVP, External Communications.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Journalism, Communications, Public Relations, English or related field preferred.
• At least 10 years of professional experience in media relations, corporate incidents/issues risk management in a global and publicly traded company.
• Exceptional track record of working effectively with the media, including demonstrated success in managing incidents/issues with national and global outlets.
• Proven operational excellence within team to drive and spearhead cross-departmental alignment and collaboration.
• Experience working in small teams in reputation-threatening circumstances.
• Knowledge and adherence to AP style.
• Bilingual (Spanish) a plus.

Knowledge and Skills:

• Impeccable executive presence and strong ability to interact with senior executive team and build effective relationships within the company and media.
• Superior time management skills with capability of working with and meeting deadlines.
• Ability to think big picture to foresee reputational risks and opportunities and zoom into critical details, nuances and variables to inform issues management strategy and response.
• Proactive, independent and takes initiative with consistent follow through.
• Proficiency absorbing, digesting and distilling complex subject matter and data into clear and concise content for internal and external audiences.
• Maintain flexible availability and responsiveness during and outside office work hours.

We know there's a lot to consider. As you go through the application process, our recruiters will be glad to provide guidance, and more relevant details to answer any additional questions. Thank you again for your interest in Royal Caribbean Group. We'll hope to see you onboard soon!

It is the policy of the Company to ensure equal employment and promotion opportunity to qualified candidates without discrimination or harassment on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, sexuality, gender identity or expression, marital status, or any other characteristic protected by law. Royal Caribbean Group and each of its subsidiaries prohibit and will not tolerate discrimination or harassment.

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