Director Corporate Communications and Editor-in-Chief

Company: Vorwerk SE & Co. KG

Employment Type: Fulltime

City: Wuppertal

Vorwerk SE & Co. KG is a family-owned company founded in 1883 and based in Wuppertal. The Vorwerk Group is Europe's largest direct sales company and a global leader in the direct sale of high-quality household appliances. The portfolio also consists of commercial cleaning, financing solutions as well as a venture capital company. Today, the globally active Vorwerk Group has around 9,000 employees in over 60 countries.

YOUR JOB RESPONSIBILITIES

• Independent and direct management of the internal and external communications of the Vorwerk Group in line with the requirements of modern communications work, ensuring consistent messages on a global level.
• Independent coordination of the implementation of the Vorwerk communication strategy in consultation with the "Strategy Board Communication".
• Ensuring alignment of communicative messages of the Vorwerk entities nationally and internationally; definition and independent implementation of messages and wordings.
• Independent and extensive support of the Management Boards (Vorwerk SE as well as Vorwerk Home) and the country organizations in fulfilling communication tasks; support of the country organizations in implementing communication.
• Independent prioritization of topics, stories, and activities for publication on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis, based on the decisions of the Strategy Board and the aligned communication strategy; autonomous coordination with the members of the Management Boards.
• Responsibility for setting and communicating priorities in daily newsroom meetings with the core newsroom team as well as in weekly meetings with the newsroom members of the Vorwerk country organizations.
• Responsibility for the successful planning, preparation, execution, and follow-up of all editorial meetings and alignment routines.
• Independent development, maintenance, and continuous optimization of a publication plan for the newsroom.
• Creation and publication of communication materials and media (print, digital).
• Independent management of crisis management and crisis communication; establishment and autonomous measurement of KPIs to monitor the performance of topics and communication activities across all relevant channels, as well as to assess impacts on the communication activities of the Vorwerk Group; evaluation of KPIs and responsibility for independently taking measures to achieve KPIs.
• Functional direction and management of the newsroom team and the topic and channel managers.
• Deputy role for the VP Corporate Communications in both functional and disciplinary respects.
• Independent use of the aligned budget.
• Management of collaboration with agencies.

OUR REQUIREMENTS

• Knowledge, skills, and competencies are typically acquired through a university degree (Master's) in communication, marketing, media studies, journalism, and at least 10 years of professional experience in a comparable, preferably in a direct sales environment (e.g., as Editor-in-Chief or Head of a Newsroom) with leadership responsibility.
• Strong knowledge of organizing an international newsroom within the communications function of a corporate group.
• Proven management/leadership skills.
• Understanding of business/economic relationships.
• Strong teamwork and willingness for international collaboration.
• Sensitivity in handling topics.
• Strategic foresight to categorize topics and priorities.
• Communicative, open.
• Decisive and goal-oriented.
• Confident command of MS Office applications, CMS systems, and project planning systems.
• Fluent language skills in German (preferably native) and English, and ideally an additional European language.

OUR BENEFITS

• Flexible working framework and 30 days of holiday.
• Possibility of mobile working within a defined framework.
• Attractive pension plan through several modules as well as the option of a time value account.
• Benefits of a family-owned company such as employee discounts, subsidy for childcare costs.
• Internal and external training opportunities.
• Extensive health benefits such as supplementary company health insurance, a wide range of fitness options and the possibility of on-site physiotherapy.
• Subsidized snacks and menus.
• Discounted Deutschlandticket and free parking directly at the workplace.

YOUR CONTACT PERSON

Andrea Gose

Expert HR Operations national/international

Vorwerk SE & Co. KG
Rauental 38
42289 Wuppertal