Account Executive, Higher Education

About This Role

An Account Executive on the Higher Education team maintains daily client relations, plans and executes day-to-day project deliverables, supports and leads junior staff, and conceptualizes strategies, pitches, and media placements. This role manages daily work and deliverables, anticipates client needs, and assesses the strongest team approach to meet them. Working closely with client leads and internal staff, you will manage up and down, delegate to peers and junior staff, and develop and advance strategy alongside senior leaders. This is an opportunity for someone passionate about higher education and its role in society, eager to elevate the stories of colleges, universities, and other organizations across the higher education landscape while leading client work that advances their goals and initiatives.

Responsibilities

• Drive media relations pitching engine; developing creative pitch angles, building media lists, and conducting outreach to and maintaining relationships with key reporters
• Support the creation of strategy by providing regular creative ideas for clients to engage audiences across owned, paid, and earned media channels
• Drive day-to-day client deliverables, managing up and down to ensure team alignment while proactively surfacing new ideas and opportunities for clients
• Manage media monitoring and rapid response across accounts
• Write and edit persuasive external and internal materials, including strategy decks, messaging, op-eds, social, and web copy
• Support day-to-day communications with clients, including analyzing press coverage and writing regular progress reports
• Manage workstreams across multiple accounts

Requirements

• 2–3 years of experience in communications, including experience in-house at companies, nonprofits, or higher education institutions, or within media or journalism
• PR agency experience preferred
• Familiarity with and interest in the higher education landscape
• Ability to handle multiple assignments at once, work quickly, and meet deadlines in a fast-paced environment
• Demonstrated relationships with reporters and strong news sense
• Ability to communicate clearly and effectively, both verbally and in writing, with varying levels of staff, clients, and media
• Strong attention to detail
• Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively with a team to meet group objectives
• Proficiency in Google and Microsoft software suites

Benefits

• Competitive industry-rate salary bands
• Opportunities for advancement
• Commitment to helping all staff develop and grow

Important Details

• Work format: hybrid, 3 days per week in office