Senior Associate Director, Internal & Change Communications (Gagen MacDonald)

About Gagen MacDonald 

Founded in 1998 and headquartered in Chicago, Gagen MacDonald is a wholly owned subsidiary of APCO, a global advisory and advocacy communications consultancy. 

Gagen MacDonald is a woman-owned, people-focused transformation consulting firm and trusted partner to the C-suite. We are dedicated to accelerating human-centered transformation and enhancing business performance by connecting strategy, structure and culture to purpose, brand and reputation.

For more than 25 years, we have been working with organizations to navigate the human struggle of change. By changing the employee experience through culture, communication, leadership and design, we unite employees across all levels of an organization around a single vision, working from the inside out.

At Gagen, we are committed to delivering on our firm’s core value, “Our cause is our clients’ success,” to help organizations build a healthier business for a better world. 

To do that, we need highly talented people for whom client service and high-quality change communication is a priority. 

About the Role 

We are seeking a Senior Associate Director, Internal & Change Communication to develop and implement strategic communications programs that deliver business results. This is a role for someone who has passion for leading communication strategies that rally employees behind a shared purpose. 

You will be part of a collaborative team that supports clients from the corporate office to the frontline, leveraging an organization’s brand, culture, vision and history to motivate and align employees to accomplish their business objectives. 

The job can be based at one of APCO’s U.S. offices (Chicago, NYC, DC, Raleigh) or a home office and it requires some travel to client sites and company meetings.

What You'll Do 

Join us and make a positive impact with some of the world's most admired brands using your expertise in internal communications, change management, employee engagement, mergers & acquisitions (M&A), business transformation and other types of large-scale organizational change. 

You'll make an impact with our clients by  

• Developing and leading client solutions and deliverables that meet highly complex project and client needs and result in successful and measurable strategy execution. 
• Leading project and/or account management activities to ensure execution on client requirements, managing teams on multiple projects and/or multi-disciplinary workstreams for  projects of high complexity, size, and/or scale.
• Ensuring all work product outputs and deliverables adhere to Gagen MacDonald quality standards. 
• Building, managing, and developing client teams and individuals by coaching and mentoring to grow technical expertise and interpersonal skills in their day-to-day work.  
• Anticipating, managing, and resolving client issues and/or conflict resulting in mutually satisfying client and firm needs. 
• Using your deep knowledge and mastery of technical skills to be regarded as an expert in your discipline by the client and your colleagues. 

You'll make an impact with our teams by  

• Leading the performance and development of team members by inspiring and empowering them to deliver great results. 
• Providing career coaching and long-term professional development opportunities. 
• Serving as a leader on one of our consulting teams, contributing to the team's overall success and providing strategic counsel to the team lead. 

You'll make an impact at the firm by 

• Participating in business expansion, along with other leaders at the firm, by recognizing new opportunities within existing accounts; and developing new  relationships with focus on Gagen's capabilities and expertise.
• Cultivating, expanding, and maintaining professional working relationships with clients, prospects, and industry leaders to identify business opportunities and ensure client satisfaction through regular relationship-building activities. 
• Contributing to the firm's growth by generating new business and leading the development of proposals and RFP responses for multi-disciplinary engagements with new clients. 
• Leveraging knowledge, market/industry insight, and experiences to enhance and evolve our thought leadership strategy and content as well as oversee and lead case study development, and review and/or author out blogs and white papers. 

Key Competencies

It’s not only what we do, it’s how we do it.

Building and maintaining the firm’s reputation and contributing to business success depends on each and every one of us. It requires us to approach everything we do