Account Executive - Corporate Communications

This is a fantastic opportunity to join one of our client communications teams and play a key role in the delivery of high-calibre, multi-channel communications solutions for our blue-chip client base. This can include annual reports and reviews, sustainability reports, investor relations and employee communications, online reporting centres and wider website content and communications initiatives.

The role is well suited for a highly motivated and ambitious graduate with a curious and innovative mind, and a desire to learn about best practice corporate communications. The successful candidate must have a keen eye for detail, exceptional communication and interpersonal skills, creative flair and want to participate in building one of the largest and most successful professional service companies of its kind.

This role is the start of a successful career; it isn’t just a job. Attracting and retaining the right people for our team is an absolute priority for us and we take their career development seriously from day one. You will have access to a full programme of training and plenty of autonomy to develop new skills and contribute ideas.

We take every aspect of the work we deliver for clients seriously and we work to maintain the highest possible standards in everything we do for them and for the company. But as well as being passionate about our work, we are supportive, collaborative and positive, always looking to make what we do enjoyable and rewarding. By joining us you will be working on a hybrid model and have a wonderful opportunity to explore our picturesque offices in Bishops Park, Putney Bridge.

The core responsibility of the Account Executive is to support the wider team with the delivery of mixed-media projects, provide exemplary client service and contribute to the delivery of internal projects across the business. You will use the tools and resources available to gain an in-depth understanding of client businesses as well as market trends in best practice corporate communications.

Some of the key responsibilities in this great role include:

• Account Management: Support your team with the day-to-day management of projects by preparing and driving project schedules, ensuring that all internal and external deadlines are met. Work closely with your team leader to produce core project documentation which will support the management and delivery of projects. Such documentation includes contact reports (key actions and deliverables), project briefs and status reports. You will also support and contribute to communications briefs, page plans and photography briefs. Manage the author’s corrections (amends) turnaround process, ensuring that all amends are successfully incorporated and recorded to ensure an error-free delivery of projects. Successfully liaise and co-ordinate with suppliers (including printers and photographers), helping to brief in work and ensuring all external work is submitted in a timely manner. Continually develop your understanding of how to deliver mixed-media solutions, developing your knowledge of the creative, print, and digital processes, and seeking ways to enhance the current processes and procedures. Effectively organise meetings and conference calls and maintain orderly filing of all documents and materials held by the team.
• Commercial Responsibility: Work closely with your team leader to develop your commercial awareness of Black Sun’s job costing and fee structures. Work closely with your team leader to learn how to effectively manage project budgets by implementing all of Black Sun’s quality assurance and financial processes including creating simple budget proposals, completing regular reconciliations, raising purchase orders for external costs and completing accurate timesheets.
• Client Relationship Management: Build strong client relationships with your day-to-day client contacts, regularly attending and participating at client meetings and calls. Deliver exemplary client services at all times helping to ensure we maintain the current high levels of client satisfaction and exceptional client feedback and continually seeking ways to exceed our clients’ expectations.
• New business and client development: Assist your team with delivery of client and new business proposals by conducting research, producing budget proposals, and helping to manage the internal schedule and process.
• Research and strategic development: Support internal teams with Black Sun’s research into best practice corporate communications, by conducting research and providing insights which will support the development of Black Sun’s market-leading publications. Continually drive your understanding of our clients’ businesses, the industries they operate in, and trends in best practice corporate communications. Work closely with your team leader to develop your understanding of and begin to be able to articulate Black Sun’s proposition and views on key market insights.

Qualifications, experience & skills:

• A minimum of 2:1 degree, preferably in economics, marketing and communications, business or languages.
• Ideally some agency or client-side experience within marketing and communications.
• Excellent writing, editing, and proofreading skills are essential.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills are essential.
• Exceptional attention to detail.
• Be fully conversant with Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

Your personal qualities:

• Strong interpersonal and communications skills necessary to build trust and respect both externally and internally.
• High-quality service ethic and committed to customer service excellence.
• Ambition to self-improve.
• Ability to manage many urgent and often conflicting priorities.
• Strong ‘can do’ attitude with an innate ability to take initiative and work by yourself as well as in a team.
• Flexibility and team-focused, non-hierarchical approach with a ‘roll up your sleeves’ attitude to getting the job done.
• A great sense of humour and fun!

Interview process:

• Phone screening with talent acquisition manager.
• 1st Interview (teams) with hiring manager.
• 2nd interview (f2f) with hiring director and hiring manager (and CEO tbc).

Benefits:

• 25 days holiday per year with ‘bonus’ days for long service.
• Bonus scheme.
• Personal development opportunities.
• Group life assurance.
• Group personal pension plan.
• Employee assistance programme.
• Lots of social events.
• Weekly themed breakfast.
• Cycle to work scheme.
• Hybrid working: min 3 days a week in the office. Employees will have the option to work remotely somewhere other than home for a maximum of 2 weeks per calendar year.

About Us:

Black Sun Global is a stakeholder advisory and engagement agency that's been driving transformation and positive change for ambitious brands for more than 20 years. With deep expertise in disclosure and reporting, ESG, sustainability, and digital engagement, we reshape how organisations connect with customers, investors, employees, and the wider world. We are trusted partners to some of the most influential global organisations, sparking innovation and sustainable performance through our strategic insights, partnerships, and proprietary technologies.

As founders of the Positive Change Group, we are on a mission to create a new kind of stakeholder relations partner. Our world-class specialists work closely with executive leadership teams to protect reputations, inspire trust, and promote responsible business practices - building resilience and long-term value in a rapidly changing world.

The Positive Change Group is a global stakeholder engagement business. Our specialist agencies work as one, bringing together reporting, culture, communications and sustainability through a connected model that helps organisations close the gap between what they say and what people see, so they can present a clear and consistent story across every stakeholder group. When that alignment is in place, organisations move faster, make better decisions and build confidence in their direction.

Headquartered in London, with an international network across Europe, Asia Pacific, the Middle East and South Africa, Positive Change Group supports over 100 multinational organisations at C-suite and board level.

Join the people driving positive change. At Positive Change Group, we bring together bold thinkers, challengers and collaborators from across disciplines, sectors and geographies - connected by a shared mission and a drive to make a real difference. We're guided by The Changemaker Way: five shared values that define how we work, lead and grow - with each other, our clients and the communities we serve. We pride ourselves on being committed to offering equal opportunities to all potential employees and have zero tolerance for discrimination. We foster a business culture where ideas and decisions from all people help us grow, innovate, create the best work and be relevant in a rapidly changing world. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds to apply and would encourage you to let us know if there are steps we can take to ensure that your recruitment process enables you to present yourself in a way that makes you comfortable.