Crisis Comms Account Manager in City of London, London

About PHA

PHA is an earned-first integrated communications agency with offices in London, Manchester, Leeds, New York and Boston. We believe communication can make the world a better place. It matters. But with constant disruption, fragmentation and growing complexity, earning attention and inspiring action is harder than ever. PHA is built to solve this. We nurture, grow and protect brands & reputations for a portfolio of consumer, corporate, technology, B2B, health and third sector clients in the UK and internationally. We bring clarity to a fast, chaotic, complex world, challenging convention and delivering fresh thinking. Our agile multidisciplined teams create dynamic campaigns across earned, social, digital and paid media - engaging audiences wherever they are, always. We lead with strategy and deliver a full suite of creative services and production capabilities, generating impact at every step of the audience journey from awareness through to conversion.

Introduction to the role

We are looking for a passionate, ambitious, and entrepreneurial Account Manager to join our Reputation team. You can expect to work across a wide range of leading brands and private clients across multiple sectors with opportunities to work on integrated briefs across the wider agency too. The Reputation team is a small division within the agency, specialising in crisis and reputation management; crisis planning and mitigation; and media training and coaching. We are recognised in the industry for our expertise in crisis communications, including in the Spear’s 500, Legal 500 and Chambers and Partners rankings.

You will be working closely with experienced, senior professionals, delivering consultancy, media relations support and strategic counsel to a diverse mix of clients, both on a retained basis and on short-term projects. We are sector agnostic and our long-term retained clients include: a Premier League football club; the owner/operator of a collection of international shopping villages; a global F & B brand; a leading UK casino operator; a fast-growing digital health platform; a global research agency; and two charities and Foundations. We also work with private clients and HNWs, either promoting their work or protecting their privacy.

Our short-term project work includes litigation PR, devising and implementing strategic media campaigns for claimants or defendants; crisis planning, crisis simulation and media training for businesses and third sector organisations; immediate media and stakeholder relations support for clients facing an imminent or ongoing crisis; and thought leadership for private clients and business leaders. The work is often fast-paced and always varied. You will be working in a flat team structure, receiving close support from senior colleagues and given a high level of responsibility.

Core Responsibilities

• Media monitoring, social listening and horizon scanning for selected clients.
• Deliver high-quality media coverage for accounts.
• Develop and maintain positive relationships with clients as the trusted day-to-day account lead, taking ownership of client meets, regular client updates, and reporting.
• Develop strong client management with detailed, clear communication, counsel, and strategic recommendations.
• Start to run the day-to-day management of client accounts, with the support of the account lead, including setting and adhering to agreed timelines, management of weekly and monthly reporting, monitoring and exceeding KPIs, ideation to keep client activity fresh and engaging, checks to ensure high quality of client-facing documents, and confidently managing budgets.
• Build awareness of and contribution to contract renewals to achieve a high client retention rate.

Stay Curious

• Deliver high-quality coverage through a strong news awareness, leading on campaign strategy, and drafting compelling content on behalf of clients.
• Maintain strong relationships with journalists and other key figures relevant to your clients to provide regular earned media opportunities.
• Develop a sophisticated and in-depth knowledge of industries relevant to your clients and use research skills to lead planning and campaign strategies, draft in-depth content, and upsell projects.
• Attend role-specific training and participate in agencywide activities and initiatives to build relationships with colleagues.
• Use AI tools responsibly to support creativity, efficiency, insight, and high-quality output, applying professional judgment to ensure all work remains accurate, ethical, and aligned with client and company standards.

Stay Human

• Demonstrate consistent and effective upward management to account leads, sharing successes and flagging issues/challenges at the earliest opportunity, whilst also identifying and suggesting possible solutions.
• Confidently take ownership of weekly account activity for selective clients with support from account lead, taking responsibility for ensuring deadlines are met.
• Build strong client relationships, providing mature, considered strategic counsel, often in sensitive or high-pressure situations.

Stay Ahead

• Contribute to your practice’s new business strategy, including identifying and understanding new prospect opportunities, working with Sales & Marketing, and continuing where relevant to proposal preparation and pitch involvement.
• Develop commercial awareness, with a focus on understanding client contract breaks, and growing the commercial value of your client portfolio through upselling.

Benefits

• Hybrid working policy, enabling you to work flexibly from home and one of our offices – minimum requirement of 12 office days per month.
• Flexible start and finish times; 8am-5pm / 8:30am-5:30pm / 9am-6pm, as well as an early finish on Fridays between 3:30pm and 4:30pm.
• Healthcare cashback scheme worth up to £2,000 annually for dental, optical, physio, chiro, osteo, and GP charges.
• £30 monthly phone allowance.
• Annual railcard reimbursement.
• Weekly Wellness Hour, annual Wellness Day, and accompanying £50 voucher.
• Annual Development Day for volunteering/charity work, and Birthday leave.
• 23 days’ annual leave which increases by one day every year from your second anniversary (capped at 31 days).
• 10% new business bonus and £500 recruitment referral bonus schemes.
• Potential to be nominated for a £500 WOW bonus for exceptional performance.
• £1,000 voucher for reaching 5, 10, 15, 20, etc. years’ service.
• Monthly companywide awards with a chance to win £50 or £100 for outstanding work.
• Enhanced parental leave options; 26 weeks’ full maternity pay, up to 26 weeks’ full adoption pay, and 6 weeks’ full paternity pay.
• Option to take a sabbatical for up to 5 months after 5 years’ service.
• Employee Assistance Programme with access to six virtual or face-to-face counselling sessions as well as ad hoc mental health, financial, and legal support.
• Dedicated Culture Committee responsible for arranging a number of activities and initiatives across sport, social, wellness, sustainability, charity, and EDI, as well as a regular Culture Club.
• Dedicated training team responsible for developing employees at all levels across the business through an extensive programme of external trainers, internal specialists, and industry experts, complimented by the PHA Aspire Mentoring Programme.

Send your CV to rubyk@thephagroup.com today!