Director of Communications

Role: Director of Communications

Hours: Full-time

Location: Hybrid - Waltham MA

Salary: $145000 - $160000 annually

Travel: Occasional (conferences industry events hospital visits)

Reporting to: Chief Culture Officer

Company Description:

Veterinary Practice Partners (VPP) is a nationwide veterinary community revolutionizing vet practice ownership and support. With an expansive network of doctor partners and co-owned animal hospitals and clinics nationwide VPP has become an established partner of choice.

Through its co-ownership model VPP provides operational support across learning and development HR recruiting marketing technology and finance enabling veterinarians to focus on providing high-quality patient care and foster a strong culture at their individual practices.

VPP has over 190 (and counting) partner hospitals with 4000 employees and continued growth. VPP is a dynamic profitable growth company with strong financial private equity backing. For more information on Veterinary Practice Partners visit .

Summary:

The Director of Communications tells the story of VPP and its mission advancing the VPP Way internally and externally and building engagement around it. Internally that means helping teammates understand who VPP is connect to the mission and identify with the community. Externally it means using VPPs approach to influence how the veterinary profession evolves.

This role works across the executive team marketing and operations to build the communications function VPP needs at this stage of growth and reports to the Chief Culture Officer.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

Internal Communications

• Own the internal communications calendar and structure including partner calls all-hands meetings town halls and recurring leadership meetings.
• Select launch and manage VPPs internal communications platform ensuring it reaches every teammate including frontline hospital staff without a desk or company email.
• Curate stories and manage channel strategy across email the internal platform an internal podcast and creative assets (video written stories collateral) matching each message to the right channel.
• Serve as the internal communications consultant and air-traffic-control for IT Operations Finance and other functions coordinating what goes out and when.
• Act as a culture builder with a journalists eye gathering stories and images from operators project managers and partners across the company and packaging them to reinforce the VPP Way.

External Communications

• Draft external messaging for marketing and LinkedIn serving as a primary writer for VPPs external voice and partnering with marketing on campaigns positioning and content.
• Position VPPs executive team as industry thought leaders by securing conference speaking engagements podcast appearances and op-eds and developing their thought-leadership platforms.
• Build and maintain relationships with journalists covering veterinary medicine private-equity-backed healthcare services and related beats; pitch stories proactively.
• Develop external creative assets including podcast video print and digital storytelling that carries VPPs story into the profession.
• Partner with marketing to shape industry narrative around partnership ownership and what a modern veterinary company looks like.
• Develop and maintain a company-wide crisis and issues-communications protocol ensuring consistent timely messaging during sensitive situations.

Qualifications

• 8 years of professional communications experience with meaningful work in both internal and external communications.
• Track record of writing for and coaching senior executives.
• Experience building or significantly improving communications programs systems or platforms.
• Media relations experience including active relationships with reporters in a relevant industry.
• Bachelors degree in Communications Journalism English Marketing or a related field or equivalent professional experience.
• Preferred: experience in a multi-site distributed or healthcare services organization.
• Strong command of AP style and executive/brand voice with the judgment to adapt tone across audiences and channels.
• Experience developing crisis and issues-communications messaging under time pressure.

Ideal Candidates will Possess:

• A bias toward identifying problems and solving them rather than waiting to be asked.
• A player-coach mentality: excited to do the work personally while also thinking and operating strategically.
• Excellent writing and storytelling skills with the ability to find the story inside a strategy and tell it in a way people want to read.
• Tech-forward instincts comfortable owning platform and process decisions and rolling them out company-wide.
• Independence and comfort operating in a matrix reporting to the Chief Culture Officer while partnering closely with the CEO COO CFO Chief People Officer and marketing.
• A producers mindset: someone who finds and amplifies the story of a company.
• An understanding of what partnership means to VPP and why its different from a corporate rollup.
• Genuine curiosity about how things work why people do what they do and what makes a place tick.

Physical Requirements

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by anemployee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job.

• The employee must be able to remain in a stationary position at least 50% of the The employee needs to occasionally move about home office to access office machinery stationary tools etc.
• While performing the duties of this Job the employee is regularly required to use hands to grasp handle or feel; reach with hands and arms. Hearing and visual acuity are also
• The employee will constantly be operating a computer and other office productivity.
• The employee may occasionally be required to lift and or move up to 10lbs by themselves.

Notes:

Reasonable accommodation may be made to perform the essential functions.

• This job description describes the ideal candidate for this position and in no way impliesany limits to a persons desire to apply.
• To meet the needs of the company employees may be assigned other duties in addition to or in lieu of those described above.
• Any duties are subject to change at any time.
• This document does not create an employment contract implied or otherwise other than an at-will relationship.

Equal Employment Opportunity:

Veterinary Practice Partners (VPP) provides equal employment opportunities to all applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race color religion age sex national origin disability status genetics protected veteran status sexual orientation gender identity or expression or any legally protected characteristic.