Integrated Associate Director - Corporate Communications & Digital | Johannesburg

Who We Are

Stories that matter, reputations that last — Narrate is an independent strategic communications consultancy shaping how Africa’s leading brands are understood and remembered. Born from a 2025 management buyout after 25 years within the international Instinctif Partners network, we sit between global reputation advisers and strategy consultancies — pairing senior judgement with proprietary intelligence to deliver the counsel of one with the rigour of the other. We solve business problems the way the best stories get told: equal parts instinct and evidence, balancing creativity, a sharp reputational lens, strategic thinking, and data analysis. Our team across South Africa and Europe, backed by partners across the African continent, advises businesses through the moments that define reputation, crafting the narratives that fuel it.

The Role

• Senior client lead on complex, high-profile integrated communications & digital accounts.
• Blend of hands-on delivery, strategic counsel, commercial ownership, and team leadership.
• Operates with real autonomy, working closely with Directors to drive outcomes, not just outputs.

What you’ll Own

Strategy & Client Advisor

• Trusted advisor to C-suite clients on narrative, strategy and reputational risk.
• Spot the risk and the opportunity before the client does.

Issues & Crisis

• Lead crisis mandates end-to-end: frameworks, holding statements, live counsel.
• Run simulations and audits so clients are ready before the storm hits.

Media Relations

• An established network across national, business, and financial media.
• Place the story, prep the spokesperson, handle the sensitive call.

Financial Communications

• Counsel on results, M&A, capital markets, and other financial communication opportunities.

Writing & Content

• Speeches, op-eds, strategy advice notes, board papers, digital content; ideally, you won’t always generate the first draft, apart from in critical moments where experienced positioning and insight really matter, so it’s a preferable skill
• Quality-control everything the team produces before it lands with a client.

Accounts & Team

• Support budgets, scope, and growth across your portfolio.
• Play an active role in new business development, helping identify and convert growth opportunities for the firm.
• Coach and develop the next wave of talent on your team.

What you Bring

• 10+ years of progressive experience in strategic communications consulting, public relations, corporate affairs, or a related advisory world (management consulting considered, as will inhouse experience as long as candidate has some consulting background)
• A strong understanding of digital and social media, and how they intersect with earned and traditional media.
• Demonstrable experience working across African markets.
• A relevant degree in Communications, Journalism, Business, Law, or similar, postgraduate qualification is a bonus.
• A proven hand at issues management and crisis communications, with real mandates to show for it.
• Capability in financial communications, JSE-listed experience, M&A, capital markets advisory,
• A genuine, demonstrable network of media contacts across national, business, and financial press.

What Sets You Apart

• A collaborative, hands-on practitioner who thrives on managing multiple stakeholders at pace.
• Sharp writing, sharper instincts, polished, persuasive, insightful content, produced under pressure and on tight deadlines.
• Strategic thinking: sees the big picture, anticipates stakeholder responses, builds strategies that align with the business.
• A sharp understanding of critical issues, approached with a creative, solutions-oriented problem-solving mindset.
• A crisis-ready mindset; calm, decisive and solution-oriented when things move fast, and the stakes are high.
• Client excellence; manages demanding senior relationships with professionalism, judgement and a genuine service ethos.
• Media fluency: understands the news cycle and what makes a story land, with the relationships to make it happen.
• Financial acumen; comfortable with financial statements, and sensitive disclosures.
• Leadership presence: a confident, credible voice in rooms full of senior stakeholders.
• A genuine go-getter, someone who creates momentum, not someone who waits for it.
• A natural networker, always building relationships and alert to new business opportunities for the firm.
• Committed to leveraging AI, preferably already a capable user; if not there must be a willingness and capability to learn with us.
• Ready to do what it takes to deliver for clients and the business – while we have a family-friendly work-life balance ethos, the role will sometimes require extra investment in evenings or at weekends.
• Initiative-taking mentality and intellectual curiosity are critical – come with a view on topical issues of the day, ready to anticipate reputational issues, and plugged into the fast-evolving African communications landscape.

What we Offer

• A fun, fast-paced, agile, entrepreneurial, non-hierarchical environment
• A seat at the table from day one
• Hybrid working, flexibility, trust
• High-profile clients and work that actually matters
• A vibrant office space in Parkhurst

Ready to write your next chapter with us?

Committed to Employment Equity, we welcome applications from designated groups, while ultimately looking for the best person for the job

Send your CV to ***email_hidden*** by Friday, 24 July 2026.