Media Relations Specialist Jobs in Illinois

INTRODUCTION

DLR Group is an integrated design firm with a promise to elevate the human experience through design. This fuels the work we do around the world and inspires our mission to improve the lives of our clients, our communities, and our planet. If this sparks your interest, you’re in the right place. DLR Group is an integrated design firm that aspires to be the most creative enterprise on the planet. We are seeking a high energy media relations professional with a passion for building brands to join an ambitious team that intends to transform the model of marketing communications in the A/E/C industry. If you are ready to own and be responsible for leading media relations strategy to enable your internal clients to tell their unique story to their unique clients, this is your career opportunity.

This Role Could Be Based In The Following Cities

Chicago
Columbus
Dallas
Minneapolis
* Phoenix

Position Summary

This role will lead media relations and influencer engagement for our Healthcare and Higher Education sectors. As a key member of this integrated sector marketing team, you’ll shape how the world sees DLR Group’s Healthcare and Higher Education design expertise and thought leadership. You will collaborate with the sector marketing leader, design teams, and subject matter experts to develop content and build relationships with industry media, trade associations, and key influencers.

The Successful Candidate Will

- Develop a media relations plan and execute it to a calendar, including promotion of specific business plan projects, design ideas, and thought leadership.
- Research, write, proofread, and edit media and communications content.
- Bring a keen understanding of the current media landscape and how to forge relationships with trade, consumer, news, and digital media contacts.
- Establish a high bar for sharp ideas, flawless execution, and measurable results from integrated marketing campaigns.
- Be a creative person who can "think on their feet" beyond the traditional approach to PR and exploit opportunities within new media.
- Establish KPIs for media activities and measures of success for media outreach and marketing campaigns.
- Champion brand standards, voice, and style into all marketing content.
- Collaborate with Sector Marketing Leader to support marketing strategy with identified multi-channel campaigns and ensure that media and thought leadership are leveraged across the marketing ecosystem; and to identify, process, and filter ideas to ensure relevance to target audiences, and to support growth goals identified in the sector(s) marketing strategy in the sector(s) content strategy.
- Digital team to promote media and top design stories / thought leadership on digital (including social) platforms or with emerging media methods.
- Peer Media Managers to ensure that cross-sector opportunities are identified and strategically promoted.

Required Qualifications

- Bachelor's degree in integrated marketing communications, public relations, journalism, or a related field
- 5+ years of marketing communications experience in a professional services environment, preferably the A/E/C industry
- Demonstrate a sense of urgency to manage and prioritize multiple concurrent deadlines
- Strategic thinker with exceptional oral communications, writing, and editing skills, with the ability to articulate a clear point of view on complex issues in clear, concise communications
- Strong interpersonal skills to foster relationships and navigate cross functionally across different firm teams and with outside partners
- Keen understanding of integrating marketing tactics with traditional and social media as part of communications campaigns to attract, engage, convert, and retain clients and talent
- Strong project and people management skills – ability to quickly build consensus, and positively 'manage up' to get senior level individuals to support established processes with input and insight in a timely manner

Preferred Qualifications

- Public Relations/Media Relations experience in the Healthcare and/or Higher Education industry, preferably in the AEC or design industry
- Demonstrated track record of measurably high-impact media campaigns
- Proficiency in Adobe Creative Suite, especially InDesign; proficiency in Microsoft Suite, including PowerPoint and Teams
- Familiarity with information recording and gathering from a database, ideally MuckRack and Deltek Vantagepoint

Our comprehensive Benefits at DLR Group include medical, dental, vision, disability, wellness programs, flex spending, paid holidays, and paid time off. We also offer a 401(k) plan, employee stock ownership, and bonus opportunities. Compensation considerations are based on location, experience, and skills. The suggested pay range for this position is: Pay Range $70,000 - $95,000 USD

DLR Group is an integrated design firm delivering architecture, engineering, interiors, planning, and building optimization for new builds, renovations, and adaptive reuse projects. We are 100% employee-owned: every employee is literally invested in our clients’ success. At the core of our firm are interdisciplinary teams engaged in every step of project lifecycles. Our teams champion true collaboration, open information sharing, shared risk and reward, value-based decision making, and proficient use of technology to deliver exceptional design. We are pursuing the goals of the 2030 Challenge, the ME2040, and the SE2050, and are an initial signatory of the China Accord and the AIA 2030 Commitment. Through our values – commitment, creativity, environmental stewardship, fun, integrity, ownership, sharing, teamwork – we elevate the human experience through design, together.

DLR Group follows a four-day in-office work model, with employees having the flexibility to work somewhere other than the office on Fridays.

We are proud to be an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action/M/F/Veteran/Disabled employer.