About Shift

We believe car buying should be fun, fair, and accessible to everyone. We’ve set out to transform an industry, using technology to bring transparency and convenience to the car buying process. 

And we aren’t stopping there. We seek to bring that same openness and simplicity to car ownership too, with payments, maintenance, and insurance in one easy app. At SHIFT, we’re building the tools that empower people to buy, own, and sell the cars that make life go. We’ve recently entered the public markets (Nasdaq: SFT) and are experiencing rapid growth. This is a great opportunity to join a hyper growth company changing an industry!

Who We Are

At Shift, we’re all about growth - which means people who are eager to grow, who are ready to roll up their sleeves and learn new things. We were founded by a scrappy group of visionaries who were by no means “car experts” - so we don’t expect you to be one, either! We’ll take the open-minded go-getter over the pure subject matter expert any day. In that spirit, we also care about building a diverse and inclusive workplace and company. To put it simply, cars are meant for everyone, so we believe our company should be, too. We never discriminate against any candidate on the basis of gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, race, ethnicity, religion, color, national origin, marital status, veteran status or disability status. We welcome and encourage people of all backgrounds and walks of life to apply, even if you’re unsure if you meet all the requirements. (Even if this particular role isn’t the right fit, chances are we will have the right one soon!)

About Role

We are building a communications function focused on shaping the CEOs communications spanning business strategy, public market engagement, social media presence, and thought leadership focused on both transformative vision for company and industry, as well as technology more broadly. This is an opportunity to lead communication efforts at Shift working in a rapidly changing, fast paced environment as we transition from a high growth private to a public company. 

This role will be responsible for building external communications platform for Shift’s CEOs from the ground up. The scope includes managing all press engagement and relations; responsibilities for creative storytelling and content development for both internal and external audiences through keynotes and written communications; supporting executives’ social media presence; as well as overseeing other thought leadership activities and telling the story of Shift’s vision to a broad audience. 

Foundational to success in this role is the ability to work closely as part of a team that reports directly to George Arison, our Co-CEO and Co-Founder. 

What you'll do

• Building relations with and pitching media, including developing relationships with reporters and media outlets, and getting coverage in key publications, broadcast networks, podcasts, and other media sources. 
• Creating, building and scaling communications strategies for the company and its co-CEOs including developing content for external audiences such as investors, business partners and decision-makers, media, and customers (including storylines, scripts, speeches, talking points, blogposts, letters, press quotes, etc.). 
• Partner with teams across company, including researching subject matter for press pitching as well as speeches/keynotes/panels, to find the most impactful stories, synthesizing talking points and messaging from teams across the company, and translating these inputs into either media focused pitches or C-level talking points. 
• Ensuring (both through promoting and evaluating opportunities) that CEOs engage in communication at appropriate format and content that drive desirable effects for the business. 
• Overseeing executives' social media presence. 
• Developing a standardized internal and external communication schedule necessary for a public company, with a focus around quarterly earnings calls and other regular communication events that will impact Shift’s perception in the public markets. 
• Managing external agencies and consultants.

Who you are

• You are a self-motivated individual, comfortable operating in a high volume and fast paced environment without sacrificing results.
• You require minimum management and enjoy making other people’s problems your problems.
• You have a strong relationship with the media and have an easy time building new relationships.
• You are willing to do the full-spectrum of communications work; feel comfortable leading initiatives but can also do the more time-intensive work (drafting, editing, etc.); put differently, you are willing to operate at a very senior level as well as a junior level simultaneously.
• You are both humble and super smart.
• You have the ability to work with utmost discretion in the management of confidential corporate information.
• You are deeply collaborative and able to build close partnerships and orchestrate work across broad departments key stakeholders.

What we’re looking for

• 4+ years in communications or journalism, in particular, exceptional and demonstrable capabilities in media relations and pitching; speechwriting; and content development capabilities. 
• Love for working with the media and getting them to write stories. 
• A passion for storytelling. 
• Demonstrated ability to scout and synthesize stories from a variety of inputs
• Ability to understand technology and products, even if no prior experience in technology. 
• Personal portfolio of stories that have been successfully placed or media stories that the candidate has managed, as well as (if available) portfolio of samples of elegant and compelling writing product (e.g., talking points, Q&A, etc.). 
• Demonstrated understanding of social media. 
• Proven ability to listen and collaborate well – building and drawing upon a wide network, sparking great ideas, gathering and incorporating feedback and ideas from multiple stakeholders.
• Ability to build relationships with external communities and influencers.

Nice to haves

• Previous experience in a C-suite communications role.
• Experience handling  communication at, or for, a public company.
• Experience managing outside agencies and consultants.
• The level at which this role will be hired, how broad your portfolio will be, and exact reporting structure will depend on your level of experience as well as open discussions during the interview process about what will best set the candidate up for success. We are open to any of the following: 
• Manager or Senior Manager with 3-6 years of professional media relations and communications experience.
• Director or Senior Director level with 7+ years of experience, or Head of / VP level with 12+ years of experience, with the caveat that this role does not envision managing any other junior team members in the near term (though support from external agencies will be available).

On diversity