PR Associate Director - Frontier Portfolio

We're the communications and marketing agency built for challengers, disruptors and visionaries. We help brands change the way people live, work or play around the world.

Awarded for our culture and work with innovative brands shaping the future, we were recently awarded Provoke ANZ PR Agency of the Year and Large Agency of the Year at CPRA’s Golden Target Awards, we can assure you you're joining the best of the best.

Sling & Stone is the communications agency that unearths, crafts and shares the stories of the most ambitious brands shaping the world. We’re a team of 60+ Slingers across Australia, Singapore and New Zealand.

We were born to work with challengers and disrupters and over the past 15+ years have worked with some of Australia’s biggest successes — including Canva, Xero, Deputy, harrison.ai, Neara as well as ecosystem enablers like Main Sequence, UNSW Founders and the Space Industry Association of Australia.

We’re now searching for an Associate Director to lead Frontier, our portfolio of Australia’s best startups, scale-ups and ecosystem builders that help to drive the world’s best startup ecosystem. We’re looking to reinvent how we work with startups from their earliest stages and looking for a truly strategic, innovative and hungry thinker who can help Australia’s disrupters shine on the world stage.

The role you'll play

The Associate Director goes beyond leading a successful portfolio, they drive the continued success and expansion of a vital portfolio within the agency. A key strategic lead, they will drive client success, organic growth, and actively own and contribute to new business and marketing opportunities. This role is a leader in the agency — an ambassador for Australia’s startup sector, finding the opportunities for client and international expansion before anyone else. 

Stepping into this role means you’ll be working with some of the most exciting and innovative brands truly disrupting traditional industries. You’ll deeply understand how startups work and the VCs and institutions that enable them, while being equally comfortable with VCs and startups as you are with government bodies. You will also be responsible for leading and mentoring team members within this portfolio, helping them craft careers they are proud of while holding high performance standards.

This is a unique opportunity that doesn’t come around often.

Role split

Client excellence (approx. 50% of your time)

• Senior strategic advisor to clients
• Inspire teams to deliver innovative, award-winning work
• Develop high-level strategic campaigns with executional support from campaign teams
• Ensure client happiness and minimal regrettable client loss
• Organically grow your client portfolio through new services, deeper work and larger scopes

Growth & marketing (approx. 25% of your time)

• Be the champion of your portfolio — elevate Sling & Stone as the best agency for your sector
• Represent the agency in the industry through networking with media and organisations
• Proactively identify and prospect new clients on a consistent basis for your portfolio
• Lead new business proposals and ensure a high level of strategy, execution, creativity and measurement
• Articulate our value proposition with clarity, enthusiasm, and poise
• Produce clear and accurate scopes of work coming within 10% budget variance

HR & operations (approx. 25% of your time)

• Manage up to four direct reports (SAM and above)
• Foster and instil culture alongside a positive, encouraging environment
• Conduct performance reviews, career planning, and OKR setting
• Identify performance and development opportunities and lead discussions
• Be an active member of the director team, providing input and guidance on improvement of the business

To be successful in securing this role, you will need have:

• 10+ years of public relations experience, ideally with a proven specialism working with startup/scale-up technology clients.
• Passion for growth and marketing, understanding how to champion your portfolio and proactively identify opportunities for growth
• Experience leading and overseeing integrated teams from setting strategies, to managing budgets, providing strategic counsel to clients, and assessing outcomes
• Have proven team leadership, people management, and mentor skills
• Be capable of driving strategy, have strong critical thinking skills, and a sense of creativity for a number of public relations campaigns/accounts, ensuring satisfaction across your client portfolio
• Be commercially minded, able to develop scopes of work, budgets, and manage service levels with ease

What you’ll bring to the team

As an Associate Director, you’ll display the following skills and behaviours:

• Professionalism – You demonstrate professionalism when working with clients, prospects, vendors and colleagues, whether in the office or off-site.
• Camaraderie – Positive and approachable, you contribute to and cultivate team culture and inspire others to do the same.
• Well-connected – You possess and nurture a strong contact book and leverage these relationships for client campaigns.
• Creative and curious – You champion creative thinking across all parts of the business, actively encouraging your teams to come up with great ideas and execute them
• Trusted partner – You are a true and trusted extension of the client’s team, with a deep understanding of their businesses, brands and industries.
• Critical-thinking – You demonstrate critical thought in the decisions you make, how you prioritise and communicate with clients.
• Entrepreneurial – You lead the development of a specific client portfolio, proactively identifying growth opportunities with new and prospective clients.
• Ambassador – You take a leading role in agency marketing and networking efforts.
• Leadership – You command the respect of the entire agency and inspire those around you to do great work. 
• Agency economics - You have a solid understanding of the business’ commercials and have a demonstrated drive to hit targets.

Employee Benefits

As a valued member of the Sling & Stone team, you will have access to a wide range of benefits designed to support your career and wellbeing, including:

• Additional gifted leave days for our EOY agency closure
• 2 Give Back Days to volunteer with a charity of choice
• Inclusive Paid Parental leave up to 12 weeks
• Employee Assistance Platform with 3 confidential sessions per year
• Meeting free Fridays
• Opportunities to extend your holidays and explore new countries through our Work From Anywhere and Out & About programs
• Global transfers between offices
• Catered lunch on the last Tuesday before payday each month
• Technology & mobile allowance to go towards your monthly mobile bill
• A culture built on inclusion, #play, growth, and bringing your best self to work
  
  

We've also recently launched our dedicated Learning & Development program, Slingshot, built to empower storytellers, boost career mobility, drive high-impact work, and nurture internal leaders. We combine structured cohort learning, peer-led skill sharing, clear role pathways, and self-directed growth allowances into our everyday culture.

Ready to apply?

Send us your resume and tell us why you’re right for this role! 

Equal Opportunity Employer Statement

Sling & Stone is built on the talent we hire. We’re only as good as our people, and the best teams are built with people from a variety of backgrounds, offering a variety of perspectives. Even if you don’t meet all of the requirements for our roles, if you think this is the job for you, please go ahead and apply. Studies have shown that certain minority groups will only apply if they meet every specification on a job adver,t and we want to change this. We do not discriminate against any employee or candidate because of age, gender, gender identity, race, sexual orientation, nationality, religion or disability or any other basis. Our people are chosen on merit, professional qualities and alignment with our values. We are committed to building a diverse and inclusive team.