Director - Communications

LivCor, a Blackstone portfolio company, is a real estate asset management business specializing in multi-family housing. Formed in 2013 and headquartered in Chicago, LivCor is currently responsible for a portfolio of over 400 Class A and B properties comprising more than 150,000 units in markets across the United States.

Our business is focused on making real estate more valuable. But for us, it’s more than that. It’s people first, community always. It’s a life-filled career, not just a career-filled life. It’s doing good work, with good humans, and making a difference. It’s excellence in all its forms. Ultimately, we create great places to work, live, and grow. We do that by focusing on leaving people – and places – better than we found them.

Whew! Still with us? Cool. Let’s talk about where you’d fit in:

• We are looking for a creative thinker and doer to support our company brand and communications, including executive communications, internal change management and teammate engagement, and external communications to our partners.
• You will flex between being a thinker and a do-er. At times, you will own the ideas and drive the execution. In other situations, you will be refining others’ work. You should be OK with both – this is a strongly collaborative role and a flat team. We expect everyone to roll up their sleeves and do what it takes to get the job done.
• The ‘thinker’ portion of the job will focus on broader, 30,000 feet projects such as working with team leaders to create communication plans, build process architecture, and develop change management plans.
• As a ‘do-er’, you will help create engaging content for internal channels, collaborate with cross-functional teams, support internal initiatives, and ensure the correct approach (and tone) is used when communicating to stakeholders.
• Outstanding writing skills are necessary. It would be even better if you are broadly creative – really, we are looking for a storyteller who knows when something would be best communicated as a video vs. an email vs. a graphic (or maybe your answer is, “all the things”). We need someone who can quickly and creatively identify the best way to execute in any given moment.
• You will be outstanding at ‘reading the room’ and being as knowledgeable about the material you’re communicating as the subject matter experts you’ll work with. You will need to know your audience(s), understand the tone that needs to be held and be able to communicate the message effectively using discernment of best channel(s) to communicate the message.
• Your primary stakeholders will include:
  • Business Teams (Asset Management, CapEx, Revenue & Performance, and Marketing)
  • Third-Party Property Management Companies
  • People Team
  • Tech Team
  • Senior Leadership

What you will do

Reporting to the Senior Director, Communications, you will primarily:

• Support the rollout of a newly built communication architecture for our business teams, led by Asset Management but consisting of a range of other functional teams. You will be pivotal in the execution and implementation of this plan across our whole portfolio (that includes seven regions). 
• This will consist of integrating into those teams to support ongoing communications, including creating communications plans and tactical content.
• This work will be highly matrixed, with the communications architecture you will lead spanning horizontally across the company, as well as vertically up to leadership and down into the organization as well as externally into the range of partners we work. Your job will be to figure out who internally and externally needs to know what and the best way to get that information to them so that they can deliver results.
• Working with power users of the Communications Team, specifically the People and Tech Teams, to support larger company-wide initiatives throughout the year. This will require organizing project timelines, reviewing (or writing) the appropriate communication plans and then executing the approved plans.
• Contribute to Huddle (our version of town halls or all hands) and meetings, internal communication platforms (including social) and newsletters as needed—it takes a whole team to win a game.
• Other communications projects as needed.
• Stay informed about industry trends, internal developments, and global news to effectively tailor communication messages and strategies.

What you should have:

• Minimum of bachelor’s degree required (discipline agnostic if you can demonstrate a passion for storytelling, communications, and sharp critical analysis skills.)
• 8-10 years of relevant work experience in a fast-paced, corporate environment with some combination of change management, government/political campaigns, private equity, financial services, or commercial real estate.
• Exceptional executive presence, including experience supporting senior business leaders with communications.
• Truly outstanding writing and multimedia storytelling skills.
• Excellent customer service skills and a passion for reader/consumer experience.
• Knowledge of social media, digital engagement, and strategic best practices for communications, reader engagement, and user experience.
• Helpful if you have photography/videography/content creation experience.
• Expert-level proficiency with Microsoft Office; helpful if you have experience with Adobe Creative Cloud apps.
• Experience with email marketing platforms.
• Proven track record with:
• Managing the lifecycle of projects
• Change management (both creation of CM plans and implementation).
• Agility to jump back and forth between internal and external communications with ease.
• People management ideal but not a deal breaker.
• Ambition without ego.
• It would be a real plus if you are funny.

What we offer:

We know that if we take care of our team everything else will fall into place. We aren’t perfect, but we will try to set very clear expectations, always let you know where you stand, and do everything in our power to help you get where you want to go.

Our culture and values matter to us. A lot. We’re definitely not serious but we take this stuff seriously, if you get what we mean. We want a place that is an ego-free zone. A place where good people do good things together. It shouldn’t be rocket science in workplaces, but for some reason it still is? We’re absolutely determined to be different, and we think we’re doing a pretty good job at it. We have a CEO who makes fun of himself, and who will encourage you to tell him when he is wrong. In fact, he needs people to – we all do. Supportive challenge is good, it’s how we get better. We like getting better. We love diversity, of all kinds. We need people who look, sound, speak, love, and exist differently from one another. This isn’t at the end of this paragraph because it’s an afterthought. It’s SO important to us we want it to stand out.

Right. On to the technical stuff that we know matters to you. We offer competitive pay that is commensurate with the market and relevant experience, and a full slate of benefits that even includes things like paid parental leave.

If any of this sounds interesting, then maybe we are a fit. Life is too short to work with people you don’t like. So whatever you do, don’t make that mistake.

The LivCorian Values

1. Be you. Be Real. Be Open. You do you. Together, we will do something amazing.
2. Care, Always. We don’t want to let anyone down.
3. Courageously Curious. We love to learn, even when it hurts.
4. Help Others Win, Be A Good Neighbor. This is about ‘We, not Me.’
5. Relentless Hustle, Heart & Humility. Work hard. Be Kind. Make Better.

A few of the people you will work with:

• Emily Joslin
• Clark Hennessy
• Jen Lee
• Allina Boohoff
• Brian Carnell

As of the date on which this job advertisement is posted, the Company anticipates that the base salary range for this role is $161,000 - $212,000 (this represents the presently-anticipated low and high end of the Company’s base salary range for this position).  Total direct compensation may also include discretionary bonus and/or incentive compensation. Actual base salary range may vary based on various factors, including but not limited to location and experience.

LivCor is proud to be a US EPA ENERGY STAR® Partner

EEO Statement

Our company is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. Our employment decisions are based on individual qualifications, job requirements and business needs without regard to race, color, marital status, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, age, religion, disability, citizenship status, national origin, pregnancy, veteran status and or any other legally protected characteristics. We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations, if you need an accommodation to complete the application process, please email talent@revantage.com.

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