About the Role

Blackbird is looking to hire a Senior Communications Manager to help tell the story of Blackbird, our portfolio and our community in all kinds of mediums.

Here is what success might look like in this role:

• Managing all earned media for Blackbird, from inbound media requests to proactive campaigns for key announcements and initiatives like our Sunrise festival
• Supporting our portfolio companies with advice, connections and guidance for key media announcements
• Overseeing all Blackbird owned media, including producing our Wild Hearts podcast, managing our website, blog and social media content
• Supporting corporate communications in partnership with other teams such as our People & Culture team (for internal communications) and Investor Relations team (on investment and LP communications matters)
• Develop and drive upskilling for all Blackbirds on communications matters such as building team self-serve resources, training and coaching, and building cross-functional capabilities

This is a fast-paced role that will require you to wear lots of different hats. Whether you come from a media, PR, marketing background or something else entirely, if you love working with startups, spinning a yarn and supporting others to sing their own song, this is the job for you.

Please note: this is a 12 month parental leave cover position and requires Australian working rights.

Position Requirements

We know that candidates, especially women and people from underrepresented backgrounds, often hesitate to apply unless they meet 100% of the qualifications. If this role excites you and you meet most of the requirements, we encourage you to apply. We value potential and are committed to supporting growth in this role.

Key skills we’re looking for in this position:

• Written and verbal communication. You can say the right thing, in the right way, at the right time. You’re a wolf with spelling and grammar, and everyone’s go-to proofreader.
• Bias for action, attention to detail. You’re able to make quick decisions and work fast to gather the context needed to make a judgement call. You can balance this speed with an attention to detail and you sweat the small stuff.
• Stakeholder management. You can collaborate with all kinds of people and groups to see the bigger strategic picture and make it happen. You can build relationships through the good and bad times, and have the difficult conversations when needed.
• Ownership mindset. You take responsibility and accountability over your work from the macro to the micro. If someone assigns you a task, they can be confident you’ll see it through.
• Ruthless prioritisation and organisation skills. Whether you’ve long been a lone ranger or you’ve worked in large teams, you’re adept at managing multiple projects, timelines and stakeholders to get things done, particularly in an autonomous way.

We’re looking for someone who is as passionate as us about building an iconic investment business. You must have a high ownership mentality and the ability to take responsibility for goals and outcomes.

This role is a full-time contract, based in either our Surry Hills office in Sydney or Cremorne office in Melbourne, with the flexibility to work from home.

Working at Blackbird

We believe that building a diverse and inclusive team is critical to Blackbird’s success. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, national origin, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, or marital, veteran, or disability status. We use Applied to ensure every applicant gets an equal chance of success.

We offer:

• Flexible working: Whether it’s working from home, leaving early to pick up the kids or fitting in your favorite exercise class. We encourage you to explore when you're most productive and work in that style.
• Wellbeing: We think in decades not days. To support our Blackbirds over the long haul we offer a range of holistic wellbeing benefits including a monthly healthy living allowance, 24/7 access to wellbeing support, a home office allowance, personal kit-kat days, and more!
• Unplugged weekends: We work hard without letting work get in the way of life. We’ve implemented no Slack or emails on weekends, so you can switch off and enjoy yourself.
• Connection: While being big fans of a fully distributed workforce, we value our vibe and time to connect online and IRL through team and company offsites, monthly social activities, weekly lunches and our many social clubs (#fun-manis, #fun-fantasybookclub, #bb-craft just to name a few!).

Blackbird is a Pledge 1% member — we pledge 1% of our time, equity and profits to help not-for-profit causes in our community. Through Pledge 1%, we established the Blackbird Foundation to supercharge the creative capabilities of young people.

We are also very proud to have won the 2023 AFR Best Place to Work award in three categories including Overall winner. In 2022, we became certified as one of Australia’s Great Places to Work.

About Blackbird

Blackbird is Australia's biggest venture capital fund whose mission is to supercharge Australia and New Zealand’s most ambitious founders. We do this by raising venture capital funds, investing into the best startup companies and helping them succeed. Our portfolio is worth over $7B, and includes more than 130 companies across Australia and New Zealand, from Canva and CultureAmp to rising stars like Halter, Partly, Carepatron, Gilmour Space, Eucalyptus, Fleet and Tracksuit.

We are inspired by investment firms such as Berkshire Hathaway and Bridgewater Associates. Like the companies we back, we want to build a business that lasts for decades and produces excellent returns for our investors. Most of all, we want to support our region’s most talented founders build category-defining technology companies.

We’ve written a lot about what we love at Blackbird, so check out our blog if you want some more information about us. In particular, you should read about our mission and values, our Blackbird’s Operating Principles (BOPs) and what we look for in founders.