Senior Director, Communications and Public Affairs

Job Description

Want to be a Hero? Join one of the leading global online food ordering and delivery marketplaces!

We are looking for a Senior Director, Communications and Public Affairs for three of our main brands: foodora, foodpanda and Yemeksepeti. In the role, you will oversee Global Public Policy & Government Affairs, Communications and Corporate Brand and Corporate Social Responsibility for the three brands, present in 17 countries across Europe and Asia.

In this unique time of industry disruption and economic changes, it is more important than ever that our consumers, communities, employees, and shareholders understand who we are and what we stand for. At the same time, the spheres of communications, corporate governance, social responsibility, government relations and public policy are increasingly interconnected and require a focused, coordinated approach.

Our organisational culture is entirely unique, enabling our independent brands to be industry leaders within their markets and our cultural DNA embodies entrepreneurial mindset, ‘play to win’ mentality, influencing and end to end ownership.

Join us in creating an engaging and personalized shopping experience for our users. Every feature and improvement you develop will enhance customer choice and app performance, making it easier for users to find and enjoy the products they love. Your work will have a lasting impact on customer satisfaction and loyalty across diverse markets.

Global Public Policy & Government Affairs Pillar:

The role will be responsible for public policy advocacy, government and regulatory affairs within the EU and globally. You will lead political positioning and will be responsible for managing and growing the Public Policy and Government Affairs team across the three brands.

• You develop and maintain excellent working relationships with political bodies, policymakers, administrative authorities and non-governmental organizations on policy topics related to our business operations.

• You build and manage meaningful partnerships with internal as well as external stakeholders and you are involved in representing the company in trade associations, industry platforms and advocacy groups across the globe.

• You monitor and assess upcoming legislation, policy proposals and regulatory initiatives inter alia in the areas of data privacy laws, platform regulation, antitrust and competition laws, intellectual property rights, cybersecurity, food safety and financial market regulation, and you devise strategies to minimize risks for our business operations.

• Together with different teams within our organization, you define and implement regulatory and public policy positions and strategies to advance our business.

• You provide the management with strategic advice and intelligence on legislative and regulatory initiatives and you work closely with the Public Affairs team to support efforts to ensure that our positions are communicated consistently across the group.

• Along with the team, you develop key messages, narratives and arguments to support policy goals.

• Together with the Corporate Communications team you support holistic communication strategies and campaigns that advance policy goals.

Communications and Corporate Brand Pillar:

Lead Global Communications for foodora, foodpanda and Yemeksepeti in line with the company’s positioning and philosophy. In this role, you will be responsible for strategically driving the external (financial and corporate) and internal narrative around the business, its products and values with a key focus on the tech platform. With a strategic understanding of the media landscape, from both a digital and traditional point of view, you will understand how to best position the brands, as well as opportunities to strengthen it amongst internal and external stakeholders alike.

• Building relationships with senior stakeholders within the business (global and regional) and demonstrating how communications can support the wider business objectives.

• Continue to communicate our position as a leading Tech company with relevant tech blogs and tech press.

• Carefully tailor employee messaging to reflect our values of care.

• Deliver communications strategy with a perspective on employee/financial/corporate communications, content creators, partnerships, events and collaborations.

• Build, lead and develop a dynamic team of public relations/internal comms experts who actively collaborate with relevant partners within and outside the organization.

• Build key strategic relations within the global press and cultural communities.

• With an agency partner, developing global issues/crisis management strategy and deploying as needed.

• Lead brand spokesperson strategy, ensuring regular media training and brand briefings

• Working closely with the regional Head of Communications, supporting agency appointments and local issues management.

• Advocating for campaign optimisation across all channels and developing collaborative ways of working.

• Ensuring visibility of PR initiatives across the wider business.

Corporate Social Responsibility Pillar

The Senior Director will work closely with the Sustainability team and will also lead the brands’ Sustainability strategy by implementing leading ESG-related initiatives focused on environmental and social impact projects. Working cross-functionally with internal stakeholders and a range of external partners, this role will ensure alignment with long-term goals by defining and communicating the organization’s commitments to equity, sustainability, and responsible management. Develop and lead sustainability strategies and programs, aligned with our overall global ambitions and goals.

• Responsible for the brand’s ESG reporting responsibilities including:

  • Driving sustainability collaborations/projects.

  • Aligning and driving strategy on plastic waste reduction.

  • EV adoption.

  • Sustainable packaging initiatives, renewables and other aspects of mitigating climate change.

  • Social impact projects.

• Lead response to country-level disaster relief efforts when needed.

• Ensure and monitor fair treatment of riders and best in class health and safety measures for rider safety.

• EU Taxonomy: Mandatory and industry leading measurement and reporting in line with science based sustainability targets

Qualifications

• 12+ years experience in Communications, Public Affairs and Government Relations with a proven record of building a strong professional, media and policy network.

• You bring experience from the e-commerce, tech or delivery industry and are familiar with the regulatory areas relevant to our business (platform work, competition law, tech regulation).

• You have experience leading Corporate Affairs (external and internal) and Policy campaigns in an agency or in-house setting.

• Strong experience leading multinational and multi-locations teams in a regional or global context.

• Deep understanding of Corporate Brand, track record in delivering successful corporate brand strategy and campaigns.

• You have experience building evidence-based advocacy campaigns and are a strong negotiator.

• Experience and advocacy of the CSR agenda, with relevant leadership experience in this area.

• You are fully proficient in English.

• You have superb communication skills (verbal/written) and proven expertise in drafting communications, press releases, legislation, regulation as well as responses to government consultations.

• You are an absolute team player with excellent interpersonal as well as analytical skills. You value the approach of the best idea counting - not the most senior one.

• You solve complex tasks in an accurate yet pragmatic and timely manner and are able to efficiently deep dive into new policy areas.

Additional Information

We believe diversity and inclusion are key to creating not only an exciting product, but also an amazing customer and employee experience. Fostering this starts with hiring - therefore we do not discriminate on the basis of racial identities, religious beliefs, color, national origin, gender identities or expressions, sexual orientations, age, marital or disability statuses, or any other aspect that makes you, you.

We encourage you to let us know if you need any accommodations or specific accessibility support to ensure a smooth interview experience—just let us know with an email to our Inclusion Officer at [email protected] it in your application.

Severely disabled applicants with equal qualifications will be given preferential consideration.

You're welcome to share your pronouns (he/she/they) right from the start so we can address you respectfully from our first contact.