Brand Experience Manager Jobs in Ridgewood, NJ (NOW HIRING)

At Ruder Finn, Brand Experience is where bold ideas meet business impact. We create integrated campaigns that connect brands with people through culture, creativity, earned influence, and unforgettable experiences. We believe the best work comes from curious minds, collaborative teams, and people who aren't afraid to challenge convention - or have some fun while doing it.

We're looking for a Senior Account Executive to drive the daily execution of client programs, bringing them to life through account coordination, writing, research, media relations, monitoring, reporting, trend spotting and project management.

This is a client-facing role for someone who is detail-oriented, curious, organized, and excited by brands across industries such as food, wellness, lifestyle, CPG and retail. This team member will contribute to client work and support the growth of existing engagements.

Just as importantly, you'll help shape the culture of our practice. We value people who ask great questions, embrace new perspectives, experiment with fresh ideas, and believe that the strongest teams are built on trust, generosity, and a shared sense of purpose. We work hard, celebrate wins, learn from every challenge, and genuinely enjoy creating great work together.

If you're energized by fast-moving brands, love tracking trends and pop culture, and want to help define what's next for modern brand communications, we'd love to meet you.

Key Responsibilities

• Support leadership in delivering outstanding client experiences across consumer brands.

• Build a strong understanding of each client's business, products, services, industry issues, competitors, audiences, cultural context, and communications goals.

• Drive the daily execution of client programs, create and manage account materials and processes, including status reports, project trackers, agendas, call recaps, monthly activity reports, media monitoring reports, coverage trackers, and timelines.

• Own and proactively alert team members to upcoming deliverables, deadlines, client requests, and shifting priorities to help keep work moving smoothly.

• Develop workback plans and actively help the team adhere to established internal check-points and client deadlines.

• Lead the development of client-ready materials, including press releases, media pitches, briefing documents, key messages, social content, reports, research summaries, and presentation materials.

• Contribute to the positive, collaborative, and supportive culture and spirit of the Brand Experience practice.

• Participate actively in internal and client meetings, conference calls, brainstorms, planning sessions, and team discussions.

• Work across multiple clients and industry verticals (food and beverage, QSR, retail and more), supporting relationships with clients, understanding their needs, expectations, and business objectives.

• Engage in media relations activities on behalf of clients, including pitching and media list development.

• Proactively bring media pitch ideas, cultural observations, and timely trend opportunities to account leads and the broader BX practice.

• Ability to mentor junior staff and provide clear direction to ensure work is being completed on time

• Monitor relevant media coverage and generate media monitoring reports for clients.

• Keep a pulse on news and trends and share with the practice team.

• Support brand research projects and trend tracking for clients; demonstrate the ability to distill critical information into key takeaways for teams and clients.

• Hold strong organizational and time management skills with the ability to prioritize not only your own deliverables, but keeping others on track as well.

• Strong project management skills and attention to detail

• Serve in a client facing capacity and comfortable with being proactive and confident to share new ideas and thinking with the team and clients.

• Contribute to the positive, collaborative, and supportive culture and spirit of the Brand Experience practice.

• Support efforts for business development , including research, media monitoring report generation, participation in creative brainstorms, and pitch deck development.

Qualifications

• BA/BS Degree in a related field

• 2+ years' experience in a public relations agency, preferably in the consumer/brand sector.

• Ability to articulate ideas clearly and persuasively, both in writing and verbally.

• Detail-oriented and organized.

• Ability to work in a fast-paced, sometimes unpredictable environment and manage deadlines across workloads.

• Up to date with industry trends and continuously seeking new ways to enhance the client experience.

Benefits & More

• You will receive a competitive base salary and bonus opportunity

• You will also be able to enroll in our Health, Dental, Vision, company paid Life Insurance, Flexible Spending Account, as well as 401k (match) plan.

• Monthly allowance for cell phone, office equipment, etc.

• Workplace flexibility

• Generous PTO policy with paid maternity/paternity leave

• Professional learning and development opportunities

• On-site and off-site social gatherings

The anticipated salary range for this position, at the time of posting, is $67,000 - $80,000. The salary of the applicant selected for this role will be based on a variety of factors, including but not limited to, education, internal equity, geography, relevant years of experience, certifications, skills, abilities of the selected applicant, and other job-related qualifications. In addition, a range of medical, dental, vision, disability, 401(k) matching, paid time off, and/or other benefits also are available by the company.

Ruder Finn provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy (including childbirth, lactation and related medical conditions), national origin, age, physical and mental disability, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, genetic information, military and veteran status, and any other characteristic protected by applicable law. Ruder Finn will not tolerate discrimination or harassment based on any of these characteristics. Ruder Finn believes that diversity and inclusion among our employees is critical to our success as a global company, and we seek to recruit, develop and retain the most talented people from a diverse candidate pool.