VP of PR/External Communications Lead

JetBrains; Greater London; On-site; GBP 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

JetBrains is seeking a senior communications leader to own external communications globally from its London hub. You will shape the strategic narrative, protect the company's reputation, and drive a scalable PR operating model across regions.

You will lead cross-regional teams, align with executive leadership, and accelerate thought leadership while guiding crisis communications and media relationships with tier-1 outlets.

Qualifications

• 10+ years in tech PR with senior leadership experience in B2B, enterprise, or infrastructure contexts.
• Led distributed PR teams across regions with proven US results.
• Narrative-led PR with a track record of taking a defined strategic story to market, not just press releases.
• Demonstrated thought leadership and spokesperson development.
• Crisis communications experience and calm leadership under pressure.
• Experience with agency partnerships and large-scale budget management.
• Ability to communicate fluently with technical, developer-facing audiences and AI transition stories.

Responsibilities

• Own and run company-level external communications globally.
• Protect and grow the company's reputation and manage the strategic narrative.
• Close the known US visibility gap and build a scalable PR operating model.
• Develop thought leadership and a strong spokesperson bench.
• Lead crisis communications and manage agency relationships and budgets.

Skills

Tech PR leadership

US market experience

Narrative-led PR

Thought leadership

Crisis communications

Agency & budget management

Developer-facing audiences

Job description

At JetBrains, code is our passion. Ever since we started back in 2000, we have been striving to make the strongest, most effective developer tools on earth. By automating routine checks and corrections, our tools speed up production, freeing developers to grow, discover, and create.
We’re honored that more than 11 million users consistently choose our tools. We’re particularly proud to call 88 Fortune Global Top 100 companies our valued customers.

Major Responsibilities

Own and run company-level external communications. Protect and grow the company's reputation, take a defined strategic narrative to market, close the known US visibility gap, build thought leadership and a spokesperson bench, and stand up the PR operating model (playbooks, message houses, editorial calendar, perception studies). This is a senior execution-and-build role: the company narrative is set centrally; this leader runs the machine that delivers it globally.

Required Skills And Qualifications

• 10+ years in tech PR with senior leadership experience – ideally B2B, developer, enterprise, or infrastructure
• Built and led distributed PR teams across regions, with proven US results
• Narrative-led PR – track record taking a defined strategic story to market, not press-release output
• Thought leadership and spokesperson development
• Crisis communications
• Agency and budget management at scale
• Fluent working with technical, developer-facing audiences and an AI-transition story

Preferred Skills And Qualifications

• Experience in an AI or developer-tools company during a positioning shift
• Existing tier-1 US tech media relationships
• Comfortable operating across a US/Europe time split

We are an equal opportunity employer

We know great ideas can come from anyone, anywhere. That’s why we do our best to create an open and inclusive workplace – one that welcomes everyone regardless of their background, identity, religion, age, accessibility needs, or orientation.

We process the data provided in your job application in accordance with the Recruitment Privacy Policy.