Communications Director

Atoms

$170K — $215K *
Food & Beverages
8 - 10 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 10+ years in communications, especially in high-growth, regulated sectors.
  • Experience building a comms function from scratch.
  • Track record of advising leadership directly; strategic rather than merely supportive role.
  • Diverse communication expertise across product launches, funding, executive messaging, and crisis management.
  • Ability to manage multiple boutique agency relationships for effective niche coverage.
  • Strong judgment to maintain distinct narratives across various industries without oversimplifying them.
  • Established relationships in restaurant tech, mining, robotics, or business media.

Responsibilities

  • Own the company-wide event calendar to create a cohesive public narrative.
  • Recruit and manage vertical-specific agencies for tailored media coverage.
  • Lead strategy for new media placements, targeting relevant podcasts and shows.
  • Set up channel strategies for effective internal and external communication.
  • Shift focus to customer stories in press moments to enhance storytelling.
  • Advise leadership on public communication timing and framing to mitigate risks.
  • Develop a crisis management playbook for potential scenarios across verticals.

Benefits

  • Medical, dental, and vision insurance options, including HSA.
  • Company-paid life and disability insurance.
  • Voluntary insurance options for accidents and critical illness.
  • 401(k) retirement plan.
  • Flexible Spending Accounts for healthcare and commuting expenses.
  • Discretionary vacation days and paid holidays.
  • Paid sick time and parental leave.
  • Pet insurance discounts.
Full Job Description
About the role

We're looking for a senior communications leader to own the portfolio-wide comms layer across Atoms' Food, Mining, and Transport businesses, and to build the calendar and relationships that bring a coherent public narrative to a company operating in four very different industries at once (food, mining, transport, robotics).

The mandate is broad: set the strategy for how Atoms shows up across trade press, business press, and new media; build and run the network of vertical-embedded agencies and operators that makes that coverage happen; and make the calls on sequencing and tier as the company moves out of a long stretch of near-total media stealth. You will operate as a direct advisor to Atoms leadership on when and how each vertical's moments become public.

The right person has built a comms function from zero at a high-growth, product-and-regulator-adjacent company, reported directly to leadership, and turned a multi-faceted business into one coherent public narrative.

What you'll do
  • Own the company-wide moment calendar, sequencing partnership announcements, fundraises, key hires, and first-site or product launches so they compound into a coherent story rather than compete with each other for attention.
  • Build and run the vertical media network, recruiting and managing boutique agencies and individual operators embedded in each industry's press ecosystem, in place of a single centralized firm covering all four.
  • Lead new-media strategy for Atoms leadership, identifying and securing placements with the top-tier and niche podcasts/shows/events most relevant to each vertical's audience.
  • Set channel and tier strategy, operating the existing architecture - newsroom as system of record, blog/Perspectives for thesis-level narrative, company LinkedIn for amplification.
  • Drive customer-forward storytelling, shifting the default from Atoms talking about its customers to structuring press moments where customers speak directly about their own growth - surfacing CloudKitchens, Picnic, or other Atoms companies.
  • Advise leadership directly on the timing, framing, and risk of every major public moment across a business where the wrong call carries real regulatory and partnership consequences.
  • Internal Communications: Own how Atoms communicates with its own people across four distinct businesses- major news, partnerships, hires, and launches from inside the company first.
  • Develop a crisis managementplaybook before it's needed, mapping the realistic risk scenarios across each vertical and have a response strategy ready for each.


What we are looking for
  • 10+ years in communications, including direct experience building a comms function from zero at a high-growth company in a regulated or partnership-dependent industry.
  • A track record of reporting directly into leadership as a strategic advisor, not just an executor of a plan set by someone else.
  • Range across the full spectrum of comms work - product launches, funding announcements, executive comms, crisis response, internal comms - rather than depth in a single lane.
  • Experience managing a portfolio of boutique agency relationships in parallel, in place of one centralized firm of record.
  • The judgment to hold several distinct narratives at once - food delivery, mining, robotics - without collapsing them into one generic voice.
  • Sound instincts for substance-forward, low-combativeness media strategy, with an understanding of the asymmetric downside of an adversarial press strategy for a business built on partnerships and regulatory relationships.
  • Existing relationships in one or more of: restaurant tech, industrial/mining press, robotics and deep tech, or business/finance trade media.
  • Experience building new-media placement strategy for founders or executives.


What else you need to know

This role is based in our San Francisco office. Atoms is a company driven by invention and continuous change - we are constantly reimagining our industries, building new products, and refining how we operate. We do our best work together. That's why all of our office-based teams work onsite, five days a week.

The base salary range for this role is $170,000 - $215,000 per year.

Actual compensation will be determined on an individual basis and may vary depending on experience, skills, and qualifications.

Base salary is just one part of your total rewards package. You may also be eligible for equity awards and an annual performance-based bonus.

Benefits Summary (USA Full-Time Exempt Employees):
  • Medical, dental, and vision insurance (multiple plans, incl. HSA options).
  • Company-paid life and disability insurance (short- and long-term).
  • Voluntary insurance: accident, critical illness, hospital indemnity.
  • Optional supplemental life insurance for self, spouse, and children.
  • Pet insurance discount.
  • 401(k).
  • Health Savings Account (HSA)
  • Flexible Spending Accounts (Healthcare, Dependent Care, Commuter)
  • Time Off policies:
    • Discretionary vacation days
    • 8 paid holidays per year
    • Paid sick time
    • Paid Bereavement leave
    • Paid Parental Leave

Benefits are subject to change at the company's discretion.
Atoms accepts applications on an ongoing basis.

Ready to join us as we serve those who serve others?

#LI-Onsite

Similar Jobs

More Jobs at Atoms

More Food & Beverages Jobs

Find similar Communications Director jobs: