Senior Media Writer and Communications Strategist

Calix seeks a top-performing Senior Communications Writer to join our growing communications team. The core value of this role is writing compelling narratives about our customers, brand, and portfolio.

Calix is a work-from-anywhere company; because our press releases are posted in coordination with stock market hours, the ideal candidate will be located in the Eastern Standard time zone.

The stories you’ll write fuel the fast-moving and high volume Calix press release engine. We have a unique approach to press release narratives—these are not bread-and-butter, “just the facts” stories. With every press release, we tell a story that demonstrates to our customers, partners, prospective hires, and the financial community that Calix is an innovative leader in the booming broadband industry.
Calix is in an exciting and dynamic period of rapid growth. The right person—with the right skillset, background, business acumen, and writing talent—will have the opportunity for advancement as the comms team evolves.

The person in this role must be comfortable receiving feedback on drafts from multiple stakeholders (including C-suite and legal), quickly incorporating revisions, and have the time-management and prioritization skills keep multiple drafts moving through the production pipeline. The ideal candidate will be an excellent communicator and team player who displays responsiveness, professionalism, and insight when working with customers and across teams internally. This person must be a talented writer/storyteller and have a high level of acumen related to B2B tech topics. The role requires intensive attention to detail in relation to the craft of writing (syntax, grammar, messaging consistency, usage, etc.).

Responsibilities and Duties:
Source/write/revise/edit press-release narratives (1-3 per week, sometimes more at quarterly intervals).
Conduct interviews and pitch story ideas to team leader.
Keep weekly team meeting agenda updated daily/weekly with ever-shifting PR schedule.
Handle high-volume periods (quarterly release cycles, annual customer event).
Actively participate in and add value to strategic planning sessions; support product marketing team with suggestions around messaging/headlines/narratives.
Traffic each press release draft through multiple layers of review (ELT/legal/finance/product marketers/comms leaders).
Handle all aspects of production for each press release: layout in AEM, coordinating with the digital/social/agency teams, board letter.
Support rolling up metrics related to press release engagement each quarter/year.
Contribute to continued efforts to streamline and improve the Calix PR engine overall.

Qualifications:
8+ years of B2B writing experience.
High degree of business acumen.
PR agency experience (or equivalent working with multiple clients and a fast-paced environment) preferred.
Proficiency in MS Office, Salesforce, Adobe.
Versatility to write multiple types of stories (product launches, customer success stories, brand/culture related stories, etc.).
Autonomy to meet deadlines and juggle multiple priorities simultaneously.
Agility to deliver on tight turnaround times while maintaining quality, and to pivot rapidly as narrative shift.
Fortitude to receive critiques and collaborate on revisions with multiple stakeholders, including the C-suite.
Organizational skills to stay on top of deadlines, source stories, traffic drafts through multiple layers of review amid rapidly-changing circumstances and rapid pace generally.
Collaborative skills to work harmoniously across all teams and with all stakeholders (including customers).
Acumen to recognize and pitch the most compelling story (even when subject matter experts or others might not).
Writing talent to capture executive voice, often with little direct interaction or input.
Gift for capturing brand voice and crafting headlines with a great hook for a B2B audience/Wall Street.
Sharp communication skills; can stay on top of multiple channels internally throughout the day and keep all plates spinning.

Location:
Remote-based position located in the United States or Canada.

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