Financial Communications, Senior Associate

The Role

Teneo is looking for a talented and driven Senior Associate with a passion for strategic communications to join our Strategy and Communications team in the Middle East. Teneo’s Strategy and communications service offering provides all aspects of integrated communications counsel to business and government leaders and CEOs. This role is part of a thriving team advising high-profile clients on how to create effective narratives, manage reputation, engage with key audiences and tell proactive stories which support clients’ strategic objectives.  

We’re interested in meeting candidates with wide-ranging perspectives, and we’re open to hearing from you whether you currently work agency side or in-house.  

It’s key for us that you can cut across sectors and switch seamlessly between all our disciplines, from reactive issues management to proactive storytelling. And we’d love it if, like us, you’re intellectually curious, creative, collaborative, and eager to learn. 

 As a Senior Associate you’ll be responsible for providing the highest quality of service to our clients and play a pivotal role in driving forward activity across multiple account teams, delivering regular insight and analysis, and supporting clients’ reputational and strategic objectives. Senior Associates help mentor and coach Executives and Associates, and work closely with Vice Presidents. They report into our Senior Vice Presidents and Managing Directors. 

Working at Teneo in the Middle East 

Teneo works with some of the world’s biggest public sector and corporate entities across a wide range of sectors and issues, including energy, tech, FMCG, financial services and government offices. Our clients include a significant number of the FTSE 100 and Fortune 100, as well as other global public and private corporations and government entities. We’re an ambitious, global consultancy which allows candidates unmatched opportunities to develop and work with inspiring, motivated people.  

Although this role is to primarily support our publicly listed corporate clients with financial communications and investor relations, we actively encourage our people to grow and develop their advisory skills across all our disciplines, including financial and M&A, digital, creative campaigning and corporate communications, change and employee engagement, leadership coaching, sustainability, strategy and research, issues and crisis management, and restructuring and management consultancy, to solve complex business issues for our clients. 

Key Responsibilities 

As a Senior Associate with the Strategy and Communications team at Teneo, your role will include:  

1. Horizon scanning and advisory – proactively uses regional market and business intelligence to keep abreast of key trends and provide valuable insights and advisory to clients. 
2. Monitoring and reporting - around business and capital markets issues, media and news cycle, social media, client comms activities and campaigns. Providing input into the creation of advisory notes for clients. 
3. Supporting financial communications & investor relations planning and implementation - research, ideation, messaging, content creation and copywriting, and providing input into financial communications and IR strategy and advisory work. Takes a leading role in developing client ready documents e.g. presentations, reports, earnings releases, Q&A etc 
4. Supporting account management - supporting all client account activities, monitoring and reporting on progress and flagging issues, mentoring Executives and Associates on accounts, supporting PMO activities. Takes ownership for specific deliverables in their entirety. 
5. Supporting client management - building client relationships, proactively identifying opportunities or areas of concern. 
6. Supporting new business development - starting to build network of client relationships, supporting senior members of the team with new business proposals e.g. conducting research and developing insights to support the proposal building process. 

Furthermore, you will be expected to: 

• Build strong client and team relationships
• Provide support and insight to your client teams, proactively highlighting opportunities, and potential areas of concern
• Build a strong network of effective relationships internally and externally
• Proactively seek formal and informal learning and development opportunities to support your professional growth and contribute to the sharing of learnings across the wider team; and actively coach and mentor Executives and Associates on your account teams 

Required Skills and Experience 

• A bachelor’s degree or higher in communications, journalism, political science, finance / economics, law, public policy, international relations, business, finance, accounting or a related field 
• 3-5 years of experience in a strategy, communications or finance/investor relations role – within agency or in-house 
• Strong understanding of the region – its media and business landscapes 
• Strong interest in finance, investor relations and capital markets 
• Experience offering client counsel at the appropriate level, based on in-depth insight of client’s business and sector 
• Deep knowledge of wider corporate reputational or market issues arising 
• Strong ability to grasp clients’ business objectives and relevant wider industry dynamics to enable drafting of messaging and communications materials  
• Experience working with international media 
• Exceptional written and verbal communications skills 
• Good presentation skills 
• Analysis and data visualisation skills 
• Excellent command of Microsoft Office (PowerPoint and Word) 
• Good project management skills 
• Understanding of digital communications 
• Strong proficiency in Arabic (verbal and written)

Preferred Skills and Attributes 

• Strategic and critical thinker 
• Collaborative and a team player 
• Problem solver with a positive attitude 
• Flexible and always willing to try 
• Detail oriented and committed to high quality deliverables 
• Intellectual curiosity and entrepreneurial spirit 
• Humble, honest and respectful 
• Aspiration to line-manage individuals and lead teams 
• Resilient and performs well under pressure 
• Comfortable with uncertainty 
• Readiness for frequent travel and stints at clients’ offices  

What we can offer 

New joiners are supported by an induction programme, and continuous development is a key focus of life at Teneo - learning and knowledge sharing are at the heart of this. We have an environment and culture that is focused on supporting your development and career progression. We support this with a dedicated Learning Team who provide a range of learning opportunities and personal development support.  

Given our client base you’ll be working on career-defining work that is exciting, rewarding and one where you can make a real impact to high profile projects. 

Teneo works with clients on complex issues and challenges that often require a multidisciplinary approach that leverage our main business segments – Strategy & Communications, Management Consulting, Financial Advisory, People Advisory and Risks Advisory. You will have opportunities to work alongside our experts in these disciplines to develop and deliver an integrated solution. 

Company Benefits  

As well as this we offer a whole host of benefits and reward including: 

• Competitive salary  
• Discretionary annual bonus 
• Annual salary review 
• 25 days holiday 
• 10 days remote working abroad per year
• End-of-service benefits (For UAE: DEWS as per the law) 
• Enhanced maternity and paternity leave (depending on length of service)  
• Private medical insurance (individual and immediate family members)
• Life insurance 
• Regular social, cultural and charitable activities 
• Flexible and remote working with office laptop provided