Head of Communications (all genders)

Company Description

With over 25 years’ experience, plus the same enormous passion and ambition we had on day-one, we’re trailblazers in the pet e-commerce industry. Our solutions make over 12 million customers genuinely happier – and that’s something we really care about. We work together to continually adapt; embracing change and the challenges it brings so that we can keep doing better. Join us and discover a place where your potential meets your passion for pets. That’s the power of plus.

Job Description

The Opportunity

zooplus is Europe's leader in online pet care, serving millions of pet parents across more than 30 markets. We have the scale and the category love, but not yet the industry and consumer visibility to match. We are hiring our first strategic Head of Communications to close that gap, build the function, and give zooplus a voice worthy of its market position.

What Makes This Role Different

Communications today is strong in pockets but fragmented across People & Culture, the CEO's Transformation Office and Marketing & Brand, with uneven local activity. No one owns global communications strategy. Your job is to bring it together into a small center of excellence.

What You Will Own

Corporate Communications

• Develop and execute communications plans that support company priorities.
• Build relationships with key business, consumer and trade media.
• Support CEO and executive communications through messaging, briefings and thought leadership.
• Lead media relations and crisis communications preparation and response.
• Ensure corporate storytelling reinforces zooplus' employer reputation, in partnership with Employer Branding and Talent Acquisition.

Internal Communications

• Develop and deliver internal comms plans that support leadership priorities and business initiatives.
• Improve internal channels, cadence and employee engagement.
• Partner with Strategy & Transformation, People & Culture and Employer Branding to keep one consistent zooplus narrative across employees, candidates and leadership audiences.

Consumer PR

• Partner with Marketing and Brand to deliver right-sized consumer PR programs supporting brand and growth objectives.
• Establish and manage the company's data storytelling efforts, using them to strengthen both brand consideration and employer reputation.
• Coordinate agency support and campaign execution.

Strategy, Function and Executive Voice

• Look two to three years ahead and set a long-term communications and reputational strategy.
• Move zooplus from quiet category leader to proactive author of its own story.
• Consolidate corporate, internal, CEO and consumer PR under one roof, and design a hub-and-spoke model for local markets.
• Shift the function from coordinator to conductor: proactive, agenda-setting, embedded in ExCo rhythm.
• Build the CEO and ExCo external profile in DACH and key EU markets.

Operating Model

• Bring core capability in-house and rebalance agency spend toward special projects and market-specific work.
• Establish clear processes, KPIs and reporting to ExCo.

Qualifications

What You Bring

• Senior communications leadership experience, ideally in a consumer-facing European business.
• Strategic and hands-on: can shape a three-year narrative with the CEO and edit a press release the same day.
• Fluent across corporate, internal, consumer PR and executive comms.
• Proven ability to build and consolidate a fragmented function without losing goodwill.
• Comfortable partnering with Employer Branding and Talent Acquisition on a shared story.
• Calm and credible under pressure.
• Fluent in English and German (non-negotiable), comfortable operating pan-European.

Additional Information

Headquartered in Munich, with offices across Madrid, Krakow, Wroclaw, London and Vienna, we collaborate because we genuinely love working together - so you’ll be at the heart of an incredible, multinational team. We trust each other to get the job done, which means you’ll benefit from hybrid working, spending 60% of your time in the office and 40% at home. There’s an option to work for 20 days abroad in approved countries too.

Add to that development opportunities that help you to shape your own career path, excellent training and support, wellbeing offers, subsidised transport or bike leasing, plus 20% discount across all our products, and you’ll begin to get a sense of what sets us apart. Find out more about the specific benefits at your local office in our blog posts.

A note on compensation: We believe in being transparent about salary ranges. The range shown reflects the full scope that the role can grow into over time, depending on experience, skills, and impact. Most offers are positioned around the midpoint of the range, ensuring a fair and consistent approach across our teams.

At zooplus, we believe in equal opportunity and support everyone to fulfil their potential. We recognise the power of listening and learning from each other and embrace diversity and inclusion of all.

#LI-Hybrid