About the role

Cognito is hiring a senior media relations specialist for our Sydney team. We're recruiting at Senior Account Manager level, but will consider an Account Director if it’s the right fit.

This is a media-first role. You'll lead a portfolio of clients across payments, fintech, digital assets, trading and wealth – businesses reshaping how money moves and is invested in Australia – and you'll be accountable for the coverage they earn and the content they publish. We've built the team so an Account Manager runs day-to-day delivery alongside you, which means you’ll be responsible for the success our clients demand - the right story, the right journalist and the right advice.

Sydney is a small team inside a global firm. There's nowhere to hide and nobody to wait for. If you see an opportunity, you socialise it with the team and then back it and own it. In return, you get real responsibility early, a direct line to the Director and Managing Director, and the reach of a network spanning New York, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Düsseldorf, Singapore and Hong Kong.

Key responsibilities

- Media strategy and outcomes: Own the media approach across your portfolio – set the angle, direct the execution and answer for the quality of the coverage.
- Proactive story generation: Build a steady pipeline of ideas for every client from their data, market moves, regulatory change and the news agenda. We judge success by the coverage we find, not only the coverage we're handed.
- Journalist network: Know the people who cover Australian business, markets and technology, and meet them when you don't need anything. Be the person editors call for a source.
- Senior counsel: Tell clients what they should do, not only what they asked for. Bring a view on the market and regulatory context – ASIC, APRA, the RBA, AUSTRAC – that shapes their story.
- Client leadership: Own senior client relationships, scope, servicing and forecasting across your accounts, and grow them where there's a real chance to add value.
- Spokesperson readiness: Brief, prepare and coach spokespeople so they're credible,



quotable and safe in the room.
- Work quality: Hold the standard on everything that leaves the building – releases, bylines, pitches and thought leadership – with an editor's eye for what will actually run.
- Reactive and issues media: Handle inbound and hostile enquiries at pace, with the judgement to know when to escalate.
- New business: Bring media strategy and market credibility into pitches and proposals.

Managerial responsibilities

- Line manage a Senior Account Executive – regular one-to-ones, a written development plan and real accountability for their progression.
- Direct the Account Manager on shared accounts – delegation, prioritisation and quality.
- Lead the first half hour, our daily habit of reading the news to ask one question - why isn't our client in this story when a competitor is?

What you'll bring

- At least five years in communications – agency, in-house or newsroom – with a track record of tier-one Australian business and financial coverage.
- Active relationships across national business media – the AFR, The Australian, SMH and The Age, Capital Brief, The Nightly, AAP, Bloomberg, Reuters, the ABC, ausbiz and Sky News – and the trade titles that reach financial services buyers.
- Real curiosity about financial services. You don't need to be a payments or capital markets expert on day one, but you need to want to become one.
- Strong news judgement – you can look at a client's business and see the story a journalist will want.
- Excellent writing, and the confidence to push back on a client's idea when you know it won't land.
- Commercial sense – you understand scope, hours and profitability, and you manage them.
- Fluency with AI and media intelligence tools such as Claude, Signal AI,



Meltwater, Telum or Cision – used to sharpen your judgement, not replace it.
- Composure under pressure, and the integrity to give advice a client may not want to hear.
- Ability to travel from time to time.

What you can expect from us

- Ownership of accounts, and a clear, written path to Associate Director and beyond.
- A development plan reviewed with you every quarter, and investment in your skills – including the best of AI and technology.
- Daily work with colleagues across Asia Pacific, and regular multi-market programmes with Europe and North America.
- A small team that backs each other, based in Chippendale, Sydney.
- Opportunities to meet our global teams in person, either at our biennial Cognicon offsite or ad hoc regional APAC ones.

About Cognito

Cognito is a specialist communications partner for financial and professional services organisations, and the technology companies driving their transformation, in the world's most important financial markets. We help clients build influence, protect reputations and lead the conversations that matter – in order to drive value.

Five principles shape how we work, and who we hire:

- Be human. In a world moving toward automated everything, we are the counterargument. Judgement, relationships and accountability need people who care.
- Be entrepreneurial. We bring energy, initiative and ambition – we back an idea, invest in it and own what happens next.
- Be advisory. We bring deep expertise and trusted advice, grounded in the mechanics, regulation and language of the worlds our clients operate in.
- Be responsible. We act with integrity, protect reputations and strive to make a positive contribution to our communities, our industry and the environment.
- Be together. We're at our best when we collaborate and share what we know, so people can grow – professionally, personally and globally.

How to apply

Apply through LinkedIn with your CV and a short note on a piece of coverage you're proud of – what the story was, and how you got it.

📌 Senior Account Manager / Account Director – Sydney
🏢 Cognito
📍 Sydney