Director | Digital & Insights | Strategic Communications at FTI Consulting

About The Role

• FTI Consulting’s Strategic Communications team is seeking a talented and versatile senior hire to join our Digital & Insights practice in Johannesburg, South Africa. This is an opportunity to play a key role within an ambitious and fast-growing team, advising some of the world’s most high-profile companies on their reputation, digital presence, and stakeholder engagement.
• The ideal candidate will bring deep experience in digital communications, corporate reputation, integrated campaigning, and the strategic use of data and analytics, combined with sound judgement and an ability to manage complex client relationships. This role suits someone who is ready to play a pivotal role in landing and leading major accounts, drive creative thinking, and act as a trusted advisor, while also looking to continue growing their leadership career within a collaborative and entrepreneurial environment.

The position will be filled in line with the FTI Consulting’s culture, values and Employment Equity policy and plan.

What You’ll Do

Client delivery

• Serve as a senior advisor to key corporate clients across a range of sectors, often in high-stakes or reputationally sensitive contexts
• Lead the development and execution of integrated communications programmes across stakeholder groups, with a focus on digital channels and platforms
• Create high-quality content and insights that support reputation management, CEO positioning, public campaigns, and digital strategy
• Advise clients on how to navigate new digital frontiers, including the reputational implications of AI search, generative content, and evolving content ecosystems
• Work closely with colleagues across a range of sectors including financial services, public affairs, TMT, life sciences and employee engagement to design integrated reputation campaigns
• Apply insight from data and analytics to shape campaign direction, narrative development, and channel selection
• Use real-time performance data to optimise live campaigns and proactively identify risks or opportunities
• Collaborate with our in-house data and analytics experts to develop and sell new insight-driven offers, enhance campaign planning, and ensure a forward-looking approach to measurement and reputation intelligence

Business leadership

• Contribute to new business development by identifying opportunities, leading proposals, and presenting to prospective clients
• Support the growth of the Digital & Insights team through innovation, thought leadership, and evolving our offer
• Ensure work is grounded in meaningful metrics and KPIs that link to reputation or commercial outcomes
• Take responsibility for commercial performance and resourcing across your client portfolio

Team involvement

• Coach and mentor junior colleagues, and play an active role in fostering a high-performing, inclusive team culture
• Champion collaboration across practices to develop cohesive client programmes that reflect the full range of stakeholder needs
• Share relevant external trends, innovations and competitive intelligence with the wider group, helping the team stay ahead of emerging reputational risks, platform changes and stakeholder behaviours
• Actively shape and evolve team-wide best practice in areas such as digital campaigning, insight-led communications and integrated planning, ensuring that standards reflect both innovation and effectiveness across our work

How You’ll Grow

• We are committed to investing and supporting you in your professional development and we have developed a range of programs focused on fostering leadership, growth and development opportunities. We aim to promote continuous learning and individual skills development through on-the-job learning, self-guided professional development courses and certifications. You’ll be assigned a dedicated coach to mentor, guide and support you through regular coaching sessions and serve as an advocate for your professional growth. 
• As you progress through your career at FTI Consulting, we offer tailored programs for critical professional milestones to ensure you are prepared and empowered to take on your next role.

What You Will Need to Succeed

Basic qualifications

• Several years experience in corporate communications, digital campaigning, or integrated agency consultancy
• A strong track record in leading large, multi-channel client programmes
• Excellent writing and content development skills across digital and leadership platforms
• Sound understanding of stakeholder mapping, messaging strategy, and issues management
• Familiarity with digital marketing principles, including paid media and analytics
• Strong grasp of digital measurement frameworks and experience translating data into clear, actionable insight for clients

Preferred qualifications

• Experience advising listed companies or clients in complex or regulated sectors
• Expertise in digital reputation risk, executive communications, or online stakeholder behaviour
• Comfortable working with senior executives and navigating internal dynamics
• Collaborative approach and interest in cross-practice working
• Advanced understanding of how LLMs and generative AI are reshaping search, media and stakeholder behaviours, and an ability to integrate this into communications thinking