Full Job Description
Azul

Sr./Director, Corporate Communications

Company

Azul, provider of the Java platform for the modern cloud enterprise, is the only company 100% focused on Java. Millions of Java developers, hundreds of millions of devices, and the world’s most highly regarded businesses trust Azul to power their applications with exceptional capabilities, performance, security, value, and success. Azul’s customers include 27% of the Fortune 100, 50% of Forbes Top 10 World’s Most Valuable Brands, all 10 of the world’s Top 10 financial trading companies, and leading brands like Avaya, Bazaarvoice, BMW, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Telekom, LG, Mastercard, Mizuho, Priceline, Salesforce, Software AG, and Workday. Learn more at azul.com and follow us @azulsystems..

The Market

Azul’s opportunity for growth is tremendous. Early in 2020, the company published a survey conducted by Bain, which found that the current market for supported Java runtimes (addressed by Azul) is at least $2.5 billion, and that 80% of senior Java decision-makers are looking for a better Java business partner—one that offers better support, value, and security.
In May of 2020, the company issued a press release highlighting Bain’s findings, particularly the size of the company’s target market and the opportunity created by Oracle’s skyrocketing support costs as a result of their licensing changes in April 2019. Previously Oracle (and Sun before them) provided the Java runtime free-of-charge, but as of April 2019 Oracle no longer allowed free commercial use. This was alarming for companies around the world who counted on Java to run their businesses and were now expected to pay millions of dollars to Oracle; and a game changer for Azul, who could support those very same organizations with OpenJDK, the open-source implementation of Java, at a fraction of the cost.

Mission & Vision

• Azul was built out of a passion and belief in Java.
• We founded Azul in 2002 and we’re proud of what we’ve accomplished since then. Millions of Java developers use Azul products, hundreds of millions of connected devices are built on Azul, and many of the world’s most successful businesses are Azul customers.
• That’s because we’ve focused exclusively on Java. In fact, Azul is the only company 100% focused on Java and the world’s largest independent Java vendor. We’ve been active in the OpenJDK project/community from the outset; serve as lead maintainers OpenJDK 15, 13, 7 update streams; and have deepened our engagement with the Java community through our recent launch of Foojay.io, “a place for friends of OpenJDK,” which has filled a void for Java developers as a hub to learn and collaborate.

The world has changed.

We live in an era of constant uncertainty, challenge, and disruption. The Java world, our world, has changed. Recent shifts have led many Java-based enterprises down a seemingly inescapable path of restrictive and expensive licensing terms. But the Java community is strong and the OpenJDK project has evolved over the past decade to form a lively, collaborative and “coopetitive” landscape. Java is no longer captive to a single vendor; customers have choices. Good alternatives are available for companies to continue running, developing, and growing their Java-based services and applications. And Azul is uniquely positioned to lead that charge.

Our vision: More Java.

At Azul, we believe in a Java-centric software world where developers, users, business professionals, and the community demand more, expect more, and get more. More capabilities. More performance. And ultimately more value and success for our customers who depend on us for an exceptional Java experience.

Today, no matter what industry you’re in, your business is built on software. Software that helps you better serve and market to customers. Software that drives efficiency and delivers insights. Software that enables you to seize opportunity, grow revenue, roll out new services, and create competitive advantage.

Of course, hand-in-hand with this software-driven transformation is the migration to the cloud and hybrid cloud environments where legacy architectures meet modern, flexible, scalable computing and storage. This relationship has created a new paradigm: the modern cloud enterprise.

Our strategy: More Azul.

We want to make Azul the heart of every modern cloud enterprise by prioritizing our customers’ success, maintaining our unwavering commitment to innovation and excellence, and advancing Java through community leadership.

The Role

Azul is looking for a passionate, results-driven Sr./Director of Corporate Communications. Reporting to the CMO, the new Director will be a critical member of the marketing team and help guide awareness of Azul by creating a successful press and analyst relations program globally. The successful candidate in this role will collaborate with the CMO, company executives, regional marketing and cross-functional teams and agencies to help drive awareness of the Azul brand and products; and will have a passion for scaling a major commercial open source vendor in its next stage of growth passed $100M in annual recurring revenues and to an eventual IPO.

The ideal candidate will be an energetic and engaging team player; an amazing storyteller; and passionate about surfacing amazing awareness opportunities. He/She will be inspired to shape the future of Java alongside some of the brightest and highly regarded minds in the industry.

Responsibilities

• Build and execute the company’s global PR and AR strategy.
• Identify opportunities to reach an 8M Java community of developers and IT professionals.
• A category builder and amazing storyteller who knows what it means to create and dominate a huge addressable market and has a “winner take all” mindset.
• A launch expert. A track record working with product marketing and management to redefine category parameters and make sure the world takes notice.
• PR communications: elevate the brand through various events, engagements, interviews, op-eds and other public facing opportunities.
• Analyst relations: understand what it means to have a regular cadence of briefings and inquiries. Proven success “getting to MQ” (and the equivalent) with Gartner, Forrester, 451 and other research houses; and loves the challenge.
• Field incoming media inquiries and develop media contacts in print, television, radio. Facilitate executive speaking opportunities.
• Identify and manage the company’s PR & AR agency relationships; knows how to inspire drumbeat and external creativity to make Azul a household brand.
• Know what good looks like and establish a set of KPIs that can be tracked and measured with the company’s exec team and board.
• Partner with your marketing counterparts to create synergies across the entire marketing discipline. Know how to leverage a world class marketing team to amplify your efforts.
• Let our customers and partners tell our story. Make sure that every narrative is backed by solid endorsements and indisputable evidence of our success and leadership.

Qualifications

• Must have 5+ years experience in public relations/corporate strategic communications working with enterprise and open source software.
• A love and passion for both the art and science of ridiculous corporate communications.
• Degree in Journalism, Communications, Marketing strongly preferred.
• Must demonstrate the technical chops to understand the programming (Java) world. You don’t need to be an expert by any means, but should understand most of what you read in the Product and Solutions tabs of our website.
• Superb written and communication skills.
• Proven success at leveraging digital as well as traditional media.
• Established relationships with the media and analyst communities.
• Demonstrated success working with global PR firms and other PR-related vendors.
• Travel domestically and internationally will be required when the world returns back to normal.

Person

• Someone well versed in public relations frameworks, but knows that instinct and intuition is what truly drives success.
• An awesome team player that loves the journey, rolling up their sleeves and winning as a team. Will put the interests of the team and the company before those of their own individual discipline.
• Excellent interpersonal skills. You’ll be the authority for all things comm, and we’ll need someone who can mentor and motivate those around him/her to help drive success.
• Highly organized individual with an execution/delivery driven mindset and meticulous attention to detail.
• Comfortable presenting as an SME in front of audiences both internal and external.
• Startup experience strongly preferred; entrepreneurial spirit a must; unquestionable integrity; intellectual curiosity; inspired to grow their career; knows that a rising tide raises all boats.

Compensation | Benefits

• Competitive base salary
• Full benefits package
• Stock options
• Career growth with an industry innovator
• Azul is an Equal Opportunity Employer, including disabled and vets

Seniority Level
/Director

Industry

• Public Relations
• Information Technology & Services
• Computer Software
• Internet

Desired Target Companies:

Companies in DevOps (Elastic, Confluent, New Relic, Databrix, Mesosphere, etc.)
Companies selling to velocity markets (companies that sell Freemium, open source, free downloads), have million+ member communities, or that you can self-convert (discovery, provision and onboard)
Companies in SaaS (SFDC, Veeva, Workday or long tail of mid to late stage venture backed companies) or other top pure-play SaaS companies: https://www.mikesonders.com/largest-saas-companies/
Exclude any companies that jointly sell software and hardware or on-premise e.g. Oracle, SAP, Microsoft, Cisco, Adobe, etc. – we don’t want a big company personality
Companies funded by Tier 1 VC’s: Sequoia, Andreesen Horowitz, Accel, Kleiner, General Catalyst, Benchmark, Lightspeed, Greylock

Employment Type: Full-time

Location: Sunnyvale, California

Department: Marketing

Employment Type
Employee – Full-time

Minimum Experience
Experience: