Head of External Communications

Kleinanzeigen is the leading online classifieds market in Germany. An average of more than 50 million ads are available in numerous categories - from children's supplies to electronics to real estate. With more than 36 million users per month, Kleinanzeigen has the widest reach of all online selling platforms in the country. Most of the items traded on Kleinanzeigen are second-hand. In this way, users make an active contribution to sustainability. The Kleinanzeigen market allows companies the opportunity to easily offer their services online. Kleinanzeigen was launched in September 2009 as eBay Kleinanzeigen. Since June 2021, the company has been part of Adevinta, a leading global provider of online classified ads. In May 2023, the name was changed to Kleinanzeigen.

Kleinanzeigen is part of Adevinta: a global online classifieds specialist and sustainability leader with 25+ products in 10 countries.

What you'll do & Who you are

One of Germany's best known, used and loved platforms, we are on a mission to change trade for good

We're seeking an experienced, strategic, and hands-on Head of External Communications & PR to lead our reputation, media relations, public affairs, and corporate narrative — including investor and board-facing communications. You'll shape how Kleinanzeigen shows up in the world, protect our brand in moments of risk, and leverage AI-native communications workflows to make our function faster, smarter, and more predictive. As a core member of the Marketing Leadership Team, you'll partner closely with senior leaders across the business.

Responsibilities

• Reputation & Risk Management
  
  Lead media crisis communications and brand-risk management, especially around trust, fraud, and consumer protection. Own playbooks, training, and rapid-response protocols.
• Media Relations & Storytelling
  
  Develop and execute PR strategies for consumers, SMBs, and real estate partners; cultivate relationships with top-tier journalists and opinion leaders; drive SOV to propel business growth.
• Public Affairs
  
  Engage with policymakers, regulators, and industry associations; track relevant policy trends; align positions with our goals.
• Investor & Board Communications (IR)
  
  Partner with the C-Suite on investor and board-facing narratives, ensuring strong preparation, briefing and coordination to ensure key messages land
• AI-Enabled Comms Operations
  
  Operationalise AI in communications to maximise workflow automation and efficiency. Establish guardrails for accuracy, ethics, and brand safety.
• Strategy & Leadership
  
  Serve as a trusted advisor to executives on positioning and narrative. Translate company strategy into clear external storytelling. Be a shaper and driver of the Marketing Leadership Team.
• Team & Agency Leadership
  
  Develop a small in-house team and manage agency partners; set a vision and clear objectives, own strategy and execution and delivery against measurement frameworks.
• Spokesperson Duties
  
  Act as senior spokesperson on behalf of the businesas; coach and prep other spokespeople.

What You'll Bring

• Experience: 10+ years in PR, corporate communications, or public affairs within consumer tech, online marketplaces, platforms, or adjacent regulated sectors. Track record handling high-stakes media issues and crises.
• AI Application in Comms: Hands-on experience using AI to improve communications outcomes — e.g., setting up monitoring/alerting pipelines, LLM-assisted briefings and drafts with human-in-the-loop QA, sentiment/narrative analysis, risk detection for manipulated/synthetic content, and establishing AI usage governance (accuracy, privacy, bias, approvals).
• Investor Relations Competency: Demonstrated ability to support investor/board communications: crafting financial and strategic narratives, prepping leaders for investor Q&A, coordinating with Finance/Legal on disclosures and quiet-period protocols, and engaging financial media. Public or private investor environments both welcome.
• Storycraft & Influence: Exceptional German-language writing and editing (native level) with fluent English; strong executive presence; ability to simplify complexity.
• Measurement Mindset: Familiar with comms/PR analytics (SOV, sentiment, message pull-through, quality of coverage, reputation indices) and tying outcomes to business impact.
• Stakeholder Leadership: Comfortable operating cross-functionally with all teams including but not limited to Legal, Trust & Safety, Product & Tech, Marketing, Business Development and Finance; effective agency management.
• Calm Under Pressure: Proven judgment and speed in ambiguous or sensitive situations.

Benefits

Life at Adevinta comes with its perks Our Adevintans enjoy the following benefits:

• An attractive Base Salary
• Participation in our Short-Term Incentive plan (annual bonus)
• Work From Anywhere: Enjoy up to 20 days a year of working from anywhere Maybe not from the moon well why not just make sure you have internet connection
• A 24/7 Employee Assistance Program for you and your family, because we care ❤‍
• Win together, lose together is one of our key behaviours. At Adevinta you will find a collaborative environment with an opportunity to explore your potential and grow

On top of these, we also provide a range of locally relevant benefits. Wanna know more? Apply and ask our recruiters

Adevinta is an equal opportunity employer and we value diversity. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, colour, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status or disability status.

If you feel like you don't meet all of the requirements for this role but are interested, please consider applying anyway. Research suggests that women and individuals from underrepresented groups may self-select out of opportunities if they don't meet 100% of the job requirements. We strongly encourage people from historically excluded groups to apply and look forward to speaking with you.