WHO ARE WE?

Sanlam Life and Savings (SLS) is focused on serving our retail and corporate clients in South Africa and further developing our strategic advantages in the South African market. Sanlam Life and Savings consists of the following business units Retail Mass, Corporate, Risk and Savings, Glacier and various business enabling functions. The Sanlam Life and Savings Office provides strategic direction, coordination and support to the four clusters, as well as performing governance oversight that includes assurance provided by second line of defense functions in SLS, to enable us to meet our business objectives.

QUALIFICATIONS:

Bachelor’s degree or Diploma in Journalism, Communication, or Media Studies with relevant majors.

KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS:

Strong interest in and understanding of the South African financial services landscape.
Excellent writing, editing, and interviewing skills.
Experience in journalism, corporate communications, and/or public relations.
Interest in or familiarity with AI applications in media and communications.
Proven ability to identify and leverage topical media opportunities.
Strong knowledge of financial media and social media.
Proficiency in media monitoring and reporting tools.
Understanding of financial literacy imperatives in the SA market.
Basic financial and economic concepts.
Experience in crisis and reputation management.
Proficiency in publishing tools (e.g., WordPress, Excel) and MS Office Suite.
Familiarity with internal communication platforms (e.g., Teams, Viva Engage).

EXPERIENCE:

7–10 years in external communication/media/public relations.
Minimum 3 years in journalism, marketing, or corporate communications.
Experience in financial services communication environments.
Proven ability to manage external agencies and media relationships.
Experience in corporate-level reputation and crisis management.
Strong organizational, process-driven, and collaborative work style.

KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS

Reads copy and detect errors
Standard code
Proof reading
Monitor publication quality

WHAT WILL YOU DO?

To help manage and execute an external communications (media/PR) strategy in support of the overarching SLS business strategy and aligned to the broader Sanlam Group business strategy.
Your experience as a media and communications specialist will enable your proactive work in this context and will also require you to support crisis and reputation management on behalf of the business.
You will work closely with the Head of Communication in BTSS and our appointed PR agency, as well as with marketing teams in SLS businesses such as Sanlam Risk & Savings, Sanlam Legacy, Sanlam Credit Solutions and Sanlam Connect. You will regularly engage with other internal stakeholders such as members of the SLS Exco, subject matter experts, product actuaries, business heads, our medical department, legal team, etc.
Your role will require you to support the conceptualisation and creation of high-quality, audience-relevant content (i.e. financial literacy and thought leadership) aimed at informing, educating and empowering our clients and the public at large, and positioning Sanlam as an industry leader. Based on your knowledge of the media landscape, you will identify relevant and impactful media to engage and target, including trade publications, top tier financial and consumer media across the print, broadcast, digital and social media spectrum.
You will support the PR agency, as required, to collate relevant content for media purposes. This engagement may require you to conduct one-on-one interviews with business experts, arrange for interviews to be conducted by our PR agency, or pursue other practical methods which will enable the creation of required content.
You will also help to manage and facilitate requests for media interviews and be involved in tracking and reporting on media coverage.
As a member of the SLS communications team, your media focus forms part of a broader integrated communications strategy, and you will therefore understand the need to be involved in elements of internal communication, where relevant and required.

OUTPUT/CORE TASKS:

Development and implementation of media plans.
High-quality content production across multiple platforms.
Media monitoring, reporting, and analysis.
Crisis communication support and reputational risk mitigation.
Internal communication support.
Stakeholder and agency engagement management.
Timely submission of media reports and coverage results.