THE COUNCIL OF CANADIAN INNOVATORS (CCI):
The Council of Canadian Innovators (CCI) is a national business association representing over 175 of Canada’s fastest-growing technology-intensive companies. Companies within CCI’s portfolio are market leaders in their verticals and commercialize their technologies in over 190 countries, generating between $10M - $750M in annual recurring revenue. CCI’s member companies are all headquartered in Canada and collectively employ over 52,000 Canadians from coast to coast.
CCI was created in 2015 by the leaders of Canada’s most innovative companies to reorient Canada’s economic strategies towards supporting domestic scale-up companies to aid in their pursuit of becoming engines of Canada’s future economic prosperity. CCI works closely with our members and leaders within federal and provincial governments to develop economic strategies that increase access to talent, capital, and customers for homegrown firms, all while updating Canada’s economic playbook for the 21st-century economy. Since 2015, CCI’s advocacy has led to the government improving the way businesses access international talent, patent their inventions, and navigate the global data-driven economy.
CCI is a peer network of Canadian business leaders and innovators who look to CCI’s leadership and membership for strategic advice and foresight, expert navigation of federal and provincial governments, and for connections to other innovators and institutions that can assist them in scaling their businesses worldwide.
Today, CCI is headquartered in Toronto and has staff located in Vancouver, Edmonton, Atlantic Canada, Ottawa and Montreal. CCI is established as a not-for-profit organization governed by a Board of Directors, with Jim Balsillie, retired chairman and co-CEO of BlackBerry, serving as Chair, and John Ruffolo, founder of OMERS Ventures and Managing Partner of Maverix Private Equity, serving as Vice-Chair. Both are also co-founders of CCI.
THE OPPORTUNITY:
Reporting to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), the Director of Communications leads the strategy and execution of all external communications, brand positioning, and narrative development for the Council of Canadian Innovators (CCI). This role ensures that CCI’s voice is clear, compelling, and influential across Canada’s innovation ecosystem. The Director will play a pivotal part in elevating CCI’s impact by shaping how we communicate our policy work, programs, thought leadership, and member value to key audiences, including government stakeholders, media, partners, and our members.
This role is a people manager, managing a small team of individual contributors. People managers at CCI lead the end-to-end employee experience for their team. This includes hiring, onboarding, regular 1:1s for coaching and feedback, performance management, compensation reviews, career development, succession planning, and offboarding. Being a people manager also means creating a safe environment for a team to do their best work, which means being a point of contact for discussing any concerns around an unsafe work environment.
As a Director, this role owns the success of a function and department. They are responsible for developing a departmental strategy that supports CCI’s goals and cascading it to their team.
ESSENTIAL DUTIES:
Communications Strategy & Leadership
● Lead the development and execution of CCI’s annual communications strategy to strengthen brand awareness, member value, and public understanding of CCI’s mission.
● Position CCI as a trusted, authoritative voice by shaping narratives around innovation, economic development, talent, capital, and emerging policy issues.
● Partner with the VP Programming and Director of Policy/Advocacy to ensure organizational priorities and thought leadership are clearly communicated across channels and audiences.
● Oversee crisis and ad-hoc communications, ensuring timely, accurate, and well-managed responses.
Content Development & Thought Leadership
● Ensure a consistent voice for CCI appears throughout all materials generated across the organization, including policy insights, communications materials, programs and events collateral, and other products from CCI and its various team members.
● Guide the creation of compelling content (including reports, articles, speeches, newsletters, media releases, website copy, and social media materials) that reflects CCI’s values, tone, and strategic objectives.
● Work cross-functionally to translate policy insights, program learnings, and member perspectives into accessible and high-impact public-facing content.
● Lead editorial direction and ensure consistent quality and brand alignment across all materials.
Media Relations & Public Affairs
● Build and maintain strong relationships with journalists, editors, and media outlets across Canada.
● Coordinate proactive and reactive media engagement, including story pitches, interviews, statements, op-eds, and media monitoring.
● Serve as a trusted advisor to the CEO, VP Programming, VP Policy and Advocacy, and Regional Government Affairs Leaders on media strategies, opportunities and communication risks.
Digital Communications & Brand
● Oversee CCI’s digital communications strategy, including website content, social media presence, newsletters, and member communications.
● Partner with the Digital Design function to ensure brand consistency and high-quality digital assets.
● Analyze engagement metrics and insights to continuously refine digital communications.
People Management
● Mobilize your team to support your annual departmental strategy.
● Own the entire employee journey for each of your direct reports, from first day to offboarding. This also includes regular coaching and feedback through recurring (weekly or biweekly) 1:1s.
● Partner with HR regularly to implement new HR initiatives and priorities.
● Be a trusted point of contact for your team to discuss concerns around workplace safety, conflict, and/or anything outside of work that is impacting their performance.
● Continuously engage in training and learning to improve people management and leadership skills.
Organizational Leadership & Cross-Functional Collaboration
● Contribute to departmental and organizational planning, including our annual strategic planning process.
● Collaborate deeply with Programming, Policy & Advocacy, Member Success, Partnerships, and Digital Design to ensure alignment in messaging and delivery.
● Play an active role in shaping CCI’s internal culture and modelling communication best practices across the organization.
SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE…
As a Director, this role goes beyond delivering projects and initiatives. They own the success of a department and function. Success looks like:
● Increased visibility and credibility for CCI as Canada’s leading voice for domestic technology scale-ups and homegrown businesses.
● Clear, strategic communications that effectively amplify CCI’s programming, policy insights, and member priorities.
● Strong, proactive media relationships resulting in regular coverage of CCI’s work and viewpoints.
● Consistent, compelling brand storytelling across all channels and touchpoints.
● Growing employee engagement and people management satisfaction scores; employees provide feedback that they’re engaged in their role, they feel well supported by their manager, and they’re excited about CCI’s future.
QUALIFICATIONS & SKILLS:
● 5-7 + years of experience in communications, public affairs, journalism, marketing, or related fields.
● Demonstrated ability to build and implement communications strategies that deliver organizational results.
● Exceptional writing, editing, and storytelling skills across multiple formats and audiences.
● Strong media relations experience and comfort working with reporters, editors, and external partners.
● Experience managing and developing direct reports.
● Ability to work cross-functionally in fast-paced, mission-driven environments.
● Background in innovation, technology, economic development, advocacy, or member-based organizations is a significant asset.
COMPENSATION & BENEFITS:
● Salaray band for this role is $95,000.00 to $115,000.00 CAD annually
● Flexible schedule and remote-first workplace (with some in-person retreats and events required throughout the year).
● Comprehensive health and dental benefits.
● $2,500 annual professional development stipend.
● Parental leave top-up and leave program.
● Generous vacation: 3 weeks plus two discretionary office closures: 1 week in July and 2 weeks in December, cumulating in a total of 6 weeks off per year.
Our bands are based on paying above market rates in our industry and paying comparatively to market rates for parallel roles in the tech sector to acknowledge the diverse skill set we need for our work.
We believe in equal pay for equal value of work. For this reason, although we hire all over Canada, we don't adjust our pay based on where you live. We've used a rate that is competitive across the various locations where we hire.
*Please note: The CCI team will be out of office from December 19,2025 to January 5, 2026 and will be reviewing applications upon their return, in the first week of January.