Hello potential future Oatly employee! It’s us, the original oat drink company that started in Sweden back 30 or so years ago –and we need more brilliant minds to come work with us to keep the momentum going and the oat drink flowing.

In the last few years, we’ve become a popular and pioneering dairy-alt player in the UK market. In fact, we were recently voted one of 2024's best places to work for a small organisation. 

Sustainability, health, and transparency are the core values that guide everything we do. Basically, we exist to make it easy for people to eat better and live healthier lives without recklessly taxing the planet’s resources in the process.

If you're passionate about revolutionising our food system, have a knack for storytelling, and are skilled at building relationships, then you should read on.

The Role

As the Head of Communications for the UK & Ireland, you'll lead our communication efforts across the region. Your mission? Make sure everyone knows and loves Oatly. You'll also play a key role in promoting the shift towards dairy alternatives.

You’ll partner with key executives, cross-functional colleagues (like those in Brand, Public Affairs, Commercial, Sustainability, Nutrition, Innovation, Legal, and Regulatory) to coherently further the company’s mission, identify and tackle business threats and overall ensure a holistic approach to everything we do externally.

You’ll set the UK&I communications strategy and make sure it’s implemented across your two markets. You’ll ensure Oatly is a leader in the conversation on dairy alts, nutrition and transforming our food system for the sake of people and planet. All in keeping with Oatly’s unique tone of voice of course.

The role reports into the General Manager for UK & Ireland. Whilst the UKI team is where you’ll call home, you will also be part of an awesome network of communications professionals across Oatly globally, supported and guided by our global comms team.

The role is based in the UK with the expectation you can commute to our London office with ease. The role may require a small amount of travel to Ireland and our Malmö headquarters.

Native/full professional proficiency in English is required. Please note that if you make it to the shortlist, we'll ask you to work on a case study as part of the interview process.  

Ok, this next section is for all the bulletpoint lovers out there.

What You'll Be Doing

• Create and lead the communications strategy for the UK and Ireland markets in alignment with commercial and brand priorities, and ultimately help people make the shift to plant-based dairy.
• Plan and coordinate campaign moments, events, product launches, and media briefings for maximum media coverage.
• Build and maintain strong relationships with key media outlets, journalists, and influencers.
• Leverage senior leadership to amplify Oatly’s presence in the region.
• Handle media enquiries and press issues with professionalism, tact and in Oatly’s tone of voice. Should an issue arise, work in our crisis response model to create and implement communications strategies.
• Act as a company spokesperson in relevant situations. Proactively push back against misconceptions about Oatly and the category, especially those spread by established industries.
• Ensure adequate media training for relevant stakeholders in your region. Support Oatly’s spokespersons when preparing for interviews or speaking opportunities.
• Stay up-to-date with industry trends, competitor activities, and market developments. Provide insights and recommendations to the team.
• Support the Public Affairs team in the cultivation of relationships with government officials, policymakers, regulatory bodies, and trade associations and work together to monitor legislative and regulatory risks to Oatly’s business and prepare action plans in consultation. Help protect Oatly from regulatory threats that usually originate from those who don’t agree with our mission.
• Manage and oversee relevant agencies and association relationships in your markets and ensure best-in-class delivery. Oversee the communications team in the UKI, which includes the UKI Communications Manager.

Who You Are

If the below sounds like you, we'd love to see an application:

• You have a proven, demonstrable depth of experience in public relations and communications.
• You’re both a strategist and a hands-on doer.  A brilliant leader and generalist who can handle anything from brand campaign amplification to corporate communications, public affairs, crisis management, media training, and stakeholder engagement.
• A proven track-record for creativity and implementing and executing campaigns from start to end.
• Equal comfort in launching a cool new product with TikTok influencers as you're briefing health editors on the nutritional differences of cow’s milk vs. oat milk, or conveying our sustainability mission.
• Brilliant management and influencing skills , able to work with colleagues from all disciplines to create and activate programmes greater than the sum of their parts.
• A natural influencer who can speak confidently about our mission in front of a range of diverse audiences - from consumers, media, industry, government, and regulatory leaders to foster strong relationships that help our business and cause.
• Juggling (metaphorically, but literal juggling is a cool bonus!). You’re self-motivated, organised, and take joy in knowing how to prioritise projects with different goals and timelines.
• A proactive and reactive mindset, always looking for opportunities to drive the plant-based movement through PR. You keep Oatly on the front foot and the forefront of the important conversations in the UK and Ireland.
• You work well in a fast-paced, agile environment, welcome ambiguity and love to solve problems. You can translate complex scenarios and use your comms magic to find the story.
• You’re corporate but not “corporate.” Oatly is a unique place and while we must run a professional organisation, we don’t like to work with robots.
• Ideally, experience in consumer-facing brands, sustainability or food and drink.
• Experience working in regional offices of a global company. In-house or agency expertise working for a publicly-traded company even better.
• You’re a passionate advocate of the sustainability agenda who wants to create societal shifts and drive the plant-based revolution.

Another bulleted list felt redundant, so we made this page talking about all the benefits we offer to sweeten the deal working with us before you apply – if you're curious, check out this fancy page right here.

Phew! Well done if you’ve got this far. We’re glad we’ve still got your attention because we’ve got one last super important point to make.

As you can probably tell, we’re a norm-breaking company. For us, diversity and differences are an obvious asset. We know that amazing candidates can sometimes be put off applying for a job unless they can tick every box, and that makes us really sad. 

If you have the curiosity, passion, and collaborative spirit, it’s already a fantastic start. So please trust your gut and pop in your application if it’s feeling right. Good luck!

#LI-TA1