Assistant Director - Corporate Reputation

At Northwestern Mutual, we are strong, innovative and growing. We invest in our people. We care and make a positive difference.
Summary:
Responsible as a leader in strategic planning, socialization and execution of the company's corporate reputation communications strategies focused on proactively and reactively managing and mitigating risks that could have a corporate or brand impact to Northwestern Mutual. Partners with others across the Strategic Communications team and the business to identify potential issues and develop recommendations designed to protect and shape the company's reputation among internal and external audiences. This role reports to the Senior Director, Corporate Reputation as part of the company's Strategic Communications team.
Primary Duties & Responsibilities:

• Supports the Senior Director in the creation of an annual Corporate Reputation strategic plan that outlines quarterly objectives, strategies and tactics to protect the company's reputation and minimize reputation risk.
• Creates and maintains an annual team planning calendar that maps issues on a macro and micro level across national trends, industry milestones and key dates for the company. Reviews planning materials monthly and quarterly to ensure the team's efforts are on track to meet team goals.
• Writes and executes strategic communications plans and written materials that support business partners including Government Relations; Insurance Products, Sales and Service; Campus Events and Experiences; Real Estate; and Law to manage and mitigate issues (e.g. public policy change, legislation, litigation, etc.)
• Keeps communications leaders informed of emerging issues, status and resolution.
• Leads the formalization of an issues management group consisting of business partners across Strategic Communications, Law, HR and Government Relations, including development of the group charter, responsibilities, regular touch points and executive reporting mechanisms.
• Develops group materials to map reputation risk issues on the horizon, aggregate enterprise reputation risk, consider reputation risk scenarios, develop reputation risk playbooks and share knowledge and capabilities.
• Creates and maintains a dashboard of emerging issues of importance to Northwestern Mutual, leveraging insights from industry resources, news sources, external agency partners and internal business partners.
• Ongoing surveillance of the national, trade and local news landscape for new or notable developments on short-term and long-term issues scenarios to identify opportunities for enhanced communications preparedness measures.
• Vets and assesses a variety of internal and external business requests, including media inquiries, and provides written summaries with comprehensive details and clear, actionable strategic communication recommendations for swift decision-making.
• Guides external agencies in the development of research and strategic communications materials that support the corporate reputation function, as needed.
• Supports the tracking and merchandizing of team efforts to showcase the value of reputation management.
• Assesses team trends over time and identifies strategic opportunities for improvement. Recommends best practices to improve processes and creates new mechanisms to demonstrate the value add of corporate reputation management for the company.

Knowledge, Skills, Abilities:

• Bachelor's degree in Communications, Public Relations, Business, Political Science or related field.
• A minimum 10 years of experience in professional public relations or corporate communications within a large company, firm or agency.
• A minimum of 3 years hands on experience with issues management and crisis communications with the ability to work with sensitive information.
• Brings relevant experience operating within a complex organization that requires interacting with a range of stakeholders and processes to gain alignment.
• Superior writing skills across a wide range of written materials including strategic communications plans, external communications materials (press releases, talking points, media FAQ, etc.), and internal communications materials (executive emails, talking points, internal articles, company newsletter, etc.). Writing samples will be requested.
• Disciplined understanding of internal and external communications channels and how to leverage each channel's parameters to reach the right audience with the right information at the right time.
• Strong PR and media relations experience, including the ability to navigate a variety of media scenarios.
• Sound problem identification, judgment, resolution and decision-making skills often in ambiguous situations. Works efficiently under time constraints with strong attention to detail, organization and project management skills.
• Proven ability to build positive, collaborative relationships across a diverse set of business partners and functions.
• Experience working in the insurance or financial services industry or another highly regulated industry is welcome.

#LI-Hybrid
Compensation Range:
Pay Range - Start:
$90,930.00
Pay Range - End:
$168,870.00
Northwestern Mutual pays on a geographic-specific salary structure and placement in the salary range for this position will be determined by a number of factors including the skills, education, training, credentials and experience of the candidate; the scope, complexity as well as the cost of labor in the market; and other conditions of employment. At Northwestern Mutual, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the range for their role and compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case. Please note that the salary range listed in the posting is the standard pay structure. Positions in certain locations (such as California) may provide an increase on the standard pay structure based on the location. Please click here for additiona l information relating to location-based pay structures.
Grow your career with a best-in-class company that puts our client's interests at the center of all we do. Get started now!
We are an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, age or status as a protected veteran, or any other characteristic protected by law.
If you work or would be working in California, Colorado, New York City, Washington or outside of a Corporate location, please click here for information pertaining to compensation and benefits.
FIND YOUR FUTURE
We're excited about the potential people bring to Northwestern Mutual. You can grow your career here while enjoying first-class perks, benefits, and commitment to diversity and inclusion.

• Flexible work schedules
• Concierge service
• Comprehensive benefits
• Employee resource groups