Assistant Director - Employee Communications

Northwestern Mutual

2d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Assistant Director, Strategic Employee Communications plays a critical role in engaging, equipping and activating employees and leaders across Northwestern Mutual. This role leads communications that help employees understand priorities, take action, and feel connected to our culture, strategy and employee experience. With a strong focus on supporting HR priorities, Total Rewards and well-being, the New North project, and campus experiences, this leader partners closely with senior stakeholders to translate complex topics into clear, compelling and actionable communications that drive awareness, alignment and engagement. This role thrives in a highly collaborative and fast-moving environment. You’ll proactively connect dots, think creatively, and ensure audiences have the right information, at the right time, in the right way. You’ll have myriad opportunities to flex your leadership, storytelling and project management skills combined with the ability to directly influence the employee experience.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree.
8 or more years of experience in professional communication, organizational communication, public relations, marketing or related communication field.
Demonstrated ability to build trusted partnerships with senior leaders and influence decision-making at all levels.
Strong planning, prioritization, and project management skills — able to manage multiple fast-moving priorities.
Ability to listen to, engage, and influence business partners; synthesize and relate complex information; and develop and implement integrated communications strategies, flexing strong consultative abilities throughout.
Exceptional writing, verbal and storytelling skills across a variety of formats and stakeholders.
Ability to lead others to solve complex problems and analyze information to make business decisions.
Audience-centric mindset: ability to simplify, clarify, and guide people toward action.
Comfortable navigating ambiguity, solving complex problems, and connecting details to strategy.

Nice To Haves

Previous supervisory/leadership experience preferred.
In-person (3 days/week) candidate preferred.

Responsibilities

Serve as strategic communications partner to senior leaders within the People Function and across the enterprise to consult on communication strategy.
Lead the development and implementation of enterprise employee communication strategies, including messaging, channels, content planning, and measurement.
Lead projects and working teams in developing communication initiatives that support communication goals and objectives.
Translate complex, technical, and sensitive topics into simple, actionable communications that reflect an audience-first mindset.
Influence partners on communication best practices and help evolve experiences and processes behind messages.
Develop metrics/measures to evaluate communication effectiveness to continually improve engagement and clarity.
Develop and maintain editorial calendars, toolkits, and resources to ensure consistency and alignment across channels.
Work to understand business partner communication needs and provide a proactive, rapid response to time-sensitive issues.
Work independently and efficiently with guidance on only the most complex situations.
Provide day-to-day project leadership and may lead, guide or mentor other team members.