Issues Management Director

RSM•Chicago, IL

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Issues Management Director is responsible for developing crisis communications plans, strategies and playbooks; monitoring issues and crises that could affect the firm; and working with cross-functional teams on RSM’s response in the event of an issue or crisis. The position will represent communications on the firm’s incident response team and work directly with the firm’s business continuity leader. The role will also serve as the primary communications liaison with legal, IT security, physical security and employee relations and be the primary liaison with local leadership, HR, communications and the RSM US Foundation in the event of disasters or other issues that affect our offices or markets. The position will also be responsible for the management and maintenance of messaging in the firm’s Alert Media emergency notification system, as well as working with local Alert Media administrators to ensure they are trained and to distribute in the event of an emergency. Position can be anywhere in US preferably hybrid from Chicago or New York City.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in communications or business (required)
10+ years of corporate communications experience, including crisis and issues management and incident response
Experience leading communications for cybersecurity incidents
Experience leading communications surrounding legal and regulatory matters
Experience leading office-level safety communications in a global environment
Ability to maintain relationships with a wide variety of stakeholders across the firm
Ability to work on highly confidential and privileged matters for the firm
Proven ability to manage communications in a crisis
Exceptional writing, editing and verbal communication
Executive presence and credibility
Strong collaboration skills across matrixed functions
Proven ability to collaborate and advise within a highly matrixed environment
Ability to counsel executives in a variety of roles
Ability to work with business continuity, legal and risk management teams to achieve desired outcomes in situations that represent risk for the organization
Ability to influence and align leaders across a complex, matrixed firm
Ability to build trust and credibility with executive stakeholders.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree in communications or MBA (preferred)

Responsibilities

Develop crisis communications plans and playbooks in partnership with the firm’s business continuity leader and incident response task force so the firm is prepared to respond to a variety of issues and incidents.
Maintain documentation for the firm’s response to any issues or crises and continuously improve plans.
Help plan and participate in tabletop exercises with the firm’s business continuity leader and incident response task force to ensure readiness.
Respond to a variety of crises and issues for the firm, including communications planning and execution in coordination with a variety of global, national, regional and local leaders. This could include legal and regulatory matters, natural disasters, employee safety issues that affect our markets or offices, IT security incidents, personnel matters, etc.
Serve as the primary communications liaison for legal, IT security and employee relations for both incident response and to execute normal course of business communications for the departments.
Maintain messaging in the firm’s Alert Media emergency notification system, as well as working with local Alert Media administrators to ensure they are trained and to distribute messages in the event of an emergency.
Run regular training sessions and scenarios with the team to ensure that they are ready to deploy messaging when needed.
Monitor the external environment for issues that could affect RSM and work with teams and leaders to ensure we are in a position to respond if needed.
Other duties as assigned.