Vice President, Strategic Communications

IDEX•Northbrook, IL

17h

About The Position

The VP, Strategic Communications develops and executes an integrated communication strategy that connects enterprise strategy, portfolio priorities, and business performance to the stakeholder audiences most critical to growth. The role serves as the steward of the company’s enterprise narrative, ensuring employees, customers, investors and other key stakeholders understand what the company is doing, why it matters and how it advances long-term value creation making IDEX an employer or investment of choice. The VP leads all aspects of corporate communications, executive communications, employee engagement communications, media relations, crisis management, thought leadership, issues management, and reputation strategy. In an increasingly complex environment shaped by artificial intelligence, social media, stakeholder activism, geopolitical uncertainty, and heightened expectations for transparency, the VP must ensure communications are data-driven, sophisticated, and tightly aligned with business objectives.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Communications, Public Relations, Marketing, Business, or related field.
A proven track record with a minimum of 15 years of progressive communications leadership experience in transformational or growth focused environments (both internal and external communications within a complex public company; Experience in advising/influencing C-suite executives; Proven success managing corporate reputation and executive communications).
Deep expertise in: Designing communications strategies that align and balance enterprise messages across internal and external stakeholder groups and business unit/ market-specific requirements to improve corporate reputation and stakeholder confidence.
Deep expertise in: Proactive reputation monitoring and management- ability to identify emerging risks and mitigate them before they become crises; Expertise in managing rapidly evolving issues amplified by social media, misinformation, cybersecurity threats, and geopolitical events.
Deep expertise in: Inspiring strong executive and Board confidence and increasing employee engagement, trust, and organizational alignment through communications thought leadership and counsel
Experience with AI/technology and effective vendor mgmt. to build future-ready communications function to drive efficiency while enhancing stakeholder experience
Business acumen: Deep understanding of business strategy, financial performance, market dynamics, and stakeholder expectations. Ability to create and execute against a cohesive, integrated communications strategy that supports enterprise growth and value creation. Ability to explain complex business, financial, regulatory, and technology topics in ways that are understandable and compelling to varied audiences. Brings a business lens to communications, helping leaders connect enterprise strategy, business performance and customer facing messages in a differentiated and compelling way.
Strong executive presence, communication, and influencing skills: Communicates with clarity and confidence, distilling complexity into crisp, actionable insights and engaging senior leaders with maturity and credibility. Strong interpersonal skills and influencing capability to align business leaders around shared outcomes and standards, while allowing for creative approaches to support unique business goals. Leverages data-driven decision-making to influence key stakeholders.
Change-agent: Brings the conviction to challenge legacy structures, simplify complexity, and drive enterprise wide communications transformation to enable the organization’s growth goals while appropriately managing risk. Proactively monitors market trends to bring a comprehensive outside-in point of view.
Trusted enterprise advisor and internal partner: Builds and sustains trusted relationships across the enterprise and with vendor partners that strengthen credibility, alignment, and overall corporate performance
Strong results orientation: Drives disciplined execution, aligns internal teams and external partners to drive quality outcomes in a highly matrixed environment and ensure governance. Ability to communicate with speed, accuracy, and transparency.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree a plus.
Background in manufacturing or similar industry preferred.

Responsibilities

Develop and execute a comprehensive enterprise communications strategy that support business outcomes aligned with company growth plans.
Translate enterprise strategy, capabilities and portfolio priorities into stakeholder narratives that advance business objectives and reinforce the company’s value proposition.
Establish and govern the enterprise messaging framework, defining how enterprise strategy, portfolio priorities, and business capabilities are communicated across stakeholder groups while providing guidance on when enterprise versus local business messaging should lead.
Serve as a strategic advisor to the executive leadership team and Board of Directors on communication risks and opportunities.
Lead communication planning for major business initiatives, transformations, acquisitions, divestitures, restructurings, and strategic investments.
Partner with enterprise and business leaders to translate strategic investments, new capabilities, M&A and transformation initiatives into compelling stakeholder narratives that support business growth and enterprise value creation.
Design and lead enterprise-wide internal communication strategies that help employees understand company strategy, business performance, organizational priorities, and the role they play in delivering enterprise growth.
Translate enterprise strategy and executive priorities into clear communications that build organizational alignment, reinforce culture and enable leaders to communicate more consistently across the enterprise.
Oversee executive town halls, provide support re: executive communications; Responsible for intranet strategy and maintenance
Monitor emerging issues and trends that could impact corporate reputation.
Build proactive strategies and integrated campaigns that increase company visibility and credibility re: business growth and market leadership (partner with investor relations, legal, corporate strategy, and HR)
Develop communication protocols, plans, and response frameworks for crisis communications (e.g., operational disruptions, reputational events, cybersecurity incidents, litigation matters, regulatory inquiries, and workforce issues).
Support earnings communications, annual reports, investor presentations, and stakeholder engagement efforts articulating a compelling narrative around company performance, strategy and value creation.
Develop audience specific communication strategies that articulate enterprise strategy through the lens most relevant to customers, investors, employees and other key stakeholder audiences.
Establish communication KPIs tied directly to business outcomes. Leverage analytics, sentiment monitoring, audience insights, and reputation metrics to guide strategy and communication decisions.
Create and oversee digital communications channels and content strategy.
Implement communication technologies and analytics tools that improve reach, engagement, and effectiveness. Ability to adapt messaging across multiple channels.
Evaluate emerging technologies/ AI to enhance communication efficiency and stakeholder engagement, impact, and personalization
Lead and develop a high-performing communications team, inclusive of external partners.
Foster a culture of innovation, accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement.