VP-Thought Leadership, Creative and Content

Northwestern Mutual•Milwaukee, WI

About The Position

The Vice President of Thought Leadership, Creative and Content sets the enterprise vision for how Northwestern Mutual shapes ideas, tells its story, and engages priority audiences in an increasingly AI-influenced marketplace. The role leads integrated thought leadership, editorial, content, creative, and AI visibility strategy in alignment with brand, product, and career marketing priorities to strengthen brand authority, differentiate the firm, and make its expertise discoverable, credible, and influential across traditional, digital, search, social, and AI-powered channels. In partnership with senior leaders and teams across business lines, Brand, Marketing, Digital, Product, Research, Data, Technology, Legal, Compliance, and Communications, the VP establishes the narrative agenda, builds an AI-native content and creative engine, and delivers measurable impact on brand trust, relevance, reputation, engagement, client growth, and loyalty. The role also improves the efficiency and effectiveness of how assets are created, distributed, and perform in market.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in marketing, communications, journalism, business, design, or a related field.
15+ years of progressive leadership experience spanning thought leadership, content strategy, editorial, creative, brand, marketing, or corporate communications, with significant experience leading at enterprise scale.
Demonstrated success building differentiated thought leadership platforms and translating complex topics into clear, credible, and compelling narratives for executive, client, and external audiences.
Proven ability to lead integrated creative and content portfolios across digital and offline channels while balancing brand stewardship, audience relevance, speed, and business outcomes.
Strong editorial judgment and executive-level writing, storytelling, presentation, and creative direction capabilities.
Track record of advising senior executives, influencing across organizational boundaries, and aligning diverse stakeholders around a shared narrative and strategic agenda.
Experience establishing content governance, editorial operations, measurement frameworks, and scalable operating models in a complex, matrixed organization.
Strong command of audience insights, research, analytics, and performance measurement, with the ability to connect content and creative investments to reputation, engagement, growth, and loyalty.
Deep understanding of evolving media, digital, social, search, personalization, generative AI, and AI-powered discovery practices, including how to responsibly strengthen company visibility, authority, quality, and performance in AI-influenced environments.
Experience attracting, developing, and retaining diverse senior talent across editorial, content, design, creative, and strategy disciplines.
Exceptional executive presence, strategic agility, detail-orientation, business acumen, and decision-making skills, with the courage to challenge convention and set a clear point of view.

Nice To Haves

Advanced degree preferred.
Financial services, investments, or insurance experience preferred, with the ability to operate effectively in a highly regulated environment.

Responsibilities

Define and champion the enterprise thought leadership, creative, content, and AI visibility vision, ensuring a distinct and consistent point of view across audiences, channels, AI-powered answer environments, and experiences.
Establish the annual strategy, operating plan, investment priorities, resource model, and performance framework for thought leadership, editorial, content, creative, and AI-enabled content operations.
Partner with executive leadership and subject-matter experts to set a forward-looking narrative agenda that elevates the firm’s expertise, anticipates audience needs, and advances business priorities.
Lead the development of signature thought leadership platforms, original research, executive perspectives, and high-impact content to strengthen reputation, deepen engagement, and create demand.
Advance company visibility and authority in AI-powered discovery environments through high-quality, credible, structured, and reusable content.
Provide executive creative direction across brand storytelling, campaigns, digital experiences, presentations, video, and other priority communications.
Build and scale an AI-native content and creative engine that responsibly uses emerging tools, workflows, and reusable assets to improve speed, personalization, quality, efficiency, and in-market performance.
Build an integrated editorial and content ecosystem, including audience strategy, channel planning, personalization, distribution, amplification, and lifecycle management.
Create enterprise governance, standards, and operating rhythms that improve prioritization, consistency, speed, reuse, optimization, and responsible application of AI-enabled content and creative technologies.
Use audience insights, cultural and industry trends, competitive intelligence, search and AI visibility signals, and performance analytics to identify opportunities, optimize the portfolio, and demonstrate business impact.
Influence senior stakeholders across Brand, Strategic Communications, Digital, Product, Research, Data, Technology, and business lines to align narratives and deliver cohesive audience experiences.
Represent the organization’s thought leadership and creative vision to senior leaders and external partners, enhancing executive visibility and market credibility.
Build, lead, and develop a diverse, high-performing team and partner ecosystem, setting clear expectations and fostering strategic thinking, creative excellence, collaboration, and accountability.