Sr. Communications Strategist

Northwestern Mutual; Milwaukee (WI); Hybrid; USD 75,600 - 113,400; Full time

Job summary

Northwestern Mutual seeks a Senior Communications Strategist to craft high-impact external content for our senior leaders and financial advisors. You will develop thought leadership strategies, align with proprietary research, and build relationships with executives to source ideas and tell compelling stories.

This role requires exceptional writing, storytelling, and the ability to navigate messaging across channels while maintaining brand and compliance standards.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of strong writing experience.
• Natural storyteller and problem-solver.
• Ability to craft communications that are precise, strategic, clear, crisp, accessible and emotive.

Responsibilities

• Develop thought leadership strategies for the company, senior leaders and advisors.
• Reinforce proprietary research to drive earned, owned and social media coverage.
• Cultivate relationships with senior leaders and partners to mine content ideas and ensure consistency across channels.

Skills

Cross Functional Partnering & Planning

Decision Making

Executive Presence

Strategic Thinking

Writing & Editing

Job description

About the Job: Reporting to - and working in partnership with - the Assistant Director of Thought Leadership and Executive Visibility, the Senior Communications Strategist will, first and foremost, be an exquisite writer and storyteller who will help give 'voice' to senior company leaders and financial advisors. To develop those materials and advance the company’s thought leadership profile, this talented communicator should also be capable of quickly gaining a deep understanding of Northwestern Mutual, our unique value proposition, proprietary research programs, company products, technology solutions, exclusive distribution system, and other key aspects of our business. Moreover, they should possess a keen sense of the current news cycle, macro trends, and timely third-party research to help drive relevance and nimble storytelling.

What You'll Do

The Senior Communications Strategist – Thought Leadership and Executive Visibility will be a trusted member of the Communications team who helps to create high-profile, high-impact external content on behalf of our top executives and financial advisors.

• Developing and executing the thought leadership strategies for our company, senior leaders and advisors
• Reinforcing our signature proprietary research strategy to drive earned, owned and social media coverage
• Along with being a truly top-notch and versatile writer, this role must also cultivate positive relationships with senior leaders, key business partners, and other communicators to mine content ideas; capitalize on company milestones, events and announcements; ensure messages are both consistent and complementary across channels and leaders; and merchandise results to key stakeholders

What You'll Bring to the Role

• Have a minimum of 7 years of strong writing experience
• Be a natural storyteller and problem-solver
• Be capable of crafting communications that are precise, strategic, clear, crisp, accessible and able to stir emotion
• Have a knack for understanding positioning and the nuances of messaging
• Possess executive presence, with a strong EQ and the capability to establish rapport with key company leaders and financial advisors
• Excel at creating content suitable for use with high-profile media outlets - both local and national
• Demonstrate proficiency using generative AI tools (e.g., Microsoft Copilot, Writer) to accelerate content creation, research, editing, and ideation while maintaining brand, quality, and compliance standards.
• Be a team leader, guiding colleagues toward shared goals that generate positive business outcomes
• Work with colleagues to track and analyze the effectiveness of thought leadership content, ensuring the communications steadily grow in reach, engagement and overall impact

Skills You Have

• Cross Functional Partnering & Planning: Facilitates collaboration, communication, coordination, and planning with individuals and teams from different functions within the organization, and who have different areas of expertise, to achieve common goals.
• Decision Making: Makes timely, data-driven decisions by understanding the probability of success, identifying risks, gathering business requirements, and developing value statements.
• Executive Presence: Builds and maintains an authentic personal brand, inspiring and motivating people to pursue a desired outcome by sharing a clear vision and demonstrating confidence, professionalism, self-awareness and trust with business stakeholders.
• Strategic Thinking: Uses critical thinking and knowledge of business demand to plan, design, prioritize and execute high impact initiatives and programs.
• Writing & Editing: Creates and edits persuasive content so that it is appealing, understandable, or relatable to the intended audience; Has knowledge of the variety of formats, styles, and techniques for developing and reviewing materials.

#LI-Hybrid

Compensation Range: Pay Range - Start: $75,600.00 Pay Range - End: $113,400.00

Geographic Specific Pay Structure: Structure 110: $83,200.00 USD - $124,800.00 USD Structure 115: $86,960.00 USD - $130,440.00 USD

We believe in fairness and transparency. It's why we share the salary range for most of our roles. However, final salaries are based on a number of factors, including the skills and experience of the candidate; the current market; location of the candidate; and other factors uncovered in the hiring process. The standard pay structure is listed but if you're living in California, New York City or other eligible location, geographic specific pay structures, compensation and benefits could be applicable.

Grow your career with a best-in-class company that puts our clients' interests at the center of all we do.

Northwestern Mutual is an equal opportunity employer that welcomes talented individuals of all backgrounds.

We are committed to creating and maintaining an environment in which each employee can contribute creative ideas, seek challenges, assume leadership and continue to focus on meeting and exceeding business and personal objectives.

At Northwestern Mutual, we believe relationships are built on trust. That our lives and our work matter. These beliefs launched our company over 160 years ago. Today, they're just a few of the reasons why people choose to build careers at Northwestern Mutual.

What started in Milwaukee, WI has grown into 7,000+ home office professionals split across 3 campuses: New York City, Franklin and downtown Milwaukee (HQ) - each one bringing with it its own unique talent and culture. In a company with such a long and storied history, this may be the most exciting and important time to be a part of Northwestern Mutual as we are growing our digital and tech capabilities and are always on the lookout for bright, tech-savvy candidates.

Northwestern Mutual is an equal opportunity employer that welcomes talented individuals of all backgrounds.

We are committed to creating and maintaining an environment in which each employee can contribute creative ideas, seek challenges, assume leadership and continue to focus on meeting and exceeding business and personal objectives.