Senior Manager, External Affairs, Business Strategy Communications

Role Overview

• Crisis & Issues Management (50%)
• Drive crisis/issues preparedness communications planning, execution, and response; work closely with cross-functional partners including Legal, Human Resources, brand teams, and senior leadership to ensure readiness and alignment.
• Oversee global reputation and media monitoring and measurement, including deriving actionable insights from data to support preparedness and proactive corporate brand-building efforts that support business objectives and continuity.
• Develop communications materials for event-driven milestones/issues (reactively and proactively), including tactical communications plans, key messaging, and stakeholder communications/materials (internal and external).
• Maintain trusted and professional relationships with key third-party partners (e.g., industry associations) to support communications and corporate affairs strategies.
• Coordinate cross-functional reviews and approvals of communications plans and effectively project manage the tactical execution of approved plans.
• Provide counsel around key issues to communications partners in the company’s business segments in markets around the world, as needed.
• Develop and maintain up-to-date library of position statements and playbooks that align to the company’s business goals, values and purpose.
• Operate with integrity and handle sensitive matters with professionalism, sound judgement, and care—care for our consumers, customers, partners, communities in which we operate, and employees.
• Media Relations (35%)
• Develop and execute global media relations strategy for the enterprise, including identifying and developing signature storylines that further strengthen corporate reputation, support business goals and advance purpose.
• Write compelling media pitches for strategic top-tier media, proactively pitch journalists, coordinate media interviews, prepare briefing materials and messaging; coordinate with communications partners and/or directly with company spokesperson on scheduling and preparation, as needed.
• Manage reactive media inquiries and coordinate with cross-functional partners on aligned and approved response approaches, as needed.
• Provide counsel to communications partners in business segments and local markets on key media opportunities with potential global/enterprise reach/impact.
• Monitor media trends and coverage and synthesize insights to inform communications and corporate affairs strategy and execution.
• Executive Communications (15%)
• Support the development of executive narratives that align back to and reinforce the company’s enterprise narrative and strategy.
• Support the creation and execution of executive visibility plans with an emphasis on earned media relations and top-tier speaking engagements, including message development, scriptwriting, and slide/presentation creation.
• Research, identify, pitch and coordinate external visibility opportunities that further strengthen corporate and executive reputation; measure impact of completed opportunities to inform future planning efforts (e.g., events, media, etc.).
• Write and/or support the development of thought leadership content (e.g., opinion pieces for owned, social and/or earned placement) and pitch/place content.
• Project Management & Cross-Functional Collaboration (embedded across workstreams)
• Partner effectively across teams—including Investor Relations, Legal, HR, Marketing, and Business Units—to ensure message consistency and strategic alignment.
• Manage timelines, priorities, and deliverables to meet deadlines and maintain high standards of quality and accuracy.
• Effectively manage and partner with external agency/contractors to drive ROI.
• Maintain healthy file organization on company’s cloud-based applications.
• Serve as knowledge manager of best practices/policies for external enterprise communications activities and manage related colleague inquiries as needed.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Strategic Communications, Public Relations, Journalism, or a related field
• 10+ years of progressive experience in corporate communications and crisis/issues management
• Proven leadership experience with an ability to manage and/or effectively collaborate with an internal team as well as external agencies and contractors
• Significant experience driving the development and execution of crisis and issues management plans on proactive and reactive basis
• Demonstrated experience creating effective communications plans and executive-level written and/or verbal communications in support VP and/or C-level leaders
• Proven experience working with top-tier business, leadership and consumer media to deliver earned media coverage that enhances corporate reputation; strong media relations expertise and business acumen
• Strategic understanding of current and emerging communication channels across paid, owned and earned channels, communications industry trends, opportunities, and tools to enhance communicators’ work and contributions to the enterprise
• Exceptional writing, editing, and strategic messaging skills, including strong business acumen and writing skills and an ability to develop compelling corporate brand and executive narratives
• Strong project management skills; adept at managing multiple projects with competing priorities in a fast-paced, high-stakes environment
• Excellent team player with strong collaboration, critical thinking, and creative problem-solving skills; committed to operating with a growth mindset
• Exceptional attention to detail, time management and prioritization skills
• Evaluate and measure the impact of communications programs for future optimization and planning purposes.

Tech Stack

• Cloud

Benefits

• Flex That Works at Kimberly-Clark
• Health insurance
• 401(k) and Profit Sharing plan
• Comprehensive benefits suite