External Communications Lead

Job Description

With a new focus on driving proactive corporate communications activities to support the company's strategic growth plans and with a particular near-term focus on supporting Columbus market entry, there is a pressing need to build additional internal capacity and expertise to help drive public relations, earned media, investor relations, and corporate philanthropy programs. This role will support the Executive Director of External Communications. The External Communications team effectively replaces prior external agency support, building flexible, expert in-house capabilities.

Essential Functions

• Key contributor to the development of external communications strategy and tactical plans that help drive measurable growth for Northwest Bank and promote and protect the bank’s reputation
• Responsible for program execution of external communications activities in partnership with peers in Marketing, Lines of Business and Investor Relations and/or external vendors and partners, such as non-profits and community influencers and organizations
• Independently offers feedback and recommendations on external communications and PR plans and leads development and execution of tactical program PR elements including financial center openings, line of business news and features, company developments, and philanthropic and community activities
• Develops and maintains relationships with key media outlets and key correspondents (and database thereof) covering relevant sectors and regions in local, regional, financial services and banking trades, consumer finance and business media
• Monitors local, sector and business media and identifies news, feature and trend opportunities to comment across key target earned media and makes recommendations on timely basis
• Monitors and identifies emerging potential reputational issues across sector and company-specific and provides regular updates and recommendations on preparation
• Develops and maintains a relationship with counterparts at external agencies/vendors and internally related to day-to-day management of programs and activities and makes decisions related to day-to-day execution of programs with input from leaders
• Identifies opportunities for new process development and existing process optimization to support effective high-impact external communications programs and outcomes.
  
  

Additional Essential Functions

Essential Functions

• Ensure compliance with Northwest’s policies and procedures, and Federal/State regulations
• Navigate Microsoft Office Software, computer applications, and software specific to the department in order to maximize technology tools and gain efficiency
• Work as part of a team
• Work with on-site equipment
  
  

Additional Responsibilities

• Provide support to executive director and investor relations team on investor relations-related external communications around quarterly earnings and other investor audience-focused events
  
  

Safety and Health for those without supervisory duties

• Abide by the rules of the safety and loss prevention program
• Perform work tasks in a safe manner
• Report any and all injuries to supervisor
• Know what to do in case of an emergency
  
  

Qualifications

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Preferred Education

Bachelor's Degree in Public Relations, Journalism or related business or communications-focused field: Relevant coursework to include: public relations, corporate communications, crisis and issues management, marketing, consumer behavior, market research, finance, and business administration

Preferred Work Experience

6 - 8 years External communications: creation of external communications materials that target specific audiences and articulate an organization's strategy and key messages, including differentiators for key lines of business and/or product and service offerings

3 - 5 years Experience with program management planning and execution in multi-channel, multi-product organization, preferably with some experience in the financial services industry or banking sector, ideally with a publicly traded company.

3 - 5 years Media relations: developing and delivering compelling earned media pitches to variety of media (platforms/channels and focus)

3 - 5 years Crisis communications and issues management: providing research and analysis support on crisis and issues management as part of team

General Employee Knowledge, Skills, And Abilities

• Ability to establish effective working relationships among team members and participate in solving problems and making decisions
• Ability to present and express ideas and information clearly and concisely in a manner appropriate to the audience, whether oral or written
• Ability to actively listen to what others are saying to achieve understanding, sharing information with others and facilitating the open exchange of ideas and information
• Ability to establish courses of action for self to accomplish specific goals, develop and use tracking systems for monitoring own work progress, and effectively use resources such as time and information
• Ability to make right decisions based on perceptive and analytical processes, practicing good judgment in gray areas
  
  

Additional Knowledge, Skills And Abilities

• Ability to establish strong, effective working relationships among team members up and down and across a diverse, distributed enterprise, and to participate in solving problems and making decisions
• Ability to present and express ideas and information clearly and concisely in a manner appropriate to the audience, whether oral or written, including at c-suite level
• Ability to actively listen to what others are saying to achieve understanding, sharing information with others and facilitating the open exchange of ideas and information
• Ability to establish courses of action for self to accomplish specific goals, develop and use tracking systems for monitoring own work progress, and effectively use resources such as time and information
• Ability to make informed decisions based on perceptive and analytical processes, practicing good judgment in gray areas
• Ability to manage multiple activities concurrently and swiftly switch focus and reprioritize based on changing environment
• Strong attention to detail, and ability to operate under pressure
  
  

Travel Requirements

Training or local market PR activity support in NY, IN, PA and OH as needed

Northwest is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.