American Century Investment Services, Inc. is hiring: Director, Public Relations

American Century Investments® is a leading global asset manager focused on delivering investment results and building long-term client relationships while supporting research that can improve human health and save lives. Founded in 1958, the firm's 1,400 employees serve financial professionals, institutions, corporations, and individual investors, offering a wide range of investment strategies across a variety of investment disciplines.

We are committed to providing institutional-quality, actively managed solutions with a performance-centered mindset. Our expertise spans global growth equity, global value equity, disciplined equity, multi-asset strategies, global fixed income, alternatives, and ETFs.

Privately controlled and independent, we focus solely on investment management. This empowers us to align our decisions with client expectations and concentrate on their long-term money management needs.

Our culture of winning behaviors exemplifies our dedication to clients every single day. Delivering investment results enables us to distribute over 40% of our dividends-more than $1.8 billion - to the Stowers Institute for Medical Research, a 500-person, non-profit basic biomedical research organization with a controlling interest in American Century Investments. Our dividend payments provide ongoing financial support for the Institute's work of uncovering the causes, treatments, and prevention of life-threatening diseases, like cancer.

For more information, please visit americancentury.com.

We are looking for a Public Relations Director to lead our media relations strategy and team to shape and share American Century Investments' story with trade, financial and consumer media and influencers. The Public Relations Director will lead the PR function for American Century, reporting to the Vice President of Corporate Communications. The role is responsible for creating and supporting media opportunities, securing coverage that tells our unique and inspiring story to key audiences.

The role

The Public Relations Director will lead the team of employees, contractors and international PR agencies to promote, protect, and improve the reputation of our business through building relationships and ongoing engagement with the media and other external partners.

They will use their outstanding interpersonal, teamwork and personal communications skills to engage their team to coordinate across multiple organizations and stakeholders and track timelines, exercising their thorough project management skills with a high level of judgment and discretion. They will be able to handle ambiguity and fluid priorities, gain consensus through influence, change course when warranted and manage multiple and complex priorities efficiently and effectively.

They will have outstanding research and writing skills, with the ability to translate complex financial information into digestible, meaningful communications for multiple audiences across a broad range of communication vehicles, including press releases, media statements and pitches, talking points, presentations, studies, infographics and more.

The Public Relations Director will have advanced communication and presentation skills with an ability to weave a compelling narrative. They will have executive presence and the ability to confidently provide strategic counsel, ask good questions, challenge the status quo, suggest alternatives and articulate pros and cons.

Thinking strategically, analytically and holistically about American Century storytelling, they will be adept at building strategic, measurable communications plans and presenting plans and results to key stakeholders. The Public Relations Director will also perform at a tactical level with a high level of professionalism and discretion in handling confidential information.

In this role, they will:

• Provide leadership and team management to guide and motivate the team of public relations professionals.
• Collaborate with the Internal Communications Director and the Social Media Director as a member of the Corporate Communications leadership team.
• Build relationships with key media.
• Message and media train spokespeople.
• Organize and support media briefings, press conferences and media tours.
• Write content promoting firm news and priorities and pitch reporters.
• Act as spokesperson for the organization, ensuring consistent and effective messaging.
• Develop and execute communications plans for product launches, marketing campaigns and firm news.
• Measure the effectiveness of media relations through regular reporting and analytics. Use data-driven insights to refine and optimize communications strategies.
• Conduct reputation and media monitoring and reporting, including competitor analysis.
• Collaborate with American Century executives, colleagues and subject matter experts to tell American Century's story accurately and compellingly.

Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree in journalism, public relations, communications, English or related field.
• At least 10 years of experience leading public relations programs.
• A proven leader, who can develop and manage employees, contractors and agencies, including minimum of 5 years management experience.
• Ability to develop compelling communication strategies with clear and measurable goals.
• Strong project management skills with ability to work on tight deadlines and create integrated communication plans.
• Demonstrated ability to build trust and provide counsel to a variety of stakeholders.
• Experience working with C-level executives to lead large scale communications initiatives.
• Familiarity with crisis communication and issues management, including experience handling reputational crises.
• Understanding of digital marketing and social media trends, with experience leveraging these platforms for public relations purposes.
• Strong writing and editing skills, with the ability to tailor messages to different audiences and platforms and experience using AP Style guidelines.

Preferred but not required:

• Experience in the financial services sector including network of media contacts and relationships in the industry.
• Professional certifications in public relations or related fields.
• Experience in the use of Cision, Factiva, Sharepoint, Workfront.
• Exhibits the American Century Investments Winning Behaviors: Client Focused, Courageous and Accountable, Collaborative, Curious and Adaptable, Competitively Driven, Adheres to the highest ethical standards and business practices, and Supports a culture of compliance.

Additional Requirements:

Employees are required to be in the office on a scheduled frequency. Adherence to this schedule is essential to fulfilling the expectations of the role.

American Century Investments is committed to complying with the Americans with Disabilities Act and all other applicable Equal Employment Opportunity laws and regulations. As such, American Century strives to provide a reasonable accommodation to any qualified individual under the ADA to perform essential job functions.

American Century Investments believes all individuals are entitled to equal employment opportunity and advancement opportunities without regard to race, religious creed, color, sex, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, gender, gender identity, gender expression, age for individuals forty years of age and older, military and veteran status, sexual orientation, and any other basis protected by applicable federal, state and local laws. ACI does not discriminate or adopt any policy that discriminates against an individual or any group of individuals on any of these bases.

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