Director Business Communications

With over 80 years as an industrial technology leader, Kennametal Inc. delivers productivity to customers through materials science, tooling and wear-resistant solutions. Customers across aerospace, earthworks, energy, general engineering and transportation turn to Kennametal to help them manufacture with precision and efficiency. Every day approximately 8,700 employees are helping customers in more than 60 countries stay competitive. Kennametal generated $2 billion in revenues in fiscal 2022. Learn more at www.kennametal.com. Follow @Kennametal: Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube.

Director, Business Communications

Location: Pittsburgh, East Coast and/or Work from Home in either Eastern or Central Time Zone location

Job Summary

The Director of Business Communications serves as a key partner to our Metal Cutting & Infrastructure business segments and will be a member of Kennametal’s Corporate Relations team.

Reporting to the Vice President, Corporate Relations & Communications, this person plans and executes communication strategies in support of the global businesses, their priorities, and strategic initiatives. He/she will support those business strategies through leadership communication and coaching, crisis communications, media relations, digital and social media, and internal communications across the businesses. This role partners closely with the segment marketing teams to support media engagement, new product announcements and partnerships, and other business-related stories.

Key Job Responsibilities

Advance the objectives of the business segments through strategic communications. This includes:

• Partnering with Business Presidents and their lead teams to identify short- and long-term opportunities to tell business stories that inform and engage key audiences (e. g. employees, customers, investors) including customer wins, product launches, operational successes, etc., both internally and externally.
• Serving as the point person for proactive and reactive crisis and issues management for the businesses.
• Collaborating with the marketing teams to raise visibility of Kennametal to customers and further amplify that content across all stakeholder groups as appropriate.
• Managing the creation of internal communication deliverables for the businesses, including quarterly leadership calls and letters, leadership messaging, etc.
• Supporting government affairs initiatives for the businesses.
• Developing best-in-class communications tactics and deploy those across the Segments, including leader and/or plant manager communications training and coaching, Segment and/or BU-wide messaging cascades, salesforce podcasts, etc.
• Establishing media strategies and tactics to tell enterprise-level business stories in support of key growth initiatives.
• Working with the businesses to tell our innovation story as a competitive differentiator for the company.
• Using metrics to track and provide reports on progress and continuously reassess strategy and tactics

Education & Work Experience

• Candidates should possess a Bachelor’s degree in English, Communications Journalism or other relevant areas, along with 10-15 years of relevant experience in Business or Enterprise Communication roles.
• Prior experience in journalism a plus.

Qualifications

• Should be a hard-working, resilient team player who wants to make a difference through strategic communications.
• Strong writer and strategic doer with prior experience in corporate setting supporting business(es).
• Solid business acumen with understanding of financial communications and expertise in media relations and internal communications.
• Skilled collaborator who can influence as well as direct.
• Experience managing and working with a remote team.

Travel:

• As required, but not more than 20%

Equal Opportunity Employer

Kennametal Inc. is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. As such, it is the policy of Kennametal Inc. to afford equal employment opportunity without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, handicap, disability, marital status, sexual orientation, citizenship status, veteran status, or other protected status, group, or characteristic under federal, state, and/or local law or regulation. It is Kennametal Inc.'s policy to comply with all applicable laws and regulations.