Vice President, External Communications

Description

Job Summary:

The Head of External Communications & Reputation serves as the enterprise leader responsible for protecting and advancing Kaiser Permanentes reputation, shaping external narratives, leading enterprise issues and crisis response, elevating thought leadership, and strengthening the organizations visibility and influence across key stakeholders.
Reporting directly to the Chief Public Affairs Officer and serving as a member of the Chief Public Affairs leadership table, this executive plays an enterprise-wide leadership role and provides strategic direction for reputation management, issues and crisis communications, labor communications, media relations, public relations, social media, enterprise newsroom strategy, thought leadership amplification, and enterprise communications campaigns.
The Head of External Communications & Reputation serves as one of Kaiser Permanentes most senior communications advisors, providing counsel to executive leadership on issues with significant reputational, operational, political, labor, regulatory, and stakeholder implications. This leader is expected to exercise exceptional judgment in ambiguous, high-stakes situations where decisions may have enterprise-wide impact.
As the enterprise leader for external communications and reputation management, this executive establishes strategy, governance, standards, operating models, priorities, and capabilities that enable a coordinated One KP approach to reputation management, media engagement, issues response, and external storytelling. While Market Public Affairs Leaders are responsible for communications execution within their respective markets, this role provides enterprise leadership and strategic direction across the communications function.
The Head of External Communications & Reputation is responsible for building the modern communications infrastructure, intelligence capabilities, monitoring systems, rapid-response capabilities, reputation management frameworks, and the overarching strategic direction for the enterprise newsroom necessary to position Kaiser Permanente as one of the most trusted, visible, and influential organizations in healthcare. The leader of public relations, as a direct report, oversees newsroom operations in alignment with that strategy and direction.
Success in this role requires exceptional judgment, executive presence, strategic vision, media sophistication, operational discipline, and the ability to shape public understanding while navigating some of the most complex and consequential issues facing healthcare today.

Essential Responsibilities:

• Enterprise Reputation Strategy & Narrative Leadership
• Lead Kaiser Permanentes enterprise reputation strategy and external narrative development.
• Shape and advance enterprise narratives that strengthen understanding of Kaiser Permanentes integrated care and coverage model, mission, strategy, growth priorities, innovation, quality outcomes, workforce leadership, and community impact.
• Serve as a senior advisor to executive leadership on reputational opportunities, risks, and emerging issues.
• Develop enterprise approaches that strengthen trust among members, policymakers, employers, labor organizations, community leaders, media, regulators, and other key stakeholders.
• Ensure communications strategies support Kaiser Permanentes long-term reputation, growth objectives, and strategic priorities.
• Executive Counsel & Strategic Advisory
• Serve as a trusted advisor to senior executives on matters involving reputation, public perception, stakeholder trust, labor relations, media scrutiny, and organizational risk.
• Provide candid, independent counsel to leaders, including perspectives that may challenge prevailing assumptions when necessary to protect Kaiser Permanentes reputation and stakeholder trust.
• Demonstrate the judgment and courage to elevate emerging risks, difficult truths, and reputational considerations before they become organizational challenges.
• Advise leaders through high-profile situations involving media attention, public scrutiny, labor activity, operational challenges, political dynamics, and stakeholder concerns.
• Issues Management, Crisis Communications & Labor Communications
• Lead enterprise issues management and crisis communications strategies.
• Serve as the enterprise lead for high-profile, cross-market, and reputation-sensitive issues.
• Establish governance, escalation protocols, crisis playbooks, scenario planning frameworks, and response strategies.
• Partner with Legal, Human Resources, Labor Relations, Government Relations, Care Delivery, Operations, and Market Public Affairs leaders to coordinate enterprise responses.
• Lead communications planning and response during labor negotiations, labor disputes, workforce actions, cyber incidents, litigation-related matters, operational disruptions, regulatory scrutiny, and other significant enterprise events.
• Build enterprise preparedness capabilities through training, simulations, readiness exercises, and response planning.
• Enterprise Visibility
• Partner with executive leadership, Government Relations, Community Affairs, Marketing, and enterprise leaders to elevate Kaiser Permanentes voice on issues central to its mission, strategy, and growth agenda.
• Develop and execute enterprise visibility strategies that position Kaiser Permanente as a leading voice in healthcare, integrated care and coverage, value-based care, affordability, workforce transformation, innovation, quality, community health, and public policy.
• Partner across the organization to identify, develop, and amplify enterprise experts, executives, physicians, and subject matter leaders.
• Ensure messaging is integrated with earned media, executive visibility, social media, stakeholder engagement, advocacy, and Public Affairs campaigns, in close partnership with the Head of External Communications to coordinate messaging across all stakeholder groups.
• Increase Kaiser Permanentes visibility and influence in national healthcare, business, policy, labor, technology, and community conversations.
• Media Relations, Public Relations & Enterprise Newsroom
• Lead Kaiser Permanentes enterprise media relations and public relations strategy.
• Oversee teams responsible for developing and maintaining strategic relationships with reporters, editors, producers, editorial boards, influencers, and other external voices who shape public understanding of healthcare and Kaiser Permanente.
• Set the overarching strategy and direction for a modern enterprise newsroom that serves as the central hub for editorial planning, story development, rapid response, issue escalation, campaign coordination, and enterprise storytelling, with the leader of public relations overseeing day-to-day newsroom operations.
• Build and maintain visibility into market and national media strategies, reporter relationships, proactive campaigns, executive visibility opportunities, emerging issues, and narrative trends.
• Develop a modern media relations model that combines relationship-building, proactive storytelling, executive visibility, rapid response, and reputation management.
• Partner with Market Public Affairs Leaders to identify, elevate, and amplify market innovations, clinical achievements, community impact stories, and enterprise priorities.
• Social Media, Monitoring & Digital Reputation
• Lead enterprise social media strategy, governance, standards, and channel management.
• Establish a coordinated enterprise approach to social media that aligns with broader communications, marketing, and reputation objectives.
• Oversee social listening, sentiment monitoring, issue detection, and digital reputation capabilities.
• Ensure social channels serve as both engagement platforms and sources of enterprise intelligence.
• Partner with Marketing and Customer Experience leaders to ensure coordinated approaches across paid, earned, shared, and owned channels.
• Newsroom, Intelligence, Rapid Response & Analytics
• Set the enterprise strategy and direction for a modern enterprise newsroom that serves as the central hub for editorial planning, proactive storytelling, media engagement, rapid response, issue escalation, stakeholder intelligence, and enterprise coordination, with the leader of public relations responsible for overseeing newsroom operations.
• Establish a coordinated newsroom operating model that provides visibility into market and enterprise priorities, media opportunities, campaign activity, thought leadership initiatives, stakeholder engagement efforts, and reputational risks.
• Develop enterprise monitoring and intelligence capabilities that integrate media monitoring, social listening, stakeholder intelligence, labor sentiment, legislative developments, market insights, and emerging issues into actionable reporting for leaders.
• Create enterprise rapid-response capabilities that enable timely, coordinated, and effective responses to breaking news, social media activity, misinformation, and reputational threats.
• Establish clear escalation protocols, response frameworks, decision rights, and operating procedures to support effective issue management across markets and enterprise functions.
• Develop executive dashboards and reporting that provide real-time visibility into reputation performance, media impact, social engagement, thought leadership effectiveness, stakeholder sentiment, campaign outcomes, and emerging risks.
• Leverage analytics, audience insights, and performance data to continuously improve communications effectiveness and reputation outcomes.
• Market Integration & One KP Execution
• Provide enterprise leadership and strategic direction to Market Public Affairs Leaders, ensuring alignment around priorities, reputation risks, media strategies, narrative opportunities, and enterprise campaigns.
• Establish enterprise visibility into market and national media strategies, proactive storytelling initiatives, emerging issues, stakeholder dynamics, and reputational risks.
• Convene and lead enterprise-wide media, reputation, and campaign planning processes that connect market and national communications efforts around shared priorities and opportunities.
• Ensure enterprise and market communications teams operate as a coordinated network during both proactive and reactive situations, with clear operating model alignment, decision rights, and shared ways of working across the enterprise.
• Create systems and operating rhythms that enable rapid information sharing, issue escalation, campaign coordination, and enterprise visibility.
• Team Leadership & Capability Building
• Build and lead a world-class external communications organization.
• Develop the next generation of communications, media, reputation, and issues-management leaders across Kaiser Permanente.
• Establish common standards, tools, governance models, reporting frameworks, and training programs that strengthen enterprise capabilities and market execution.
• Foster a culture of accountability, innovation, collaboration, speed, and excellence.
• Ensure the function continuously evolves to meet the changing communications, media, and stakeholder environment.

Qualifications

Basic Qualifications:

Experience

• Minimum fifteen (15) years of progressively responsible leadership experience in external communications, public affairs, reputation management, media relations, corporate communications, public policy communications, or related disciplines.

Education

• Bachelors degree required

License, Certification, Registration

• N/A

Additional Requirements:

• Significant experience advising senior executives and leading communications strategies during high-profile crises, labor matters, reputational challenges, and organizational transformation.
• Demonstrated success building enterprise communications capabilities, media relations functions, newsroom operations, monitoring systems, and reputation management programs.
• Experience working in highly regulated industries required
• Proven ability to lead large teams, influence across functions, and operate effectively in highly complex environments.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Healthcare experience strongly preferred.
• Advanced degree preferred.

• Job Field: External Affairs / Relations
• Job Type: Standard
• Schedule: Full-time
• Job Level: Executive/VP
• Travel: Yes, 25 % of the Time
• Employee Status: Regular