The Vice President Communications & Stakeholder Engagement is the executive leader responsible for intentionally managing Dairy MAX's corporate and stakeholder brand reputation, clearly communicating the organization's value to key stakeholders, and leading the Communications and Farmer & Industry Relations teams. This role ensures Dairy MAX has a consistent, credible voice that connects enterprise strategy and performance to meaningful value for dairy farmers, employees, industry partners, and other priority audiences.
As a strategic advisor to the CEO and Executive Leadership Team, this leader anticipates reputational opportunities and risks, translates complex information into compelling communications, and aligns people and resources around the work that matters most.
Requirements
Key Areas of Accountability
1. Intentionally Manage Dairy MAX's Brand Reputation
• Own and execute an enterprise reputation and communications strategy aligned with Dairy MAX's mission, priorities, and desired stakeholder perceptions.
• Serve as steward of Dairy MAX's corporate and stakeholder brand, voice, positioning, and strategic narrative, ensuring consistency across leaders, teams, channels, and audiences. This stewardship covers the organizational brand, as distinct from Dairy MAX's consumer-facing brands.
• Proactively identify opportunities to strengthen trust, visibility, and influence for Dairy MAX, its leaders, and dairy farmers.
• Monitor emerging issues, public sentiment, and industry trends; lead media relations, issues management, and crisis communications with sound judgment and speed.
• Use research, stakeholder insight, and communications measures to evaluate reputation and continually improve strategy and execution.
2. Communicate Value Effectively with Key Stakeholders
• Translate Dairy MAX's strategy, investments, programs, partnerships, and results into clear, credible communications that demonstrate value and impact.
• Build understanding and trust with dairy farmers through authentic, two-way engagement that reflects their priorities, experiences, and voice.
• Lead internal communications that connect employees to Dairy MAX's direction, priorities, performance, and their role in achieving organizational outcomes.
• Lead organizational and change communications, partnering with the CEO, ELT, and HR to ensure employees understand not only what is changing, but why it is changing, what it means for them, and how it connects to Dairy MAX's strategy.
• Strengthen alignment with the Board, DMI, industry organizations, agricultural partners, and other key stakeholders through coordinated messaging and engagement.
• Lead executive communications, including board materials, presentations, speeches, talking points, and stakeholder briefings, and prepare leaders to communicate with confidence.
• Bring a Communications and Farmer & Industry Relations perspective into enterprise decisions early, advising leaders on stakeholder perspectives and emerging priorities, organizational readiness, and communications needs before decisions are finalized.
3. Lead Communications and Farmer & Industry Relations Teams and Strategy
• Set a clear vision, priorities, operating model, and standards for the Communications and Farmer & Industry Relations functions, ensuring both are aligned to enterprise strategy and work together to strengthen trust, engagement, and impact.
• Build, coach, and hold accountable high-performing teams focused on measurable organizational outcomes rather than activity alone.
• Align team plans and resources with enterprise priorities, integrating work across functions and Centers of Excellence to increase focus and impact.
• Oversee partners, agencies, budgets, channels, and technology for both functions to ensure quality, efficiency, and strong return on investment.
• Champion innovation across the communications function, including the thoughtful use of AI, emerging platforms, data, and new approaches to increase effectiveness, efficiency, and stakeholder engagement.
• Establish meaningful goals and measures for reputation, stakeholder understanding, farmer and industry engagement, and communications effectiveness; adjust strategy based on results.
Core Leadership Capabilities
• Strategic communications and reputation leadership, with the ability to connect communications decisions to enterprise outcomes.
• Executive presence and influence; trusted advisor to CEOs, boards, senior leaders, farmers, and industry stakeholders.
• Agriculture and dairy acumen, including credibility with producers and an understanding of the agricultural ecosystem.
• Exceptional writing, storytelling, and presentation skills; able to make complex strategy, data, and issues clear and meaningful.
• Strong judgment in sensitive, high-profile, or rapidly evolving situations.
• Collaborative, accountable people leadership, with the ability to lead through change, create clarity, build a strong team culture, and drive alignment across both functions and the enterprise.
Preferred Experience & Qualifications
• Bachelor's degree in communications, journalism, public relations, agriculture, business, or a related field; advanced degree preferred.
• 12+ years of progressive communications, corporate affairs, public relations, or related experience, including significant executive-level leadership responsibility.
• Demonstrated success leading enterprise communications, reputation and issues management, executive counsel, and high-performing teams.
• Experience in agriculture, dairy, food, commodity organizations, associations, checkoff organizations, agribusiness, or a related field strongly preferred.
• Proven ability to build trust and communicate effectively with farmers, employees, boards, media, and industry stakeholders.
• Ability to travel regularly in support of farmer engagement, industry events, organizational priorities, and executive needs.
Benefits
We know that in order to meet our goal of growing dairy demand, we need the best people. We offer competitive compensation and generous benefits to help our employees balance their work and personal lives. Our comprehensive health and welfare plans offer medical, dental, vision, life, short-term and long-term disability and flexible spending accounts (health care, dependent care, transit and parking). Our 401k provides up to a 10% match and includes a Roth account. Dairy MAX reserves the right to change or end its benefits plans or programs at any time.
