Global Head of Communications

Morningstar is seeking a Head of Global Communications to shape how the company is understood, trusted, and experienced around the world. Reporting to the Chief People Officer and with a dotted line to the CEO, the Head of Global Communications works closely with the Board of Directors, and the Executive Leadership team, to serve as the company’s executive communications counselor and enterprise owner of corporate narrative and reputation. The mandate is strategic and transformational: build on a strong communications foundation and rethink how Morningstar brings its distinctive research, insights, expertise, and point of view to the world. This leader will help evolve how the company communicates as audiences, channels, content formats, and the use of AI continue to change.

This executive will inherit an established, high-performing global communications team of 20professionals, including five direct reports, with deep expertise across external and internal communications. Building from that strong foundation, the Head of Global Communications will focus on expanding the function’s impact and modernizing how Morningstar communicates externally. A central opportunity will be translating the depth of Morningstar’s research and intellectual capital into compelling, accessible content and finding new ways to bring those insights to clients, shareholders, media, prospective talent, and other external audiences. The leader will challenge traditional communications approaches, experiment with new formats and channels, including video and digital storytelling, and ensure Morningstar’s voice remains distinctive and relevant as the way people consume information evolves.

A critical priority will be preserving and building on Morningstar’s distinctive, independent voice and strong relationships with the media, while evolving how the company brings its research, insights, and expertise to broader audiences. This leader will safeguard the editorial independence of Morningstar’s research and ensure communications strategy amplifies its insights without compromising the objectivity, integrity, or autonomy of the research process. The Head of Global Communications will work closely with research leaders, business leaders, and subject-matter experts to identify the ideas and insights that can have the greatest impact and find new and compelling ways to share them with the world. This will require both an appreciation for what makes Morningstar’s voice unique and fresh thinking about new formats, channels, and approaches that can extend its reach and influence.

Equally important, this leader will serve as a trusted communications partner and counselor to the CEO and senior leadership team, developing a deep understanding of their priorities and helping translate them into clear and compelling communications. The Head of Global Communications will shape executive narratives, speeches, platforms, and external engagement, helping leaders communicate with authenticity and impact across their most important audiences.

The Head of Global Communications will also oversee a strong, established internal communications organization, supporting and empowering the experienced leader and team already in place. The broader opportunity is to connect communications across the enterprise while keeping the greatest focus on Morningstar’s external voice, research, reputation, executive communications, media strategy, thought leadership, and evolving content formats. The right leader will bring the judgment to recognize what is already working well, the curiosity to understand Morningstar and its distinctive culture and voice, and the ambition to transform how the company communicates and shares its expertise with the world.

Location: This role is based at our global headquarters in Chicago, Illinois. Regardless of office, there is an expectation of four days per week in the office. Morningstar operates a flexible in-office model in which employees select their preferred remote workday.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Corporate Narrative & Messaging Architecture: Build a single enterprise narrative that explains what Morningstar does, why it matters, and how it creates value. Establish a messaging architecture connecting corporate strategy, business priorities, and functional storytelling. Align internal and external narratives and translate complex topics, including AI, independence, public/private market convergence, and governance, into clear and credible messages.

CEO Platform & Executive Communications: Serve as a strategic advisor to the CEO and senior leaders on positioning, visibility, and voice. Shape executive narratives for employees, media, shareholders, and external forums, and prepare leaders for shareholder meetings, crises, transformation milestones, and other high-stakes moments.

Media Strategy, Thought Leadership & External Stakeholders: Define the global media strategy by market, business group, and strategic theme. Lead proactive storytelling, media relations, issues response, thought leadership, and investor-relations communications support across influential journalists, creators, podcast hosts, newsletter writers, and other trusted voices, while governing agency strategy and performance against outcomes.

Digital Channels, Content & AI: Set enterprise social media and digital content strategy, including corporate channels, employee advocacy, video, and emerging formats, with appropriate governance and measurement. Monitor and shape how Morningstar’s reputation, its research, and its experts are represented, attributed, and discovered across AI-generated answers, AI search, and other emerging platforms, partnering with Research, Marketing, Digital, Legal, and Compliance.

Communications Analytics & AI Enablement: Build a centralized analytics and insights capability across reputation, engagement, and efficiency. Modernize workflows through responsible AI and automation, strengthen data literacy, and improve the speed, scale, consistency, and cost-effectiveness of the function without sacrificing judgment.

Reputation, Issues & Crisis Leadership: Own enterprise reputation risk and lead proactive issues identification, scenario planning, and coordinated crisis communications. Partner closely with Legal, Compliance, and senior leadership to ensure speed, clarity, consistency, and sound escalation during high-risk moments.

Global Team & Operating Model Leadership: Lead a global center-of-excellence model with strong regional execution. Define decision rights, escalation paths, and operating standards; manage the global communications budget and agency ecosystem; and lead through influence across a decentralized organization.

Internal Communications & Employee Engagement: Reset the employee engagement model by clarifying enterprise priorities, reducing noise, and creating shared moments that build trust and connection. Set global standards for relevance, cadence, and channel discipline while enabling local leaders to communicate authentically. Make strategy clear, believable, and relevant to employees.

Employer Brand Communications: Partner closely with the Global Employer Brand Manager and People & Culture to bring the employer brand and Employee Value Proposition to life through communications and storytelling. Ensure employer brand narratives are effectively reflected across corporate, internal, and recruiting channels and reinforce the employee experience and culture.

IDEAL EXPERIENCE

Enterprise Communications Leadership

15+ years of communications experience, including 10+ years in senior communications leadership roles within large, global, complex organizations, with integrated responsibility across external, internal, executive, social, employer brand, and reputation communications.

CEO and Board Counsel

Demonstrated credibility advising CEOs, executive teams, and Boards on enterprise narrative, positioning, visibility, and high-stakes communications.

Media Strategy, Thought Leadership & External Stakeholders

Demonstrated experience developing and leading enterprise media strategy, proactive storytelling, and thought leadership, with a track record of building trusted relationships with influential journalists and external stakeholders.

Social Media & Digital Content

Demonstrated experience leading enterprise social media and corporate channel strategy, with hands-on understanding of video creation and production, digital storytelling, and emerging content formats. Brings a modern perspective on how audiences consume information and a willingness to experiment with new channels and approaches.

Transformation, Analytics and AI

Experience modernizing communications operating models, measurement systems, channels, and tools. Strong data and analytics fluency, with practical experience applying AI and automation responsibly.

Reputation, Issues and Crisis

Demonstrated experience managing reputation, issues, and crisis communications at enterprise scale, including work in regulated or market-sensitive environments.

Global Team Leadership

Proven leadership of large, multidisciplinary, and geographically distributed teams, with a track record of building strong leaders and raising standards for accuracy, ethics, and quality.

Employee Engagement and Change

A record of using internal communications as a strategic lever to improve employee understanding, trust, alignment, and advocacy in a decentralized organization.

Cross-Functional Influence

Ability to align senior stakeholders across business units and functions without relying on direct authority, while maintaining editorial independence and sound judgment.

Bachelor’s degree required.

Financial services industry experience is preferred.

CAPABILITIES

Strategic Counsel and Influence

§  Sets a clear enterprise point of view grounded in evidence and context.

§  Builds alignment across executives, functions, business units, and regions.

§  Communicates with courage, clarity, and sound judgment, especially under pressure.

Leading Change

§  Creates ownership and accountability for significant change.

§  Modernizes operating models, channels, measurement, and tools.

§  Builds employee trust and connection through clear, relevant communication.

Driving Results

§  Translates strategy into disciplined priorities, governance, and execution.

§  Uses metrics to improve reputation, engagement, quality, speed, and efficiency.

§  Builds a strong team and develops future leaders while maintaining high ethical and quality standards.

Compensation and Benefits

At Morningstar we believe people are at their best when they are at their healthiest. That’s why we champion your wellness through a wide range of programs that support all stages of your personal and professional life. Here are some examples of the offerings we provide:

• Financial Health

  • 100% 401k match up to 6% of salary

  • Stock Ownership Potential

  • Company provided life insurance - 1x salary + commission

• Physical Health 

  • Comprehensive health benefits (medical/dental/vision) including potential premium discounts and company-provided HSA contributions (up to $500-$2,000 annually) for specific plans and coverages

  • Additional medical Wellness Incentives - up to $300-$600 annual

  • Company-provided long- and short-term disability insurance

• Emotional Health 

  • Trust-Based Time Off

  • 6-week Paid Sabbatical Program

  • 6-Week Paid Family Caregiving Leave

  • Competitive 8-24 Week Paid Parental Leave

  • Adoption Assistance

  • Leadership Coaching & Formal Mentorship Opportunities

  • Annual Flex Stipend - $1000 annually to cover personal education & well-being expenses

  • Tuition Reimbursement

• Social Health 

  • Charitable Matching Gifts program

  • Dollars for Doers volunteer program

  • Paid volunteering days

  • 15+ Employee Resource & Affinity Groups

Total Cash Compensation Range

$222,300.00-340,866.66

Inclusive of annual base salary and target incentive

Morningstar's hybrid work environment gives you the opportunity to collaborate in-person each week as we've found that we're at our best when we're purposely together on a regular basis. In most of our locations, our hybrid work model is four days in-office each week. A range of other benefits are also available to enhance flexibility as needs change. No matter where you are, you'll have tools and resources to engage meaningfully with your global colleagues.

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