MAIN PURPOSES OF THIS JOB

The UK BioIndustry Association (BIA) is the award-winning trade association for bioscience in the UK. The position of Communications Executive is a key role in the organisation, representing an innovative sector seen as key to the future success of the UK in delivering new treatments for patients and economic growth.

The primary purpose of the Communications Executive role is to support and implement the BIA’s communications plan and activity, including social media activity, content management of the BIA website, managing the blog schedule, managing the weekly publication of Newscast, providing input to BIA publications and projects and supporting BIA events and conferences through communications support. This role is pivotal to supporting the BIA’s strategic objective of communicating the value and nature of this exciting sector to media and external stakeholders.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

The duties and responsibilities of this role include the following:

Media relations:

• Support the handling of incoming media enquiries and help to coordinate BIA response
• Support the drafting and development of press releases
• Responsible for updating media database and lead person in team re knowledge of how distribution system works (Dotmailer/Gorkana) and training colleagues on how these works
• Daily monitoring of key media sources to inform a daily round-up email (by 10am each day) that flags BIA press coverage, key stories of interest, key member news, and news about targets and prospects to inform membership approaches by BDMS team

Communications:

• Editor of weekly Newscast blog to members and wider stakeholders; including drafting CEO update and supporting the co-ordination of other content
• Manage BIA blog schedule; lead schedule, manage input, communicate blog policy and also author  BIA content where appropriate
• Lead BIA social media activity and monitoring. Promote the BIA’s work through Twitter and LinkedIn. Be an internal champion for social media,  looking for ways to build on BIA and staff activity in this area
•  Work with other colleagues to ensure data-sets are updated on mailing list including managing bounce backs
• Support content management on BIA website, particularly in relation to reports and releases; support website review project
• Lead monthly and quarterly comms stats reviews
• Support the work of BIA Advisory Committees as advised, including the Communications Forum

Projects:

• Support the development and execution of key BIA projects including the BIA finance reports, BIA MAC LeaP Programme and promoting our charity of the year

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

Desirable:

• Academic background and/or previous work experience in life sciences, healthcare or policy
• Experience of working across all communications disciplines including media relations, website content development and social media

Essential:

• A confident self-starter with an ability to grasp complex issues quickly and how to distil these for a variety of external audiences
• Collaborative team-player who is flexible to changing business needs and supports colleagues effectively
• Excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to work across a variety of stakeholders
• Calm under pressure with an ability to consistently meet deadlines and nimbly react to external developments

Please apply with CV and covering letter by 5pm Thursday June 20th 2019 to Nick Gardiner