Senior Director, Communications

Flagship Pioneering is a bioplatform innovation company that invents and builds companies that change the world. We bring together the greatest scientific minds with entrepreneurial company builders and assemble the capital to allow them to take courageous leaps. Those big leaps in human health, sustainability and beyond exponentially accelerate scientific progress in areas ranging from disease detection and treatment and nature-positive agriculture to novel applications of AI that are driving the creation of new technologies.   

What sets Flagship apart is our ability to advance science and technology by uniting innovation, company creation, and capital investment under one roof in a way that is largely without precedent. Our scientific founders, entrepreneurial leaders, and professional capital managers are each aligned around an institutionalized process that enables us to innovate and transform for the benefit of people and planet.   

Many of the companies Flagship has founded have addressed humanity’s most urgent challenges: vaccinating billions of people against COVID-19, curing intractable diseases, improving human health, preempting illness, and feeding the world by improving the resiliency and sustainability of agriculture.  

Flagship has been recognized twice on FORTUNE’s “Change the World” list, an annual ranking of companies that have made a positive social and environmental impact through activities that are part of their core business strategies, and has been twice named to Fast Company’s annual list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies. 

Position Summary:

We are seeking a dynamic individual to join the Communications and Public Affairs team to serve as a Senior Director with responsibility for leading the development and execution of communications and brand strategies for a set of companies within Flagship Pioneering’s Pioneering Business Units (PBUs). The successful candidate will be a seasoned communications leader with expertise in AI and life sciences who is able to thrive in a fast-paced, start-up environment, and with strong multi-tasking skills to manage competing priorities. This is an exciting opportunity to help shape the growth trajectory for breakthrough life sciences and technology companies in the human health and AI sectors.

Pioneering Business Units (PBUs) are a core tenet of Flagship’s operating structure, combining origination and scientific expertise with dedicated functional expertise to drive company creation. Each PBU has a portfolio of companies at various stages of maturity that the Communications Senior Directors guide. 

PBUs are guided by cross-functional leadership teams to support strategic choices and company-building investments along individual company journeys as well as across the PBU’s full portfolio. PBU leadership teams consist of the PBU leader and an PBU operations and planning management leader together with designated single points of contact from our functions including HR/Talent, Legal/IP, Finance, IT, Communications and Public Affairs, Business Development, Financing, and Value.

Responsibilities include:

• Serve as an advisor and counselor to origination partners (company founders) and early company leadership, providing strategic guidance to emergent Flagship companies (Flagship NewCos) as they develop brand, voice, foundational messaging and overall communication strategies. 
• Serve as lead for launching companies from stealth, including brand development/visual identity, and website design and development, working with and overseeing outside agencies.
• Design and execute bespoke, integrated communications strategies for company launches, including all written materials, media engagement, and all social media elements. Identify and oversee PR agency support, as needed.
• Once companies emerge from stealth, this role will serve as the communications lead for each company, providing guidance and execution support on announcements (e.g., talent, board, partners, fundraise), as well as for internal comms, executive thought leadership, social media engagement, website updates, recruitment marketing, events, and issues management. 
• Identify and secure relevant executive thought-leadership opportunities for origination partners and select company leadership.

Other

• Work collaboratively with other Communications & Public Affairs team members 
• Participate in weekly Communications & Public Affairs team meetings and collaborate with team members as needed to support both PBU work and corporate communications activity including events, government relations, digital, internal communications, and media relations 
• Manage external resources such as design and agency partners 

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree, preferably in communications, journalism, English, or a related discipline with extensive leadership-level experience in a public relations agency or corporate communications environment. Experience in pharmaceutical, biotech, AI, health tech and/or tech industries as well as some experience with/exposure to financial and transaction communications.
• Experience working within and across multiple highly complex organizations, while understanding and addressing the needs of both is critical.  
• Exceptional research, writing, editing, verbal and interpersonal communication skills.
• Proven media relations track record, as well as the ability to see industry trends and craft insights into effective media relations pitches. Knowledge of and existing relationships with media outside the sphere of traditional media outlets and with reporters covering AI and emerging technologies.
• Strong diplomatic and persuasive skills.
• High degree of professional versatility and hands-on capability with a willingness to meet challenges head-on.
• Experience leading in a complex environment that requires skillful engagement of multiple stakeholders and successful, resourceful, and creative navigation of ambiguity.
• Must have the proven ability to advise senior leaders effectively.
• Must have superior interpersonal and organizational skills, along with a demonstrated ability to think strategically and critically and consistently exercise sound judgment. 
• Proven track record of coordinating multiple programs simultaneously, moving projects forward, and developing and implementing creative, solution-oriented strategies while anticipating future demands and opportunities.

The ideal candidate will also have:

• Familiarity with and passion for AI and ML
• An aptitude for translating complex science into accessible and compelling narratives
• Experience building and leading effective communications campaigns for companies operating at the intersection of technology and science
• Creative mindset with a passion for innovative and impactful communications strategies

Flagship Pioneering and our ecosystem companies are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status.

Recruitment & Staffing Agencies:  Flagship Pioneering and its affiliated Flagship Lab companies (collectively, “FSP”) do not accept unsolicited resumes from any source other than candidates.  The submission of unsolicited resumes by recruitment or staffing agencies to FSP or its employees is strictly prohibited unless contacted directly by Flagship Pioneering’s internal Talent Acquisition team.   Any resume submitted by an agency in the absence of a signed agreement will automatically become the property of FSP, and FSP will not owe any referral or other fees with respect thereto.

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