GSK is one of Britain’s biggest companies and there is considerable media interest as a result. Journalists reporting on business, social/political affairs, health, and science all cover GSK on a daily basis. This reporting directly impacts the reputation of GSK, its shareprice and value, its products and its people, influencing the company’s key stakeholders: governments, regulators, investors, analysts, doctors, patients, NGOs and employees. The Global Corporate Media Relations team are responsible for protecting and strengthening GSK’s reputation by managing relationships, newsflow and issues with top-tier national, international print and broadcast media; and global newswires.

For this great team we are looking for a

Director, Global Corporate Media Relations

The Director, Global Corporate Media Relations will be an expert in this audience (the media) and use their experience and expertise to develop and manage our relationships with key media globally, from financial and health reporters to science and political journalists. This role will develop both proactive strategies to enhance GSK’s corporate reputation with this audience while also managing a high volume of newsflow.

Key Responsibilities will be:

• Develop strong relationships between GSK and top-tier media to further understanding of the company’s strategy - including its approach to discovering and developing new medicines and vaccines, and associated M&A activity - and build confidence in the approach. This includes promoting the company’s equity story through development and execution of proactive media communications and being an active spokesperson for this story with key corporate media

• Produce and deliver proactive strategies around newsflow, but also maintain interest in these announcements over time with financial media through “content campaigns” (eg, media features, capitalising on broadcast documentaries) on key areas of the company

• Be a senior, trusted counsellor on a) the media, b) story generation and c) media handling to members of the Communications and Government Affairs (CGA) Leadership Team, GSK departments and senior executives up to and including the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Chief Scientific Officer (CSO), Chief Financial Officer (CFO), as well as other members of the Global Leadership Team (GLT). This includes working closely with these executives, gaining their trust and briefing these executives ahead of media engagements and staffing media engagements

• Anticipate issues where possible and produce issues management materials for key corporate issues (e.g. litigation, remuneration and corporation tax). Handle out-of-hours calls often in pressurised circumstances. Handle crisis communications in a calm manner applying judgement and being trusted by executives in such situations

• Handle highly confidential and price sensitive announcements/issues relating to business strategy including working with senior leaders and Corporate Secretariat as needed

• Work closely with digital communications colleagues to maximise digital reach of announcements across channels and devise appropriate content (video, social media, infographics etc)

• Provide communications leadership to Local Operating Company (LOC) crisis and issue management teams on issues that have the potential to impact GSK’s global reputation

• Make a positive contribution to CGA cross functional initiatives and / or team meetings.

Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree in communications, Government Affairs, Business Studies or similar
• Secondary qualification in journalism or media relations
• 10+ years of experience in communications in multi-stakeholder global companies or organisations, with a specialism in media relations
• Exceptional judgement and calmness under pressure
• Communications planning & delivery, aligning communications strategy and related campaigns to the drivers of the business and with broader reputation issues
• Proven experience of working in a fast-paced, global + matrix team
• Track record of “global thinking” and delivering communications with measurable outcomes
• Strong, dynamic, highly articulate communicator with excellent writing skills, across a wide range of media

Why GSK?

GSK’s portfolio spans three product areas: vaccines, specialty and general medicines and our focus is to deliver better and faster for patients globally. Our unrivalled vaccine portfolio targets infectious diseases at every stage of life, helping to reduce the burden of disease for hundreds of millions of people. GSK has exceptional capabilities in vaccine science and technologies, including adjuvant/protein and mRNA. In specialty medicines, we are at the forefront of HIV prevention and treatment, and we are building our presence in key therapeutic areas such as oncology and immuno-inflammation. General medicines include our inhaled medicines for asthma and COPD, antibiotics and medicines for skin diseases.

By 2031, we aim to deliver more than £33 billion in annual sales – a step-change in performance and growth which will significantly increase the positive impact we can have on the health of billions of patients around the world. And we’re confident in our future. Our pipeline of 21 vaccines and 43 medicines includes many with potential to be first or best-in-class opportunities for patients

Find out more:

Annual Report 2021

Product Pipeline

Inclusion and diversity at GSK are key for our success. Here, you will thrive through bringing your unique experiences to both our company and the recruitment process. We want you to be you, feel good and keep growing your career.

GSK is an Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action Employer. Applicants will travel through a transparent recruitment journey that adheres to all required employment standards and regulations. Beyond this, we commit to our values of integrity and respect towards every applicant.

• LI-GSK

GSK is a global biopharma company with a special purpose – to unite science, technology and talent to get ahead of disease together – so we can positively impact the health of billions of people and deliver stronger, more sustainable shareholder returns – as an organisation where people can thrive. Getting ahead means preventing disease as well as treating it, and we aim to impact the health of 2.5 billion people around the world in the next 10 years.

Our success absolutely depends on our people. While getting ahead of disease together is about our ambition for patients and shareholders, it’s also about making GSK a place where people can thrive. We want GSK to be a workplace where everyone can feel a sense of belonging and thrive as set out in our Equal and Inclusive Treatment of Employees policy. We’re committed to being more proactive at all levels so that our workforce reflects the communities we work and hire in, and our GSK leadership reflects our GSK workforce.

As an Equal Opportunity Employer, we are open to all talent. In the US, we also adhere to Affirmative Action principles. This ensures that all qualified applicants will receive equal consideration for employment without regard to neurodiversity, race/ethnicity, colour, national origin, religion, gender, pregnancy, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, age, disability, genetic information, military service, covered/protected veteran status or any other federal, state or local protected class*(*US only).

We believe in an agile working culture for all our roles. If flexibility is important to you, we encourage you to explore with our hiring team what the opportunities are.

Should you require any adjustments to our process to assist you in demonstrating your strengths and capabilities contact us on [email protected] or 0808 234 4391. Please note should your enquiry not relate to adjustments, we will not be able to support you through these channels

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