Director, Brand Communications

Key Responsibilities

• Own the development and execution of Brand Communications strategy, including disease awareness, market shaping, and launch narrative across HCP, patient, advocacy, media, and scientific audiences
• Develop and govern the content calendar for Brand PR, ensuring message consistency, channel sequencing, and compliance across earned and owned channels
• Lead paid amplification strategy for earned content, including boosting of media coverage, publication announcements, and disease education assets within pre-approved legal and regulatory frameworks
• Partner with commercial, digital, and brand teams to ensure consistent narrative translation across paid, owned, and earned channels
• Disease Awareness and Market Shaping
• Drive disease-state education and awareness programs, including unmet-need storytelling and pre-launch market seeding across HCP and patient audiences
• Own congress and data communications strategy, including partnership on press release development, on-site media engagement, KOL interview logistics, and post-congress amplification
• Partner on the KOL and DOL engagement strategy and integration of clinical voice into PR planning
• Advocacy, Patient, and Celebrity Ambassador Programs
• Partner with Medical Affairs and Brand Marketing to build and execute advocacy partnerships across cardiology, hypertension, primary care, and health-equity organizations, designing original co-created initiatives beyond transactional sponsorships
• Develop and execute celebrity and patient ambassador programs, including identification, vetting, onboarding, content development, channel planning, speaker preparation, and MLR/PRC compliance guardrails
• Develop and execute patient story programs tied to the disease experience, including identification of storytelling opportunities, content development, speaker preparation, channel planning, and compliance guardrails
• Monitoring, Issues, and Rapid Response
• Build and operate a real-time flag-and-act capability for brand-relevant media, social, advocacy, and competitive moments, including monitoring, tiered escalation, internal routing, and rapid approval protocols
• Develop issue-preparedness infrastructure, including scenario planning, pre-approved holding statements, and response protocols in coordination with Legal and Corporate Communications, with alignment to corporate issues-management protocols
• Agency Management, Operations, and Governance
• Lead and manage the Brand PR agency end-to-end, including, day-to-day direction, briefing, feedback, budget oversight, performance management, and quarterly planning
• Serve as the primary bridge between Brand Marketing, Corporate Communications, Medical Affairs, Legal, Regulatory, Investor Relations, and external agency partners on all communications matters
• Actively participate in MLR/PRC, bringing Brand PR materials through review efficiently, with strong version control, clear approvals, and minimal rework
• Measure message pull-through, quality of coverage, share of voice, engagement, advocacy progress, and recommendations for optimization
• Manage the Brand Communications budget and relevant external vendor and agency relationships

Education And Experience

• MBA or bachelor’s degree plus 10+ years of pharmaceutical, biotech, or healthcare communications experience, with at least 6 years in brand PR or communications in an HCP or patient-facing context
• Demonstrated ownership of brand communications strategy in a regulated pharmaceutical or biotech environment
• Cardiovascular and/or launch experience is strongly preferred
• Track record of managing and holding agencies accountable in an MLR/PRC-governed environment
• Experience building or scaling an advocacy engagement program, with knowledge of the cardiology and hypertension association landscape preferred
• Familiarity with celebrity or patient ambassador program development, including compliance and legal frameworks
• Deep fluency with MLR/PRC processes and demonstrated ability to move efficiently through review without sacrificing quality
• A builder mindset with high personal accountability, resourcefulness, and a collaborative spirit
• Proven ability to lead through ambiguity and define direction in a fast-moving, pre-launch environment
• Strong cross-functional leadership and the ability to influence without authority
• Excellent writing, messaging, and communication skills