External Affairs Placement

Job Details

View similar jobs

---

External Affairs Placement

Our Policy & Communications team collaborate with governments and policy organizations at local and national levels. We address legislative and regulatory issues that promote and protect the discovery of innovative medicine, vaccines and animal health products while improving and protecting patient access to care. We take great care to monitor and manage the reputation of our company communicating the work we do to improve lives.

Our External Affairs department provides strategic and tactical communications & policy leadership and support to our UK business. Our work is focused on engaging with a wide range of range of stakeholders and audiences from politicians and government officials, to policy influencers and the media, through to our UK employees. We are therefore seen as a critical hub for our business, often working cross-functionally and in partnership with other parts of the business.

In joining our team, you would have the opportunity to learn from a well- respected team with diverse skills, expertise and career backgrounds. This role would suit a candidate who thrives on working in a fast-paced environment, enjoys working as a team player and who is interested in developing a career in communications and policy.

The External Affairs department covers three main teams:

• Strategic communications which includes corporate, employee, social media and issues communications
• Therapy policy & communications – supporting our main priority disease areas for medicines and vaccines such as oncology, hepatitis C, diabetes, antibiotics, HIV, Alzheimer’s disease
• Corporate policy & government relations including political engagement and pharmaceutical industry relations

To make sure you get experience across all communication disciplines and functions, you will have a chance to work with each team, through a rotation across the year. This will give you experience and insight into a broad range of communication disciplines and projects, as well as how a major pharmaceutical and healthcare company operates. You will be given opportunities to be part of key specialist or project teams as well as the opportunity to lead and deliver on your own initiatives. The experience will therefore provide a blend of project leadership, tactical implementation and professional and personal learning opportunities.

These are just some examples of activities or initiatives you could get involved with during your time with our External Affairs team:

Strategic Communications

• Development of creative and impactful corporate materials
• Maintaining and updating the UK internet site
• Supporting social media channels & campaigns including content development and execution
• Assisting with responses to external enquiries, including issues management
• Monitoring corporate media, the environmental and issues
• Helping to drive forward our corporate reputation programme
• Development of videos to support the business or department including using the AV studio
• Assisting with the development of creative and engaging internal communications materials
• Maintaining and updating the employee intranet
• Assisting with logistics for employee communications events
• Developing and writing for the Weekly Roundup – our internal digital newsletter

Therapy area policy and communications

• Monitoring media and health policy developments relating specifically to company disease areas / products
• Developing briefings for the business on trends in media and policy behaviour relating to key disease areas / products / issues
• Assisting with the development press & social media materials & assets for a range of external stakeholders
• Researching, mapping and planning stakeholder engagement opportunities
• Collaborating closely with stakeholders such as patient organisations on educational initiatives

Corporate Policy & Government Affairs

• Monitoring, research and development of briefings for senior leaders on a range of political and policy topics relating to life sciences
• Assisting the Director of Policy, Communications and Government Relations and the Policy Team in providing political and policy counsel across the business and the External Affairs team
• Supporting the management of key stakeholder relationships including mapping of stakeholders, coordination of meetings, and development of briefing materials for senior colleagues
• Assisting in the development of external and internal briefing materials
• Organising visits from global leaders visiting the UK
• Providing general day-to-day and administrative support to the team including event management

Further internal and external training courses may be provided, with approval from the External Affairs Director. (e.g. IT skills, Project Management, courses provided by the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR), Healthcare Communications Association, Wellards, Westminster Forum etc.)

Capabilities and skills:

• Ability to communicate accurately both verbally and in writing
• Good project manager, organiser and administrator
• Team player, with the ability to liaise and collaborate with colleagues across cross-functional teams to overcome obstacles
• Numerate with good analytical skills
• Strong sense of urgency, takes initiative to do things without being asked
• Has a can do attitude, anticipates problems and proposes solutions, approaches work challenges creatively with fresh ideas
• The ability to listen, learn quickly and adapt
• IT literate including proficient in Powerpoint and Excel
• An awareness of and interest in the UK healthcare environment
• Confidence and willingness to get involved in a fast-moving environment, often interacting with senior leaders
• Integrity and ability to operate in line with policies, procedures & compliance standards

Education and Experience

• Social Science, Life Sciences, Media or English may be an advantage
• Entering your third or penultimate year of study, returning to your degree course at the end of the placement

Successful applicants will have the opportunity to meet fellow students before commencing the placement and will partake in a handover period at the beginning of their placement with the current student.

Our Human Health Division maintains a “patient first, profits later” ideology. The organization is comprised of sales, marketing, market access, digital analytics and commercial professionals who are passionate about their role in bringing our medicines to our customers worldwide.

Our presence in the UK goes back a long way. For over 80 years, we’ve been researching, developing and supplying new medicines and vaccines that prevent and treat diseases that occur at every stage of life.

Today we're one of the top five biopharmaceutical companies in the UK and employ over 2,000 people across five sites in Hertfordshire, Northumberland, Buckinghamshire, Edinburgh and London.

We are officially certified by the Top Employer Institute and been awarded the exclusive Top Employer United Kingdom Certification for the second year running.

Please note, successful applicants to our student placement programme will be engaged via Agile 1, our third-party recruitment partner.

Equal Opportunities

We are proud to be a company that embraces the value of bringing diverse, talented, and committed people together. The fastest way to breakthrough innovation is when diverse ideas come together in an inclusive environment. We encourage our colleagues to respectfully challenge one another’s thinking and approach problems collectively. We are an equal opportunity employer, committed to fostering an inclusive and diverse workplace.

About MSD

Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, New Jersey, USA is known as “Merck” in the United States, Canada & Puerto Rico. We are known as “MSD” in Europe, Middle East, Africa, Latin America & Asia Pacific. We are a global biopharmaceutical leader with a diverse portfolio of prescription medicines, oncology, vaccines and animal health products.

We are driven by our purpose to develop and deliver innovative products that save and improve lives. With 69,000 employees operating in more than 140 countries, we offer state of the art laboratories, plants and offices that are designed to Inspire our employees as we learn, develop and grow in our careers. We are proud of our 125 years of service to humanity and continue to be one of the world’s biggest investors in Research & Development.

How to apply

To apply for this role and to find out more, please click on the apply button.

View similar jobs