Director Public Relations
Vieux Grand Port, MU, 51405
For 75 years, Charles River employees have worked together to assist in the discovery, development and safe manufacture of new drug therapies. When you join our family, you will have a significant impact on the health and well-being of people across the globe. Whether your background is in life sciences, finance, IT, sales or another area, your skills will play an important role in the work we perform. In return, we’ll help you build a career that you can feel passionate about.
Job Summary
The Public Relations Director plays a key role managing external relations and serves as the liaison between site, local media and government officials. In the development and implementation of communication strategies aimed at promoting the company's visibility and reputation, as well as defending its positions and values, with government officials and local media. This dynamic professional will be responsible for managing public relations, external and internal communication, as well as advocacy to support organizational goals. They will need to be able to interact with senior level government officials and navigate through high profile and issues-management situations.
This position will be located in Mauritius, Africa.
Primary Responsibilities:
1. Communication Strategy:
- Develop and implement a communication strategy aligned with organizational goals.
- Develop key messages and content tailored to different target audiences – spanning from external stakeholders such as high-level government officials to local employees.
2. Public relations:
- Manage relations with media and external partners.
- Prepare and disseminate press releases and official statements.
- Effectively influence members of media, government and other officials to ensure our reputation is positioned in way that reflects our values.
3. Internal Communication:
- Facilitate effective internal communication within newly acquired organization joining CRL (providing business related content while building a culture supporting the CRL DNA).
- Organize internal events and produce communication materials to inform employees.
4. Advocacy:
- Design and implement advocacy campaigns to promote the company's positions.
- Partner with external stakeholders to support advocacy initiatives.
- Effectively navigate high-risk and high-profile discussions by educating on our organization, practices, and ethics.
- Proactively engage at events and meetings with senior level government officials and animal activists groups to explain our position in the market.
5. Social Media Management:
- Oversee the company's social media presence within Africa.
- Create engaging content and monitor online discussions.
6. Results Analysis and Reporting:
- Measure the impact of communication and advocacy initiatives.
- Produce regular performance reports and recommend strategic adjustments.
Job Qualifications
Required qualifications:
- University degree in communications, public relations, journalism or related field.
- Significant work experience in a similar role.
- Excellent writing and communication skills.
- In-depth understanding of traditional and digital media.
- 12 years of experience, or a combination of education and experience
Additional Skills:
- Ability to develop and execute effective communication strategies, and can demonstrate effectively navigating sensitive issues and topics impacting our reputation
- Ability to effectively influence without authority
- Strong executive presence and the ability to communicate and interact with senior level government officials
- Strong interpersonal skills and ability to collaborate with diverse stakeholders.
- Knowledge of current communication trends and best practices in advocacy.
About Corporate Functions
The Corporate Functions provide operational support across Charles River in areas such as Human Resources, Finance, IT, Legal, Sales, Quality Assurance, Marketing, and Corporate Development. They partner with their colleagues across the company to develop and drive strategies and to set global standards. The functions are essential to providing a bridge between strategic vision and operational readiness, to ensure ongoing functional innovation and capability improvement.
About Charles River
Charles River is an early-stage contract research organization (CRO). We have built upon our foundation of laboratory animal medicine and science to develop a diverse portfolio of discovery and safety assessment services, both Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) and non-GLP, to support clients from target identification through preclinical development. Charles River also provides a suite of products and services to support our clients’ clinical laboratory testing needs and manufacturing activities. Utilizing this broad portfolio of products and services enables our clients to create a more flexible drug development model, which reduces their costs, enhances their productivity and effectiveness to increase speed to market.
With over 20,000 employees within 110 facilities in over 20 countries around the globe, we are strategically positioned to coordinate worldwide resources and apply multidisciplinary perspectives in resolving our client’s unique challenges. Our client base includes global pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology companies, government agencies and hospitals and academic institutions around the world.
At Charles River, we are passionate about our role in improving the quality of people’s lives. Our mission, our excellent science and our strong sense of purpose guide us in all that we do, and we approach each day with the knowledge that our work helps to improve the health and well-being of many across the globe. We have proudly supported the development of 86% of the drugs approved by the FDA in 2021.
Equal Employment Opportunity
Charles River Laboratories is an Equal Opportunity Employer - all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or national origin, veteran or disability status.
If you are interested in applying to Charles River Laboratories and need special assistance or an accommodation due to a disability to complete any forms or to otherwise participate in the resume submission process, please contact a member of our Human Resources team by sending an e-mail message to [email protected]. This contact is for accommodation requests for individuals with disabilities only and cannot be used to inquire about the status of applications.
For more information, please visit www.criver.com.
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