Job Information
Edwards Lifesciences Senior Manager, Communications, Critical Care in Irvine, California
BD recently completed the acquisition of the Edwards Critical Care business. This position is part of the Critical Care division, and as such, will become a part of the BD organization in the future. BD is one of the largest global medical technology companies in the world and is advancing the world of health by improving medical discovery, diagnostics and the delivery of care. If you are invited to interview for this position, a recruiter will provide further details about this exciting transition. Learn more about BD at bd.com
As the communications leader for the BD Advanced Patient Monitoring (APM) business unit of BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company), the Associate Director, Global Communication, is responsible for developing and implementing internal and external communication strategies that drive business growth for BD’s newest business unit (formerly the Critical Care business under Edwards Lifesciences). This is a critical role that is responsible to increase employee engagement, drive communication for key change initiatives, align BD APM employees with BD’s overall purpose, strategy and culture, as well as support external public relations efforts and social media strategy.
Role Overview
The Associate Director, Global Communication, is responsible for developing and implementing communication strategies and plans that focus on internal and external communication including employee communication, executive and leadership team communications, support of change management communication, social media platforms, media relations and community relations. These collective efforts will result in the strengthening of the BD brand and employee engagement to foster business growth. This critical role will drive employee engagement through enhanced awareness and understanding of company and business priorities, as well as key change initiatives. In addition to business-specific strategies, the position will also align BD APM employees with BD’s overall purpose, strategy and culture. This role also supports external public relations efforts related to product public relations, liaising with trade media on milestone announcements and driving organic social media activity in alignment with the BD Public Relations team.
This role solid line reports to the Director, Corporate Public Relations in the Corporate Communication function, while operationally being aligned to the BD APM Leadership Team, including the BD APM president and SVP of HR.
Primary Responsibilities
Internal Communication, Employee Engagement and Advocacy
Develop, manage, execute and champion business-wide internal communication and change management strategies and tactics that drive employee engagement through enhanced awareness and understanding of business priorities and key initiatives, in alignment with BD’s purpose, strategy and culture in strong partnership with BD APM HR.
Act as a consultant and strategic thought partner to the business president and leadership team to proactively shape an employee engagement approach.
Manage sensitive organizational and transformation initiatives in collaboration with the business president and leadership team.
Work at both the strategic and tactical levels to develop and advance communication materials and content; deliver across internal platforms, channels and geographies.
Support business and cultural integration efforts for mergers, acquisitions and divestitures, in partnership with the Corporate Communication team.
Understand and deploy change management where needed as we enhance our culture of a high-performing team, in alignment and partnership with BD APM HR.
Support communication and engagement in Inclusion & Diversity initiatives and events in alignment and partnership with BD APM HR.
Cascade corporate and BD APM President level communications appropriately throughout the business, tailoring content to improve relevancy as appropriate and serve as liaison between the business and Corporate Communication team to ensure alignment, sharing of best practices and appropriate inclusion of business content within companywide and segment communications.
Distill complex, matrixed organizational and transformation initiatives into a coordinated approach while sensing and analyzing stakeholder needs to tailor and deliver messages via the most appropriate mix of media and channels.
Establish mechanisms for monitoring and measuring the value, impact and outcome of communication and change management initiatives, and proactively adjust approach as needed based on metrics.
Research, write, edit and publish content for communication vehicles including intranet, town halls, video scripts, emails, presentations and others.
Executive and Leadership Team Communication
Support senior leadership team to communicate company goals, priorities and progress.
Work with the BD APM leadership team (APMLT) and APM HR to support development and delivery of communication efforts that further activate and reinforce cultural aspirations.
Partner with the Corporate Communication team, along with segment/business leadership, to develop communication strategies and materials for high-risk/high-impact programs.
Develop and maintain ongoing management of effective communication vehicles (e.g. Intranet, Town Halls, newsletters,, Viva Engage (Yammer) and other channels which may be appropriate). Define and implement strategies that keep these channels fresh while further activating them in innovative and novel ways.
Develop and implement external thought leadership strategy for APM President and select APM leaders.
Interview subject matter experts and write or develop communication content for electronic vehicles, face-to-face forums and other channels and venues, while following BD Brand guidelines.
Measure and report communication effectiveness.
Drive strategic and creative (when appropriate) alignment and consistency across platform activities (i.e. training sessions, awards, etc.).
Enable and coach APM President and APMLT members as needed to ensure content aligns to high standards of excellence and effectiveness of delivery, including speaking engagements, external and internal presentations, etc.
Public Relations
Develop, manage, and implement product public relations plans and materials that support sales and marketing strategies in relevant trade media, and when appropriate, target tier-1 media in alignment with Corporate Communication Department.
Develop Community Relations plans, including audience identification and strategies to better engage and inform community of APM efforts and contributions.
Act as APM support for issues management and crisis communication, working closely with Director and Vice President of Corporate Public Relations.
Draft externally facing public relations content, manage and convene editorial calendars and define annual proactive speaking engagements that publicize the APM brand, APM products and/or APM employee efforts.
Manage external PR agencies and consultants to assist in proactive and reactive public relations efforts.
Social Media Management
Develop, manage and implement the APM social media strategy, in line with the overarching BD Social Media approach to foster brand awareness, employee and customer engagement and advocacy.
Grow APM’s social media presence across BD social media platforms through the design and implementation of a content management strategy.
Further activate APMLT’s leadership presence within social media forums that align to their expertise, leverage their strengths and support thought leadership strategy.
Draft copy and optimize hashtags as needed.
The Successful Candidate:
We seek an experienced and passionate professional who understands the power of communication in enabling individuals, teams and companies to perform at their very best. This individual will collaborate across the Business Leadership Team to recommend and align on key objectives, priorities and messaging, and execute a robust employee engagement approach that delivers and demonstrates visible and measurable impact and outcomes for the business. Additionally, the individual will serve as a trusted partner and adviser to the Business President and Leadership Team.
Does the following describe you?
Effectively telling highly relevant and compelling stories is your passion.
You’re excited to craft communications that advance the APM brand that excite customers, partners, industry influencers and prospective employees.
Writing and editing are natural strengths for you, and you’ve been accused of being a grammar geek.
You have a fascination for science and passion for translating difficult scientific concepts into easily understood messages.
You are comfortable setting stretch goals that are just out of reach—and find a way to hit them.
Able to think strategically and can act tactically by rolling up your sleeves to do the work required to achieve measurable results—results that matter
Proactive in managing multiple projects with a demonstrated approach to efficiently organizing tasks and workflows.
Comfortable and confident when communicating with customers, prospects, media, industry influencers, employees and partners in all levels of organization.
You use your passion, acumen and strengths to deliver results — be it corporate communications, byline writing, social media engagement or helping a member of our sales/platform team effectively consider responses that enable business growth.
You are comfortable in analyzing social media data, drawing actionable insights and testing new strategies, content and campaigns to improve performance.
Your audience is your obsession. You take the time to get to know them and tailor your messages and communication to ensure relevance.
You bring an existing skill set and are an intellectually curious learner who wants to keep growing with our team and organization.
Minimum Qualifications
Bachelor’s Degree required – preferably in Communication, Journalism, Marketing, Public Relations, Business or related field.
Minimum 10+ years professional experience required.
Minimum 5+ years professional experience in communication in a corporate environment required (experience in a global, publicly traded company preferred)
Must possess excellent written, oral and interpersonal communication skills in a corporate environment with strong editing capabilities.
Must be a strong editor and proofreader, with strong attention to detail.
Experience in change management and transformation.
Experience in external communications/public relations.
Experience in social media, web and other digital communication technologies and tools.
Expertise in AP Style writing
Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), Adobe,
Knowledge, skills & abilities
Strategic and proactive thinker with ability to “see the big picture” and connect the dots across a matrixed organization to create and execute thoughtful, coordinated communication and change management plans.
Confidence and organizational savviness to give advice and make recommendations to key stakeholders, including senior management.
Ability to sense the pulse of the organization and leverage change management and communication to enhance culture and business outcomes.
Can shift seamlessly between working at both the strategic and tactical levels – willing to roll up your sleeves and do the work.
Agile and results driven approach that enables you to drive outcomes by making timely decisions, acting with urgency, speaking up, iterating together and adapting to new inputs.
You understand that the job of change management and communication is not to simply plan an event or distribute a message, but to create action that is part of a broader strategy.
Excellent customer service, flexible attitude, adaptable to change, team player and able to manage competing priorities.
Excellent organizational skills and critical attention to detail.
Demonstrated experience developing impactful, globally relevant communications (key messages, speeches, presentations and other materials) that increase awareness and simplifies technical information in a way that provides clarity to a wide variety of audiences.
Strong ability to collaborate and capable of building consensus and strong working relationships at all levels across a highly matrixed organizational structure.
Ability to prioritize and multi-task, take initiative and act independently and work under tight deadlines.
Ability to maintain discretion and appropriately manage confidential information.
Strategic thinker with ability to assess market situation(s) and counsel on best strategies to garner positive publicity with measurable results.
Aligning our overall business objectives with performance, we offer competitive salaries, performance-based incentives, and a wide variety of benefits programs to address the diverse individual needs of our employees and their families.
For California, the base pay range for this position is $115,000 to $163,000 (highly experienced).
The pay for the successful candidate will depend on various factors (e.g., qualifications, education, prior experience). Applications will accepted while this position is posted on our Career website.
Edwards is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer including protected Veterans and individuals with disabilities.
COVID Vaccination Requirement
Edwards is committed to protecting our vulnerable patients and the healthcare providers who are treating them. As such, all patient-facing and in-hospital positions require COVID-19 vaccination. If hired into a covered role, as a condition of employment, you will be required to submit proof that you have been vaccinated for COVID-19, unless you request and are granted a medical or religious accommodation for exemption from the vaccination requirement. This vaccination requirement does not apply in locations where it is prohibited by law to impose vaccination.