Associate Director, Communications

Job Title: Associate Director, Communications 

Reporting to: Vice President, Regulatory and Government Affairs 

Location: Durham, North Carolina 

About Pairwise:  

Pairwise is pioneering the application of gene editing technology in food and agriculture. The company brings together leaders in agriculture and tech to harness transformative genomic technologies to create innovative new products that benefit consumers, farmers, and the environment. Pairwise is working to develop new varieties of fruits, vegetables, and large-acre crops, as well as partnering with organizations that seek to deliver innovation across the plant-based economy. Backed by industry leading investors and multi-year collaborations with the two largest agriculture multinationals, Bayer and Corteva, as well as partnerships with non-profits such as the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Pairwise is the world leader in its field.  The company was co-founded by the company’s CEO Dr. Tom Adams and agriculture innovator Dr. Haven Baker, with scientific co-founders J. Keith Joung, Lead Translator at Arena BioWorks; David Liu, Director of the Merkin Institute of Transformative Technologies in Healthcare, and Vice-Chair of the Faculty at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT; and Feng Zhang, McGovern Investigator and a professor at MIT. Named one ofAmerica’s Top GreenTech Companies, Pairwise is based in the start-up friendly Research Triangle Park area of North Carolina. 

About This Role:   

We seek an energetic and proactive Associate Director of Communications to help drive our business based on our industry leading FulcrumTM platform for gene editing that is the engine behind our licenses, collaborations and fruit pipeline.  A successful candidate employs excellent vision and initiative to execute the communications function and further Pairwise’s effort to create products that help farmers, consumers and the environment.  The candidate will lead internal and external communications strategies and plans, working with both our PR firm and our Leadership Team.  

Essential Functions:  

• Communications strategy development and execution. 

• Media point of contact: liaison between Pairwise leadership, PR agency, and external media. Responsible for guiding Pairwise leadership through media inquiries from first request to completed content. 

• Ensure consistency in messaging and use of brands 

• Event planning: identifying and organizing participation in trade shows, media opportunities and sponsorships to enable business goals. 

• Ongoing communications asset development and management, including company website, social media and content for leadership presentations. 

• Lead digital media efforts and identification of new digital communications opportunities; summarize trends and anticipate threats and opportunities to our brands. 

• Create compelling narratives with our communications agency, from external media to ownable brand content, including press releases that highlight advances and key milestones. 

• Point person for incident response communication management. 

• Develop and manage annual Communications budget. 

• Prepare Pairwise employees with up-to-date communications and messaging guidelines for public speaking, interviews, etc. 

• Travel: Up to 15%, primarily domestic. 

Required Education & Experience 

• Bachelor’s degree in journalism, liberal arts, communications, business, or marketing. Master’s degree a plus. 

• 8-10 years of experience in communications, media relations, public relations, or content, in a business organization, including managing external PR firms and consultants, ideally working with B2B brands. 

• Strong written communicator, with extensive experience writing content, business press release writing preferred. Spanish fluency a plus. 

• Experience working in emerging and standard digital formats, including blogs, websites, social media, and video. 

• Experience developing high impact thought leadership presentations and/or keynote presentations. 

• Working knowledge of HubSpot CMS, Google Analytics, Social Media Dashboards, and eCRM platforms. 

• Knowledge of design software such as Canva or Adobe Creative Suite products a plus. 

• Strong cross functional organizational and interpersonal relationship skills; attention to detail with the ability to set clear priorities in a fast-paced environment. 

• A keen ability to track, analyze, report on communications progress and suggest strategic pivots based on learnings. 

Offerings 

• Comprehensive Benefits Plan, including Medical, Dental, Vision, HSA/FSA, 401k, Life Insurance, Short-Term & Long-Term Disability, and more! 

• Flexible PTO, in addition to company holidays 

• Casual work environment. 

• Mission-driven organization focused on making a positive impact on the health of people and the planet. 

• A cutting-edge, driven community looking to lead the industry in innovation and nutrition. 

Physical Demands 

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job.   

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is frequently required to sit and use hands to finger, handle or feel, and techniques that require fine motor skills and repetitive motions.  The employee is occasionally required to stand and walk.   The employee must frequently lift and/or move up to 10 pounds. The employee is regularly required to talk or hear.  Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception and ability to adjust focus. 

EEO Statement: 
We're an equal opportunity employer. All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran or disability status. 

Don’t meet every single requirement? Studies have shown that women and people of color are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification. At Pairwise we are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive and authentic workplace, so if you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyways. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles. 

No Recruiters please.