Science communicator – 1 year temporary position

Uppsala Monitoring Centre (UMC) is searching for a skilled science communicator to join our Communications team. As a Communications Officer, you will produce content for UMC’s Drug Safety Matters podcast and lead UMC’s annual #MedSafetyWeek campaign. This is a one-year parental-leave cover based in the heart of Uppsala, Sweden. It may be filled before the close of applications, so please apply as soon as possible.

Your role
This role entails two main responsibilities. As a campaign manager, you will work with the rest of the Communications team and external stakeholders to plan and coordinate an international social media campaign. As a podcast producer, you will oversee all aspects of the show’s production, from technical to administrative. In particular, you will:

- Supervise the #MedSafetyWeek campaign planning and production teams, including pharmacovigilance and communications experts, to ensure deliverables are ready on time
- Lead planning meetings with international stakeholders, and prepare and deliver presentations
- Ensure campaign implementation and monitor its performance
- Plan, research, record, and edit podcast interviews
- Publish podcast episodes and monitor their analytics
- Work with other members of the team to promote the podcast on UMC’s web and social media channels

UMC’s Communications team currently has nine members, with diverse skill sets and backgrounds. We are a tight unit that values collaboration between team members. Beyond your core responsibilities, and depending on your own talents and interests, you may also get the opportunity to contribute to other projects within the team.
Ideally, you are either a journalism or communications graduate who understands and learns quickly about the life sciences, or a life sciences graduate with a high-level set of communications skills.

You're creative, curious, and collaborative. You care about details. You enjoy showing initiative, but you also display good judgment and maturity when dealing with potentially sensitive topics.

Required qualifications

- At least a bachelors' degree in a relevant field (such as communications, journalism, or the life sciences)
- Excellent communication and project management skills and the ability to create content on a deadline
- Fluency in written and spoken English, including experience of interviewing, presenting or public speaking
- Experience with or the capacity to quickly acquire a working understanding of audio recording equipment and editing software
- The capacity to quickly acquire a working understanding of pharmacovigilance

Other helpful skills and experience

- Experience with Adobe Audition and Microsoft productivity applications
- Team management skills
- Experience working in diverse, international organisations, especially in the non-profit sector


Uppsala Monitoring Centre (UMC) is a centre for international service and scientific research in the field of pharmacovigilance. We are the WHO Collaborating Centre for International Drug Monitoring, and manage the technical and operational aspects of the WHO Programme for International Drug Monitoring since 1978.

As an independent, non-profit foundation, we support the World Health Organization, regulatory authorities, and other stakeholders who share our vision of advancing medicines safety. Through research and development of new scientific methods, we explore the benefits and harms of medicines for patients, and offer products and services used by health authorities and the pharmaceutical industry worldwide

UMC’s working language is English. We normally apply a probationary period to new appointments.

UMC follows the collective agreements between the Swedish Agency for Government Employers and Saco-S and ST. Union representatives are Malin Zaar (Saco-S) and Jessica Avasol (ST), +46 (0)18-65 60 60.