Science Communications & Digital Marketing

Taconic

Mentor 

Michael Seiler, Vice President, Commercial Products at Taconic Life Sciences

Internship Description

At Taconic, our competitive position is to be solutions experts for tough in vivo modeling problems. The digital marketing communications function is how we create and distribute essential content so researchers can best use our products and services, and consequently advance their drug discovery pipeline. We accomplish this by being experts ourselves.

This internship is designed to introduce PhD candidates and postdoctoral scholars to the outbound communications requirements for companies that develop and produce complex scientific technologies and services. The Intern will work individually and in a team setting under the guidance of senior marketing and communications professionals, digital content generators, and product strategy leadership. The Intern will write, produce, and publish digital content that incorporates search engine optimization techniques, develop marketing content in blog format, and balance product value proposition with non-promotional writing. The Intern will also learn how this content contributes to a strategic marketing plan. The internship will culminate with several by-line published articles (click here for examples).

Why this internship?

Did you know:

1. Content marketing is a major growth trend in scientific communications.  Life science tools, scientific instrumentation, biotechnology, and pharmaceutical companies are expanding content marketing roles in rapid fashion.
2. Scientific marketing and communications specialists start between $75K and $120K per year depending on experience, and often work remotely.
3. In addition to marketing and communications, scientific content specialists work with many cross-functional areas within a company where PhD’s thrive because of their unique training and skills; including field applications scientists, sales, quality, product strategy, operations, and executive leadership.  These positions create an excellent foothold for competitive advancement in various roles within a company.

Qualifications

• Current graduate student or postdoctoral trainee at the University of Chicago
• Strong work ethic and interest in learning about digital marketing, scientific and technical writing, and marketing and communications strategy
• Able to commit ~8 hours per week to independent research and content development
• Able to attend weekly marketing teleconferences and ad hoc 1 on 1 meetings totaling 1-2 hours per week
• Excellent communication, writing, and time management skills

Responsibilities

• Research, develop, and publish new content supporting scientific applications for Taconic products and services in the key areas of Microbiome, immunology, immuno-oncology, genetics, neurodegenerative disease, and applied genome editing
• Optimize scientific content to align with digital marketing strategy and search engine optimization
• Compile data from multiple sources to write company specific and thematic research reports