At Johnson & Johnson, we believe health is everything. Our strength in healthcare innovation empowers us to build a world where complex diseases are prevented, treated, and cured, where treatments are smarter and less invasive, and solutions are personal. Through our expertise in Innovative Medicine and MedTech, we are uniquely positioned to innovate across the full spectrum of healthcare solutions today to deliver the breakthroughs of tomorrow, and profoundly impact health for humanity. Learn more at https://www.jnj.com **Job Function:** Communications & Corporate/External Affairs **Job Sub** **Function:** Multi-Family Communications & Corporate/External Affairs **Job Category:** People Leader **All Job Posting Locations:** Milano, Italy **Job Description:** **Director Communications & Public Affairs Italy** **Location: Italy, Milano** **Contract: Full Time, Hybrid** **Overall Purpose of this role:** **As the Communications & Public Affairs (CPA) Director at Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine (IM) Italy, you will be responsible for the strategic planning, development and implementation of integrated Communications and Public Affairs strategies that align with the Italian IM business objectives.** **As a member of the Italian IM Leadership Team, you will act as a key business partner, providing strategic counsel to the Leadership Team and managing senior leader communications. You will guide decisions to enhance and protect company reputation in Italy, working across functions and geographies to achieve strategic alignment, driving business growth.  ** **You will role model how we compete for patients, execute flawlessly, and optimize to improve - thinking enterprise-wide, long-term, and with full ownership - while elevating Johnson & Johnson IM’s external presence across national platforms, institutions, and key stakeholder ecosystems.** **You will report to the EMEA Vice President, J&J IM CPA with a dotted line to the Managing Director, J&J IM Italy, and be a member of both the IM EMEA CPA and Italian IM Leadership Teams.** **Key Responsibilities and Impact** **Protect and enhance the Reputation of the Italian J&J IM Operating Company:** **Lead insight-driven corporate communications strategies aligned with local and regional business objectives, and the Global Corporate Affairs (GCA) and CPA vision, strengthening the company’s external visibility and leadership positioning across media, public institutions, scientific communities, and health influencers.** **Responsible for corporate websites and social networks governance. Oversee J&J IM’s digital presence across Italy, ensuring adherence to local compliance regulations, global CPA objectives and guidelines, and EMEA business goals.** **Oversee and assess earned and paid media strategies across Italy in close collaboration with the regional CPA team and global media relations team. ** **Provide strategic counsel and lead coordination of local issues and crisis communications, ensuring timely responses to reputation risks in collaboration with regional and global teams. Develop proactive and reactive messaging in alignment with the company’s positioning.** **Ensure cross-sector reputational consistency, alignment and communications, working with MedTech CPA´s counterpart** **Support access and policy priorities, improving patient access to innovative medicines in Italy:** **Lead a Public Affairs communications strategy aligned with local and regional business, Government Affairs & Policy (GA&P) and Market Access objectives, and global CPA vision.** **Responsible for messaging and communications activities in partnership with local, regional and global GA&P and Market Access teams, to enhance J&J’s profile among policy makers, payers and key opinion leaders.** **Oversee thought leadership initiatives and campaigns aligned with local business and GA&P priorities.** **Advance, protect, and enhance the company’s portfolio visibility:** **Oversee end-to-end pipeline, product communications and Public Affairs including media, social media, congress communications, thought leadership and internal communications activities, as well as product issues management across Italy.** **Shape the external environment by engaging opinion leaders and positioning the company as a trusted partner in health and policy dialogues** **Responsible for developing, adapting and implementing J&J’s Therapeutic Area (TA) positioning, narrative and messaging, ensuring alignment with local and regional business and Global Portfolio Communication (GPC) goals.** **Oversee pre-launch, launch and post-launch in-market communications, data and regulatory milestones communications, and support regional business development communications, through integrated, multi-channel communications plans (media, social/digital, congress, etc.)** **Oversee collaboration with local and regional Patient Engagement & Advocacy (PE&A), Market Access and GA&P teams to develop disease-specific Public Affairs strategies across key therapeutic areas.** **Mobilize the Italian organization to deliver on the business strategy:** **Manage and oversee senior leader communications, and employee engagement across Italy.** **Provide strategic communications support and counsel to the Italian Managing Director; developing and executing his communications strategy, to protect and enhance his reputation, and by extension that of the company.** **Lead and oversee the IM Italy leadership and employee engagement strategies, ensuring all parties are informed, engaged and equipped to implement business strategy and increase business performance.** **Foster a culture of enterprise thinking by encouraging leaders and teams to prioritize competing for patients, executing flawlessly, and optimizing to improve, while maintaining accountability, strategic clarity, and alignment across all levels of the organization.** **Co-lead Italian leadership events, including the annual Kick Off meeting and Company Update meetings.** **Lead change communications for critical Italy-wide business initiatives and transformations. ** **Enhance internal visibility by ensuring IM Italy’s contributions are consistently represented across EMEA and global forums.** **Lead Research and Insights: ** **Generate and leverage key insights from audience research to continuously refine and improve the impact of communications strategies. ** **Monitor and analyze industry and reputational trends and competitive benchmarks to adapt strategies that best support business priorities and drive competitiveness. ** **Implement and track standardized metrics (KPIs) aligned with global CPA to monitor performance, as part of a consistent measurement framework across the region. ** **Leadership Responsibilities:** **Lead, coach and develop the Italian CPA team.** **As a member of the CPA EMEA Leadership Team, lead initiatives supporting key cross-CPA EMEA organizational priorities including talent, strategy and transformation.** **Actively contribute to our global CPA and GCA communities.** **Member of J&J IM Italy Leadership Team.** **Key Requirements:** **At least 10 years of experience in communications, public affairs, or a similar role within the pharmaceutical or healthcare industry.** **Proven success in leading corporate communications, media relations, digital strategy, and crisis management at a senior level.** **Experience in Public Affairs and managing communications for product launches is desirable.** **Strong leadership and excellent interpersonal skills, capable of operating at senior level with high strategic thinking, creating and maintaining relationships with a variety of stakeholders and mobilizing teams around ambitious and innovative projects.** **Significant experience in leading, mentoring, and developing high-performing teams, with expertise in managing cross-functional collaboration within matrixed organizations.** **Skills and Competencies:** **Strong leadership and strategic thinking abilities, with experience building relationships with senior stakeholders.** **Experience and/or interest in leading transformation and agile ways of working.** **Exceptional written and verbal communication skills.** **In-depth understanding of media, digital and social media platforms and how to improve performance metrics. ** **Ability to thrive in a fast evolving and complex environment, balancing multiple priorities while aligning with business goals.** **Demonstrate alignment with the company’s culture and values as outlined in Our Credo, actively contributing to an inclusive, respectful, and purpose-driven work environment** **University degree in Communications, Public Relations, Journalism, Political Science, or a related field. A master's degree is preferred.** **Fluency in Italian and English.** **Required Skills:** **Preferred Skills:** Agile Decision Making, Branding, Brand Reputation Management, Budgeting, Communications Measurement, Corporate Communications Strategy, Corporate Management, Cultural Communications, Developing Others, Inclusive Leadership, Influencer Knowledge, Integrated Marketing Communications, Leadership, Market Savvy, Relationship Building, Risk Assessments, Stakeholder Engagement