Senior External Communications Specialist (Onsite)

Medtronic • Minneapolis, MN

2d • Onsite

About The Position

At Medtronic you can begin a life-long career of exploration and innovation, while helping champion healthcare access and equity for all. You’ll lead with purpose, breaking down barriers to innovation in a more connected, compassionate world. A Day in the Life At Medtronic, we bring bold ideas forward with speed and decisiveness to put patients first in everything we do. In-person exchanges are invaluable to our work. We’re working a minimum of 4 days a week onsite as part of our commitment to fostering a culture of professional growth and cross-functional collaboration as we work together to engineer the extraordinary. Careers that Change Lives Medtronic is looking for an ambitious self-starter to join the Global Communications and Corporate Marketing team as a Senior External Communications Specialist. This position plays a critical role in telling Medtronic’s external story through proactive earned media relations, building strong reporter relationships, and capturing measurement insights across a corporate PR team within a complex global organization. This is a highly visible role working with stakeholders both within and outside of Medtronic. In this role, you will be responsible for tracking media coverage that elevates visibility for Medtronic innovations, therapies, leaders, and the impact we make for patients around the world. You will partner closely with communicators from across Medtronic and internal stakeholders while independently managing core media relations workstreams. You’ll report to the Director, External Communications. Travel is expected to be less than 10%. This role will be based at our Operational Headquarters in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Requirements

• Bachelor's Degree
• 4 years of relevant experience in PR, Business Strategy, Communications, Public Affairs and/or Corporate Communications

Nice To Haves

• Experience writing and executing full media relations and/or communications plans, including clear strategies, objectives, and tactics
• Experience partnering and counseling clients or senior leaders
• Exceptional ability to comprehend business strategy and technologies and translate that to compelling stories that connect to mainstream media and people
• Comprehensive examples of media relations coverage and/or program success and results
• Strong preference of agency work experience and managing multiple programs and various subject matter areas at multiple times
• Ability to develop and maintain effective relationships across a variety of functions and with all levels of management and employees
• Ability and willingness to work during off-peak hours as needed
• Ability to effectively influence internal and external partners and excel under pressure
• Exceptional project management and organizational skills
• Experience with media monitoring vendors and tools to demonstrate results
• For Baccalaureate degrees earned outside of the United States, a degree that satisfies the requirements of 8 C.F.R. § 214.2(h)(4)(iii)(A) is required.

Responsibilities

• Public Relations & Issues Management
• Media Relations Regularly read, monitor news, and synthesize industry coverage. Bring forward insights such as shifting coverage patterns, competitor activity, etc., to support proactive storytelling
• Bring broader media and consumer trends to the group to support ideation around unique ways to showcase our innovation and technologies.
• Execute proactive media relations efforts, including developing story angles, drafting pitches, and securing earned media across consumer outlets and Medtronic priority local markets.
• Own relationships with a defined set of reporters, maintaining regular outreach, responsiveness, and credibility with media contacts aligned to Medtronic priorities.
• Draft and edit high-quality media materials, including pitches, press releases, media statements, briefing documents, Q&A, and backgrounders.
• Media Coverage Measurement, Reporting & Insight Own, track and analyze earned Medtronic and competitor media coverage, maintaining a robust tracker that demonstrates results, message pull-through, and impact.
• Develop regular coverage and trend reports that highlight insights, opportunities, risks, and recommendations for future storytelling.
• Partner with the data and insights team to translate coverage data into business impact and contribute to larger quarterly reputation reports Manage the relationship with media monitoring vendor
• Project and Program Management Lead communications workflow for assigned projects by managing timelines, routing materials for review, and incorporating feedback across a matrixed organization.
• Manage enterprise awards strategy, including internal partner coordination and external submissions for key awards Provide back-up support for enterprise news releases and news alerts, including internal reviews and approvals and external distribution

Benefits

• Medtronic offers a competitive Salary and flexible Benefits Package
• Health, Dental and vision insurance, Health Savings Account, Healthcare Flexible Spending Account, Life insurance, Long-term disability leave, Dependent daycare spending account, Tuition assistance/reimbursement, and Simple Steps (global well-being program).
• Incentive plans, 401(k) plan plus employer contribution and match, Short-term disability, Paid time off, Paid holidays, Employee Stock Purchase Plan, Employee Assistance Program, Non-qualified Retirement Plan Supplement (subject to IRS earning minimums), and Capital Accumulation Plan (available to Vice Presidents and above, or subject to IRS earning minimums).

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees