Communications Lead
1Day Sooner
📍 Remote (Global) 🕔 Full Time
💰$75,000-$105,000 USD /year 🔄 Rolling Applications
1Day Sooner works to combat the present and future threat of infectious diseases across a diverse range of focus areas. The Communications Lead will help craft and maintain a cohesive presentation of 1Day Sooner’s projects and brand in mass media, social media, public-facing materials, and internal communications.
The Communications Lead will ideally be positioned for promotion to Communications Director in 6-12 months. Candidates with exceptional experience in health and science communications, strong connections in relevant media organizations, and demonstrating an intuitive grasp of 1Day Sooner’s public messaging (relevant documents and background information will be provided as part of the interview process) may be hired directly as a Director.
Key Information
Full-time, remote position (1Day has no offices. We will consider candidates globally; if located outside the US, you would be employed through an international employer of record. We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment visa at this time.)
The position will report to 1Day’s President.
Compensation: Depending on location, background and experience, we expect salary for the position will fall into a range of $75,000-$105,000. Compensation would be higher for a candidate hired directly into the role of Communications Director (we expect salary would fall into a range of $100,000-$130,000).
Highly competitive benefits package—including up to 6% 401(k) match, 15 vacation days plus federal holidays and a paid weeklong closure between Christmas and New Year’s, sick and parental leave and individual coverage HRA.
Trial Period: Per our standard practice for external hiring, we expect the position will include an initial 4-month trial period. During that period, the employee would receive 1.25x their normal salary (as compensation for the uncertainty of future employment) until a decision is made whether to bring the employee on permanently. There would be a formal check in at 4 weeks and 8 weeks, with the 8 week check in serving as the most likely time where we would hopefully be in the position to make a long-term commitment. If we decide to discontinue employment, there would be an additional 8 weeks notice at the trial period compensation level.
Position Responsibilities
The following list represents the bulk of the work we anticipate the Communications Lead handling. Depending on the strengths of the eventual hire, some may be prioritized over others.
External Media
In response to requests from colleagues, assist in or lead outlining, drafting and/or editing of opinion pieces
Proactively track news developments for opportunities to advance media coverage of 1Day Sooner and our focus areas
Work with the other parties to drive media coverage and publicity, e.g., coordinate with a medical institution to secure media coverage of a particular clinical trial and its participants
Catalog media contacts and interactions, manage relationships
1Day Media
Manage 1Day Sooner’s social and owned media channels (social platforms, newsletter, blog, website).
Produce and edit content to support outreach and organizational visibility.
Other
Design and fact-check 1Day Sooner documents and reports (or oversee external design support)
Work with 1Day Sooner’s participant organizing staff to track upcoming clinical trials of interest and develop summaries and talking points
Support internal organization communications.
What We’re Looking For
Background in public relations, communications, or journalism, particularly in the fields of public health, science, or medicine. Candidates with academic science backgrounds who have demonstrated experience in translation (e.g., popular science writing, podcasting, social media explainers) are encouraged to apply.
Mission-driven: You are excited about 1Day’s mission and principles. You do not have to be well versed in things like human challenge studies, but we expect someone who is passionate about reducing the burden and threat of infectious diseases worldwide.
Intellectual horsepower and curiosity: You can process complex ideas quickly and connect them across domains. We deal with intellectually complex subjects in several different domains including infectious disease, vaccinology, bioethics, and regulatory policy. Candidates that can effectively shape and explain our message will enjoy learning new subjects and be able to get up to speed quickly.
Communications translator: You excel at taking complex scientific, medical, and policy information and summarizing it in ways that are clear, legible, and persuasive for broad audiences.
Ability to take initiative: You are proactive in identifying opportunities, making progress without waiting for direction, and taking ownership of projects while collaborating effectively with colleagues.
Strong writing ability: We tend to be writing-first as an organization and a comms strategy, and strong written communication is core to our impact.
Things that are useful, but not required:
Experience in competitive debate or structured argumentation
Graphic design experience, such as basic digital illustration skills or digital layout skills
Familiarity with WordPress
Experience with Muck Rack or similar PR platforms
If this sounds like you, please apply now! We encourage you to review the below references to better understand our vision and message.
These volunteers want to be infected with disease to aid research — will their altruism help?, Nature, November 2023. (We can provide a copy if needed.) — an example of fairly balanced, recent coverage about us, including some negative assessments.
Would You Get Sick in the Name of Science?, New York Times, January 2025.
Op-eds we have written or helped edit/place on topics like the R21 malaria vaccine, pandemic preparedness regulatory measures in the US, and hepatitis C challenge studies. (You are also welcome to browse through our In The News page for articles that mention us.)
Hep C CHIM Volunteer FAQ — an FAQ we compiled on proposed hepatitis C human challenge studies, showing how we try to provide information to prospective volunteers and condense complicated medical and scientific literature.
