Director, Corporate Communications

Kyverna Therapeutics is a patient-centered, clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing cell therapies for patients suffering from autoimmune diseases. The Kyverna therapeutic platform leverages advanced T cell engineering to suppress and eliminate autoreactive immune cells at the origin of autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. Be at the forefront of cell therapy innovation by joining scientists, industry veterans and healthcare visionaries and help transform how autoimmune diseases are treated
Kyverna is recruiting a Director, Corporate Communications, in its Corporate Affairs (CA) and Investor Relations (IR) Team, reporting to the Senior Vice President, CA, Communications and IR, to help advance its mission of liberating autoimmune patients through the curative potential of cell therapy. The ideal candidate will contribute to our goals of delivering the first autoimmune CAR T therapy to the market while living our core values: bring intellectual humility, elevate each other, and stay true to why.  
The Director, Corporate Communications will serve as a corporate affairs generalist, partnering with business leaders to position Kyverna as a leader in the autoimmune CAR T field, while engaging employees internally, to drive business results. The candidate will be responsible for managing the Company’s corporate and pipeline communications; internal communications programming; and will also support some patient advocacy engagement efforts. Responsibilities:

Corporate & Pipeline Communications:

• Plan and execute strategic external communications activities to support Kyverna’s business goals; this includes priorities such as targeted media relations and executive speaking opportunities.
• Develop a pipeline communications strategy and related activities to manage key company data milestones and support clinical trial recruitment efforts. 
• Shape and implement the Company’s social and digital media strategy including managing and updating Kyverna’s corporate digital channels (website, social media feeds, etc.) and driving a social media calendar to maintain stakeholder engagement.
• Write press materials (press releases, Q&As, key message documents, etc.) and maintain a corporate news flow calendar.
• Support the development of a corporate narrative that can be used to create content for Kyverna’s internal and external corporate channels.
• Maintain and update Kyverna’s core corporate communication tools (corporate deck, corporate ads, style guidelines, branding, etc.).
• Support crisis communications and issues management when needed.
• Manage agency partners.

Internal Communications:

• Plan and execute internal communications activities to drive employee education and engagement around the business strategy.
• Develop and write internal communications (internal announcements, change management communications, etc.).
• Partner with functional leaders to understand their strategies and how best to communicate internally.
• Closely partner with the Human Resources team on related employee engagement plans.

Patient Advocacy:

• Partners with the SVP, Communications and IR on patient advocacy strategy; works to identify and build strong strategic relationships with advocacy partners.

Requirements:

• BA degree in public relations (PR), communications, journalism, liberal arts (preferred)
• 10+ years’ experience in: corporate communications, internal communications, content creation, digital communications, product and/or pipeline communications, with a life-science/pharma company (highly preferred)
• Demonstrate strength in writing and storytelling (internally and externally) with track record of successful interpersonal communication
• Experience managing digital/social channels (LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter)
• Media relations and crisis management experience
• Knowledge of regulations and principles specific to communications for a publicly traded biopharmaceutical company, including partnering with IR
• Ability to understand and communicate complex science
• Experience engaging with senior executives to provide communications counsel and coaching
• Strong collaborator, works effectively in teams
• Intellectually curious with a strong ability to learn
• Comfortable operating and driving results in a dynamic and highly innovative environment
• Detail-oriented, well-organized self-starter; experienced in managing multiple projects (timelines, budgets, priorities) simultaneously; flexibility and results-oriented focus are essential

The base salary range for candidates residing in the San Francisco Bay Area for this position is $190,000 to $240,000 annually. This salary range is an estimate of what we reason