Explore a career as a scientific marketing manager

Meet Marina, a Scientific Marketing Manager at Eagle Genomics, a TechBio platform business that applies network science to biology. Eagle Genomics focuses on harnessing biological data (such as genes, proteins, metabolites, microbes, etc.) to empower customers and scientific institutions to conduct science-driven innovation, leading to new ideas, opportunities, research and products.

Marina tells us about her job in scientific marketing, and how you can train to become one too.

Marina’s job is extremely varied, as she is responsible for bridging the gap between the scientific work of her company and their external relations with potential customers and the public. This means that Marina often has to take technical and scientific information and make it understandable for the wider world. Her typical day includes:

“Content development which can take many different forms, for example, blogs, white papers, infographics, videos, anything you can think of! I work with events, public relations and communications, and I also support in social media.”

Having such a wide range of responsibilities is appealing to Marina as it ensures her job remains varied and engaging. It also demonstrates the importance of marketing professionals for an organisation since marketing is a fundamental activity for every business to thrive.

Eagle Genomics works at the cutting edge of TechBio in one of the most exciting areas of innovation: the microbiome. Marina defines the microbiome as the “ecosystem of microorganisms coexisting in the body and environment”.

In the Food, Nutrition and Agriculture sectors, Eagle Genomics specifically focuses on trying to understand, for example, “how the microbiome impacts human and animal nutrition, biodiversity, and sustainability.” The microbiome is an area of transformative potential for humanity and the environment. However, its complexity makes understanding and harnessing it a significant challenge.

Currently, Marina’s projects involve working with their in-house science team to effectively communicate their innovations to an external audience. She notes that:

“In the marketing team we are very lucky because we play a central role within the organisation as we are in touch with many different departments. This means that we also get to learn about everything from the product to the science, and we basically communicate it to the world.”

In terms of specific marketing activities, Marina particularly enjoys running digital marketing campaigns to reach and engage Eagle Genomics’ key audiences:

“I think that the digital marketing campaigns are really interesting because they are whole projects and I’m involved in them from start to finish, including planning, executing and evaluating. It is very fulfilling once a campaign goes out to see the engagement with the audience and the type of content that they are interested in.”

There are numerous ways to become a Scientific Marketing Manager, which Marina summarises:

“A career in scientific marketing can take many forms. You can have a scientific background and specialise in marketing. That’s what I did, I trained in biochemistry and biomedical science, and I basically learned marketing on the job. You can also take the marketing and communications route where you study marketing and then specialise in scientific marketing.”

Overall, the complexity of her job means that no two days are the same, which is what Marina enjoys the most:

“The best part of my job is the variety of things I can do on a day-to-day basis.”

Marina sums up being a Scientific Marketing Manager in three words:

“Creative, dynamic, rewarding.”

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