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Employer: Pharmacycle Pty Ltd
Location: Australia. Hybrid, with regular time in office (Sydney or Melbourne base preferred).
Employment type: 3 to 5 days per week. Permanent.
Reports to: General Manager
Direct reports: Marketing Coordinator
Salary band: 110k-140k
Pharmacycle is the only end-to-end blister pack recycling program in Australia. Collection through to logistics, separation, and recycling, all done in Australia. Since July 2022 we have recycled more than 170 million blister packs across 1,000+ active collection points, with 100% of collected material diverted from landfill.
Australians use around 2 billion blister packs a year. Almost all end up in landfill. We are the national program changing that.
We are backed by a coalition of committed shareholders and an active board. Our streams are growing beyond blister packs to inhalers, epipens, and medical injectables.
Our ambition is to make Pharmacycle synonymous with recycling in Australia the way Heinz belongs to barbecues and Bunnings belongs to weekends.
This role leads the brand, communications, and partnership function at Pharmacycle at a moment of strategic shift.
For the past few years, marketing has operated primarily as a sales-support engine. It has produced volume, but not category authority. The board has agreed to move to a brand-led and partner-amplified operating model. Our biggest opportunity is not growing our own audience from scratch. It is activating the audiences our partners already have (councils, pharmacy banner groups, retail chains, healthcare networks, and pharma partners), and building national category authority through earned media, thought leadership, and executive visibility.
This role owns that shift. You will define how Pharmacycle shows up to every Australian and every organisation that talks to them.
Brand and strategy
Develop the annual communications strategy and 12 month integrated campaign calendar. Own the brand narrative, messaging architecture, and creative direction. Set KPIs for the function and report progress to the board.
Partnerships
Lead partnership strategy and activation with councils, pharmacy banner groups, retail chains, healthcare networks, and pharma partners. Build joint campaigns that work for both sides. Establish partner marketing planning cycles measured in quarters, not weeks.
Earned media and thought leadership
Build journalist relationships across sustainability, pharmacy, healthcare, and general news press. Place opinion pieces and by-lined articles. Manage awards submissions. Position Pharmacycle leadership at industry conferences, sector events, and in policy conversations, including on product stewardship.
Campaigns and activations
Design and lead time-bound campaigns tied to cultural moments (National Recycling Week, Plastic Free July, World Environment Day, and similar). Anchor each campaign in a single hero asset built for partner co-marketing from day one.
Team and function leadership
Manage the Marketing and Communications Coordinator. Set clear direction, KPIs, and quality standards. Manage relationships with specialist external suppliers for hero video production, PR, and design where in-house capacity is not the right fit.
Marketing systems and infrastructure
Ensure the marketing toolset (EDM platform, social management, NetSuite CRM, analytics) is used strategically and reports meaningful outcomes. Work with the finance and operations functions on integration where marketing intersects with sales and reporting.
Board and executive engagement
Work directly with the board on strategic direction. Contribute to executive communications, investor and stakeholder engagement, and long-term category positioning.
Essential
Preferred
How you show up
You report to the General Manager. You manage the Marketing and Communications Coordinator directly. You work closely with the Strategic Sales Manager, Program Lead, and shareholders.
Send us:
Applications to: afonso.firmo@pharmacycle.com.au
Shortlisted candidates will meet the General Manager and the shareholder representative on the marketing working group.
Pharmacycle is an equal opportunity employer.
We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and experiences.
Pharmacycle is Australia’s first and only end to end recycling program for household and commercial medicinal blister pack waste.
It is the quick and easy way to recycle empty medicinal blister packs. Best of all, it’s completely FREE to drop off at a participating pharmacy. You can find your nearest drop off location here.
Pharmacycle is a voluntary recycling program, funded by participating pharmacies, industry sponsors and government organisations.
Pharmacycle is a complete end-to-end solution for the recycling of medicinal blister packs. Pharmacycle manages all of the collection, logistics and processing of blister packs, providing full transparency and traceability.
Using specialised recycling technology, located right here in Australia, Pharmacycle ensures that blister packs collected for recycling are actually recycled.
Collected blister packs are transported to our processing facility located in Sydney.
Each box or bag received at our processing facility is checked in and weighed allowing us to track and report on performance across our network of public drop off locations and participating organisations.
Once weights have been recorded, the contents of full boxes/bags are emptied onto a sorting table for a visual quality control check.
Any contamination, such as residual medication still in packaging, paperboard packaging, or non-accepted packaging is removed and managed accordingly (recycled where possible). Any residual medication that is identified is removed and placed in a sealed container, which when full is sent to an appropriately licenced facility for disposal.
The empty blister packs are then put through a series of mechanical recycling processes to separate the aluminium foil/seal from the plastic blister. The steps include shredding, grinding, air-density separation, and finally electrostatic separation.
Once separated the aluminium and plastic material is kept in bulk bags until enough material is ready to be sent to end-users.
When it comes to items that Australians wished they could recycle, blister packs top the list. However, as blister packs are made of different materials, including plastic and aluminium, they cannot be recycled through kerbside recycling.
This means that every year, hundreds of millions of blister packs are either sent to landfill or incorrectly placed into kerbside recycling, contaminating other materials streams.
For blister packs to be recycled, they first need to be collected in sufficient volumes to warrant the use of specialised recycling technology. Pharmacycle provides the mechanism to achieve this, making the wish to recycle blister packs a reality.
Australia's only complete blister pack recycling solution
hello@pharmacycle.com.au
1800 344 003
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