Food Science Internship Jobs in Virginia (NOW HIRING)

Job Description:
POLITICO's mission from the very beginning was to win the audience. We dedicate ourselves to providing accurate, non-partisan, impactful information to the right people at the right time so that they can act with confidence and speed.
POLITICO is seeking a Business Development Specialist to join AgencyIQ, a regulatory research and intelligence division of POLITICO.
As a Business Development Specialist (BDS), you will be an integral part of the new business team responsible for identifying and engaging future AgencyIQ subscribers across the life sciences and food industries, helping to deliver a high-value subscription product to a sophisticated audience of regulatory and policy professionals.
This role is ideal for someone who thrives at the intersection of sales, research, communication, and strategy.
How You'll Do It
• Identify and engage prospective subscribers using strategic outbound prospecting, inbound qualification, LinkedIn engagement, email outreach, phone outreach, events, and relationship-building initiatives;
• Use AI-enabled sales and research tools to improve prospecting efficiency, personalization, account research, and market signal detection;
• Schedule high-quality meetings with senior regulatory, policy, quality, and executive stakeholders through thoughtful, consistent, and creative outreach;
• Research life sciences and food organizations, regulatory teams, market dynamics, and emerging regulatory/policy developments to improve outreach relevance and effectiveness;
• Develop strong knowledge of AgencyIQ's content, platform capabilities, and the regulatory environments impacting prospective clients;
• Build executive-ready pre-meeting briefs, stakeholder maps, and account intelligence summaries for the commercial team;
• Partner closely with Commercial Leadership to provide insights and data around visit acquisition trends, tactics, and drivers;
• Maintain accurate pipeline and engagement data within Salesforce and other GTM systems.
What You'll Need
• Strong written and verbal communication skills in a professional setting;
• Intellectual curiosity and interest in life sciences, food policy, regulation, public policy, research, or current events;
• Ability to synthesize information quickly and communicate clearly to both prospects and internal stakeholders;
• Competitive drive and demonstrated initiative through academics, athletics, leadership roles, internships, entrepreneurial projects, or other high-performance environments;
• Interest in sales, business development, market strategy, communications, or client engagement;
• Comfort using AI tools and modern sales technologies to improve productivity, research quality, and workflow efficiency.
Ideal Backgrounds
• Experience in competitive environments through athletics, academics, leadership, entrepreneurship, research, or policy-related work;
• Leadership roles in student organizations, academic programs, campus initiatives, or entrepreneurial ventures;
• Internships in life sciences, food policy, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, consulting, communications, public policy, commercial organizations, or startups.
Preferred Areas of Study
• Public Health, Health Policy, Food Policy, Regulatory Science;
• Biology, Chemistry, Neuroscience, Biotechnology, Food Science, Nutrition;
• Political Science, International Affairs, Communications, Economics, or Business.
Bonus Points If You Have
• Familiarity with pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device, diagnostics, food, or agriculture industries;
• Experience with Salesforce, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, ZoomInfo, Outreach, Apollo, Gong, Clay, or similar GTM tools;
• Experience using AI tools for prospecting, research, workflow automation, or account intelligence;
• Experience in startup, entrepreneurial, or other fast-paced, high-growth environments.
We value our people. Click here for more on what we offer and what it's like to work for POLITICO.
Let's keep in touch. You can view our list of open positions here and email us careers@politico.com. We hope to see your application soon!
About Us.
POLITICO illuminates the forces shaping global power. Since 2007, we have delivered intelligence that anticipates tomorrow's headlines, not reports on yesterday's news. As politics has increasingly become the defining force of our era, our work has never been more vital.
Cabinet secretaries and Ministers start their mornings with our analysis. CEOs shape strategy around our reporting. Advocacy leaders rely on our insights to move policy. We deliver the straightforward facts and clear-eyed analysis they need to navigate the most complex political landscape of our lifetimes.
Our 1,100+ publishing professionals across the world's key democratic capitals-Washington, Brussels, London, Paris, Berlin, Sacramento, and New York-form the world's premier politics and policy newsroom. We tell the story of how power really works by explaining who wields it and how they plan to exercise it, connecting dots others miss and delivering scoops from sources others don't even know exist.
Innovation has always been a core tenet of our story. At launch, we bet that depth would trump scale, that talent would trump traffic, and that politics would become central to modern life. In 2011, we made another bet and launched POLITICO Pro to help decision-makers understand the business of government, transforming both how they shape government action and the business of journalism itself.
These bets have made POLITICO the most successful digital news startup of its generation and the indispensable resource for leaders who shape the future. Today, we are a rarity in media: a growing, profitable, and sustainable news organization.
POLITICO is a subsidiary of Axel Springer SE, a family-owned transatlantic media company headquartered in Berlin and New York. Axel Springer is dedicated to shaping the future of journalism in the free world, believing that a free and informed society is essential to democracy. The company's guiding principles - first articulated as The Essentials by founder Axel Springer in the aftermath of World War II - remain a cornerstone of the company's foundation today. Learn more about Axel Springer
Posting date:
2026-06-11
Title:
Business Development Specialist - AgencyIQ