How to Apply to Ogilvy Health US

12 min read Last updated April 20, 2026 6 open positions
Blake Crosley
Blake Crosley Researched using publicly available information, hiring data, and ATS analysis.

Key Takeaways

  • Ogilvy Health US is WPP's specialized healthcare marketing agency, anchored in Parsippany NJ with offices in NYC and Philadelphia, serving major US pharma, biotech, and medical device clients.
  • The agency rebranded from Ogilvy CommonHealth (OCH) to Ogilvy Health in 2018 — legacy OCH experience is recognized as the same lineage by recruiters.
  • Hiring runs through Greenhouse at job-boards.greenhouse.io/ogilvy — filter for Health roles and the Parsippany/NYC/Philadelphia offices.
  • Pharma agency compensation runs 30-50% above commercial agencies because the medical knowledge and MLR fluency required narrow the talent pool — mid-level account/strategy/creative typically $80-130K, senior $130-200K+, medical/scientific directors $150-280K, agency leadership $250-450K+.
  • Therapeutic-area depth, MLR fluency, and launch experience are the three most valuable credentials at every level.
  • Interviews probe regulatory awareness (FDA OPDP, fair balance, PhRMA Code, adverse event reporting) and patient mission alignment alongside craft and strategy.
  • Industry context matters in 2025-2026: the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is reshaping Medicare-eligible brand economics, the GLP-1 boom (Wegovy, Zepbound, Mounjaro) is creating massive obesity/diabetes brand opportunities, and AI in MLR-regulated marketing is both an opportunity and a compliance challenge.
  • Career path: account, strategy, creative, medical/scientific, medical writing, editorial, production, digital/UX, PR, and project management are all distinct tracks — the medical and scientific director path is a major distinguishing feature of healthcare agencies vs commercial.

About Ogilvy Health US

Ogilvy Health is the dedicated healthcare marketing discipline within Ogilvy, the global creative network owned by WPP plc. In the United States, Ogilvy Health operates as one of the country's largest specialty healthcare communications agencies, serving the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device industries from offices anchored in Parsippany, New Jersey, with additional presence in New York City and Philadelphia. Parsippany sits inside the Northern New Jersey pharma corridor that includes Pfizer, BMS, Merck, Sanofi US, Boehringer Ingelheim, and Takeda US — the geographic logic is that healthcare agency staff need to be close to their pharma clients for in-person MLR (medical-legal-regulatory) review meetings, advisory boards, and brand team presentations. The US business traces back to Ogilvy CommonHealth Worldwide (OCH), which served as Ogilvy's healthcare brand for years before being rebranded to Ogilvy Health in 2018 as part of Ogilvy's broader 'borderless creativity' reorganization. The rebrand was designed to integrate health more visibly into the unified Ogilvy network while preserving the specialized healthcare agency identity. Many veterans of the agency still refer to legacy OCH heritage on their resumes — recruiters recognize this as the same lineage. Agency services span the full pharma marketing lifecycle: brand strategy and positioning for prescription products through pre-launch, launch, in-line maturity, and loss-of-exclusivity (LOE) phases; HCP (healthcare professional) creative including sales aids, mechanism-of-action animations, and conference presence at meetings like ASCO, ACC, AHA, RSNA, AAOS, and AAD; DTC (direct-to-consumer) advertising — a US-specific category since most countries restrict pharma DTC advertising; medical communications including KOL programs, advisory boards, MSL training tools, and disease-state education; digital experiences for HCPs across platforms like Doximity, Sermo, and Medscape; patient engagement programs covering adherence, copay assistance, and patient support; market access and payer marketing; and public relations through Ogilvy PR's health practice. Clients are typically major US pharma and biotech companies — Pfizer, Merck, BMS, AbbVie, Eli Lilly, Novartis US, Sanofi US, GSK US, AstraZeneca US, Takeda US, Boehringer Ingelheim, Janssen (J&J Pharma), Roche/Genentech, Amgen, Regeneron, Vertex, Gilead, and rare-disease specialists like Sarepta and BioMarin — alongside medical device makers including J&J MedTech, Medtronic, Stryker, BD, and Boston Scientific. Inside WPP, Ogilvy Health competes with Burson Health and the newly combined VML Health (Wunderman Thompson Health merged into VML in 2024). Externally the field is dominated by Omnicom Health Group, Publicis Health, and IPG Health, with strong independents including Klick Health (Toronto), Calcium, EVERSANA, Real Chemistry, AbelsonTaylor, and Greater Than One.

Application Process

  1. 1
    Apply via Greenhouse at job-boards

    Apply via Greenhouse at job-boards.greenhouse.io/ogilvy and filter for Ogilvy Health roles — US Health postings appear inside the broader Ogilvy global board, so use 'Health' in the search and filter by Parsippany, New York, or Philadelphia.

  2. 2
    A WPP/Ogilvy talent acquisition recruiter typically reviews within 1-3 weeks; fo

    A WPP/Ogilvy talent acquisition recruiter typically reviews within 1-3 weeks; for medical and scientific director roles the recruiter is usually a healthcare-specialist on the Ogilvy Health TA team.

  3. 3
    Phone screen with the recruiter (30 minutes)

    Phone screen with the recruiter (30 minutes) — expect questions about therapeutic area experience, MLR familiarity, agency vs in-house background, and salary expectations early.

  4. 4
    Hiring manager interview (45-60 minutes)

    Hiring manager interview (45-60 minutes) — usually a Group Account Director, Creative Director, Strategy Director, or Medical Director depending on the role; focus is fit with the brand team and craft depth.

  5. 5
    Portfolio or case review for creative, strategy, and medical writing roles

    Portfolio or case review for creative, strategy, and medical writing roles — bring HCP and DTC samples with MLR-aware framing, redact confidential client material, and be ready to walk through the strategic rationale.

  6. 6
    Skills assessment for medical and scientific roles

    Skills assessment for medical and scientific roles — mock med-ed slide critique, KOL meeting case study, or a clinical-data interpretation exercise; copywriters may receive a fair-balance writing test.

  7. 7
    Team panel round (3-5 stakeholders)

    Team panel round (3-5 stakeholders) — combination of senior creatives, account leads, project managers, and (for client-facing roles) medical/regulatory partners; expect behavioral and scenario questions about MLR push-back, launch deadlines, and cross-functional conflict.

  8. 8
    Final interview with agency leadership (Managing Director, EVP, or President of

    Final interview with agency leadership (Managing Director, EVP, or President of the practice) for senior roles — strategic vision, business growth thinking, and culture-add are evaluated.

  9. 9
    Reference checks (typically 2-3 professional references) and background screenin

    Reference checks (typically 2-3 professional references) and background screening through WPP's vendor.

  10. 10
    Total timeline runs 4-8 weeks from application to offer; medical director and se

    Total timeline runs 4-8 weeks from application to offer; medical director and senior leadership searches often take 8-12 weeks because the talent pool is small and scientific-credential vetting is rigorous.

Resume Tips for Ogilvy Health US

recommended

Lead with pharma agency experience by name — Ogilvy Health, Ogilvy CommonHealth

Lead with pharma agency experience by name — Ogilvy Health, Ogilvy CommonHealth (legacy), McCann Health, FCB Health, CDM, Area 23, AbelsonTaylor, Klick Health, Calcium, EVERSANA, Real Chemistry, Greater Than One, BIOMASS, Digitas Health, Razorfish Health, Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness — these names signal MLR fluency that commercial-agency resumes do not.

recommended

Name therapeutic areas explicitly: oncology, immunology, cardiology, neurology,

Name therapeutic areas explicitly: oncology, immunology, cardiology, neurology, rare disease, vaccines, women's health, dermatology, ophthalmology, gene therapy. Specialty and rare-disease experience commands premium compensation.

recommended

Call out the lifecycle phase you worked: pre-launch, launch readiness, launch, i

Call out the lifecycle phase you worked: pre-launch, launch readiness, launch, in-line growth, mature brand, LOE/post-LOE. Launch experience is the single most valuable credential.

recommended

Specify HCP vs DTC vs both — recruiters screen for this

Specify HCP vs DTC vs both — recruiters screen for this. Sales aids, IVAs (interactive visual aids), congress booth content, MOA videos, unbranded disease-state campaigns, and branded TV all count as distinct skills.

recommended

List MLR-aware deliverables (annotated references, fair-balance copy, ISI placem

List MLR-aware deliverables (annotated references, fair-balance copy, ISI placement, medical-legal-regulatory submission cycles, Veeva PromoMats experience) to prove you can survive regulated review without surprises.

recommended

For medical writers: include credentials — AMWA (American Medical Writers Associ

For medical writers: include credentials — AMWA (American Medical Writers Association) membership, ELS (Editor in the Life Sciences) certification, BELS, advanced degrees (PharmD, PhD pharmacology/biology, MS), and CME/CE accreditation experience.

recommended

For account and strategy: name client brands you supported (within NDA limits),

For account and strategy: name client brands you supported (within NDA limits), congress experience (ASCO, ASH, AHA, ACC, RSNA, AAD, AAOS, AAN), and quantified outcomes — script lift, share of voice, NRx growth, KOL engagement metrics.

recommended

Include specific platforms: Veeva Vault, Veeva PromoMats, ZINC MAPS, IQVIA data,

Include specific platforms: Veeva Vault, Veeva PromoMats, ZINC MAPS, IQVIA data, Komodo Health, Doximity, Sermo, Medscape, Decision Resources, claims data work.

recommended

For senior roles, demonstrate new-business contribution — pitch wins, organic gr

For senior roles, demonstrate new-business contribution — pitch wins, organic growth on existing accounts, RFP responses, and agency revenue generated.

recommended

Format for Greenhouse: clean reverse-chronological, no graphics or tables, ATS-f

Format for Greenhouse: clean reverse-chronological, no graphics or tables, ATS-friendly fonts (Arial, Calibri, Helvetica), keyword-rich therapeutic-area and ATS terminology, and a brief summary statement that names pharma marketing as your specialty.

ATS System: Greenhouse

Ogilvy globally — including Ogilvy Health US — uses Greenhouse for job postings and applicant tracking, accessible at job-boards.greenhouse.io/ogilvy. Roles are tagged by office (Parsippany, New York, Philadelphia) and discipline (Account, Creative, Strategy, Medical, Project Management, etc.). Greenhouse parses standard PDF and DOCX resumes well, supports structured profile data, and routes applications directly to Ogilvy Health's specialized healthcare TA team.

  • Match the job description's terminology exactly — if the posting says 'medical-legal-regulatory,' use that phrase; if it says 'MLR review,' mirror it. Greenhouse keyword scoring rewards precise matches.
  • Submit a single PDF resume with selectable text (not a scanned image) so Greenhouse's parser populates fields cleanly.
  • Fill out structured fields fully — work history, education, and the optional questionnaire items — incomplete profiles get filtered down by recruiters scanning at volume.
  • Use the cover letter field to call out your therapeutic-area depth and MLR experience explicitly; pharma recruiters read these because the talent pool is narrow and fit signals matter.
  • Apply only to roles that match your level and discipline — Greenhouse logs every application, and spraying applications across the Ogilvy network is visible to recruiters and hurts your candidacy.
  • If you have a referral inside Ogilvy Health, ask them to submit through the Greenhouse referral flow before you apply directly — referrals are routed to a separate, faster review queue.
  • Set up Greenhouse job alerts for the Ogilvy careers board with 'Health,' 'Pharma,' or therapeutic-area keywords to catch postings early; some healthcare roles fill within two weeks of posting.

Interview Culture

Interviewing at Ogilvy Health US has a different rhythm than commercial agency interviews.

Conversations move quickly to therapeutic-area depth, MLR fluency, and how you handle the medical-legal-regulatory review cycle that adds weeks to every project. Hiring managers want to know you understand the FDA OPDP (Office of Prescription Drug Promotion) framework, fair balance, ISI (important safety information) requirements, the PhRMA Code, and the realities of working through Veeva PromoMats with client medical, legal, and regulatory reviewers — they are screening for candidates who will not be surprised by a 14-comment MLR round and will not push back unprofessionally on regulatory edits. Expect behavioral scenarios about high-stakes launch deadlines, conflict between creative ambition and regulatory constraint, KOL engagement etiquette, and adverse event reporting awareness (any agency staffer who hears of a patient adverse event is obligated to report it through the client's pharmacovigilance channel within 24 hours — interviewers may probe whether you understand this). For creative roles, portfolio reviews focus less on visual flash and more on whether you can tell a clinically accurate brand story within fair-balance constraints. For strategy roles, expect a written or live case — typically a brand challenge for a hypothetical or anonymized Rx product, with questions about HCP segmentation, payer access barriers, IRA pricing implications, GLP-1 competitive dynamics, or rare-disease patient identification. For medical and scientific roles, expect a scientific assessment — interpret a Kaplan-Meier curve, critique a mock med-ed slide for accuracy and balance, or walk through how you would prepare a KOL for an advisory board. Culturally, interviewers tend to be warm, intellectually serious, and mission-aware — many staff describe meaningful pride in working on serious illnesses (oncology, rare disease, neurology) and expect candidates to engage authentically with the patient impact of the work. Avoid framing pharma marketing cynically; Ogilvy Health prizes people who take both the science and the patient outcomes seriously.

What Ogilvy Health US Looks For

  • Healthcare agency experience — Ogilvy Health, Ogilvy CommonHealth legacy, or a peer agency (McCann Health, FCB Health, CDM, Area 23, AbelsonTaylor, Klick Health, Calcium, Real Chemistry, EVERSANA, Greater Than One, Digitas Health) — commercial agency-only backgrounds rarely convert without specialized rationale.
  • Therapeutic-area depth in at least one specialty — oncology, immunology, rare disease, cardiology, neurology, vaccines, ophthalmology, dermatology, women's health, gene/cell therapy.
  • MLR (medical-legal-regulatory) fluency — comfort with annotated references, fair balance, ISI, Veeva PromoMats, ZINC MAPS, multi-round client reviews, and OPDP compliance.
  • Launch experience — having taken a brand from pre-launch through launch readiness through commercial launch is the most prized credential at every level.
  • Scientific literacy proportional to role — for medical writers, scientific directors, and medical directors, advanced degrees (PharmD, PhD, MD) and the ability to read clinical trial publications fluently.
  • Client-side empathy — pharma brand teams are under intense regulatory and commercial pressure; people who present clearly, document decisions, and make MLR easier are valued over creative purists.
  • Project management discipline — pharma timelines flex around MLR rounds, congress dates, and FDA approvals; PM rigor (Workfront, Smartsheet, structured status reporting) is expected.
  • Cultural respect for patients and HCPs — work touches serious illness, and the agency screens out cynical or careless candidates.
  • Cross-functional collaboration across creative, strategy, medical, regulatory, account, project management, and client teams — the agency runs on tight coordination.
  • Growth and curiosity — willingness to learn new therapeutic areas, regulatory updates (IRA Medicare price negotiation, GLP-1 market dynamics, AI in regulated marketing), and platform changes (Doximity ad products, Veeva updates, congress digital formats).

Frequently Asked Questions

How does pay at Ogilvy Health US compare to commercial Ogilvy and other commercial agencies?
Healthcare agencies generally pay 30-50% more than commercial agencies at every level because the talent pool is narrower — candidates need MLR fluency, therapeutic-area depth, and tolerance for the regulatory review cycle. A mid-level account director at a commercial Ogilvy office might earn $90-110K; the equivalent at Ogilvy Health is more typically $120-150K. Senior creative and strategy salaries run $130-200K+, scientific and medical directors (PhD/MD-credentialed) range $150-280K, and group/managing director leadership reaches $250-450K+. Bonuses and WPP equity at senior levels add meaningful upside.
Should I target the Parsippany NJ office or the NYC office?
Parsippany is the historic US pharma agency hub and sits adjacent to major client headquarters (Pfizer, BMS, Merck, Boehringer Ingelheim, Sanofi US, Takeda US). Most large pharma brand teams are seated in Northern NJ, so Parsippany maximizes client-team time, MLR meeting attendance, and brand-team integration — and it is the larger Ogilvy Health office. NYC has a smaller Ogilvy Health footprint but offers proximity to Ogilvy network leadership, broader creative talent, and biotech clients with NYC offices. Philadelphia is a smaller satellite. If you live in Manhattan or Brooklyn, NYC is feasible but expect occasional Parsippany travel; if you live in NJ suburbs, Parsippany is the obvious choice.
Does Ogilvy Health sponsor work visas?
Yes for specialized roles where the talent pool is genuinely scarce — particularly senior medical writers, medical directors, scientific directors, and senior strategy roles in oncology, rare disease, and other technical therapeutic areas. WPP has established immigration counsel and routinely sponsors H-1B, L-1, O-1, and TN visas. Sponsorship for entry-level account or project management roles is rare because the domestic talent pool is sufficient. If you require sponsorship, disclose it early and lead with the credentials (advanced degree, therapeutic-area specialization) that justify it.
Are there internship or junior entry programs?
Ogilvy Health participates in Ogilvy's broader summer internship program and runs occasional rotational analyst and assistant account executive entry pipelines. Slots are limited and competitive — specialized US pharma agency internships are smaller in number than commercial agency internships. Pharma marketing courses, MBA pharma concentrations, or science degrees combined with marketing internships strengthen candidacy. Watch the Ogilvy careers Greenhouse board January-March for summer postings and August-October for full-time entry roles.
How does Ogilvy Health compare to McCann Health, FCB Health, CDM, and Klick Health?
All five are top-tier US healthcare agencies and all share MLR rigor and therapeutic-area specialization. McCann Health (IPG, now part of unified IPG Health) and FCB Health Network (also IPG Health) are peer-scale to Ogilvy Health. CDM (Omnicom Health Group) is similarly peer-scale and Manhattan-anchored. Area 23 (Omnicom) is creatively decorated. Klick Health is the largest independent (Toronto-headquartered with US offices) and competes hard on creative + tech innovation. Compensation is broadly comparable across the group; cultural differences are real — Ogilvy Health benefits from the Ogilvy 'big idea' creative DNA, WPP global resources, and a Parsippany-centered footprint that maximizes pharma client proximity. People often move laterally across these agencies multiple times in a career.
What is the medical director / scientific director career path?
Medical directors and scientific directors are PhD/PharmD/MD-credentialed staff who own scientific accuracy of all client work, partner with client medical-legal-regulatory teams, and lead KOL engagement and advisory board strategy. The path typically starts with a science doctorate, sometimes followed by an industry medical affairs role, then a transition to agency-side as Senior Medical Writer or Associate Medical Director, advancing through Medical Director, Senior Medical Director, VP Medical, and Chief Medical Officer / Head of Scientific Strategy. Compensation is among the highest in the agency, and the role carries meaningful authority — medical leads can stop work that does not meet scientific or fair-balance standards.
What is the MLR (medical-legal-regulatory) cycle actually like?
Every client deliverable that references a prescription drug — sales aids, websites, congress materials, social posts, slide decks, training tools, even internal-use slides — must clear the client's MLR committee before release. MLR rounds typically run 1-3 weeks each, with annotated references, fair balance, ISI, and claim substantiation reviewed by client medical, legal, and regulatory reviewers (often through Veeva PromoMats or ZINC MAPS). A complex sales aid might take 4-8 MLR rounds across 8-16 weeks. Agencies that protect their teams from MLR friction — by training on annotated references, running pre-MLR internal reviews, and documenting decisions cleanly — keep clients longer and burn out staff less. Survivable MLR fluency is one of the most valuable agency-side skills.
How high-stakes is a pharma launch cycle?
Very. A drug launch represents years of clinical development and billions in client investment, with a launch window of weeks to a few months that determines competitive position, payer adoption, prescriber familiarity, and lifetime brand value. Agency teams supporting a launch run high intensity for 3-9 months — late nights, weekend MLR rounds, congress travel, sales meeting prep, and rapid-response creative for competitive disclosures. Compensation premiums and recognition are real, but launch-cycle hours are the primary work-life-balance trade-off in pharma agency life. Off-cycle periods (in-line maintenance, mature brand) are calmer.
What FDA OPDP and regulatory awareness do I need?
Working knowledge — not lawyer-level expertise — of the regulatory framework that governs Rx product promotion. Key concepts: fair balance (benefits and risks presented with comparable prominence), important safety information (ISI) placement, off-label promotion prohibitions, substantiation of efficacy claims, OPDP enforcement letters (warning letters and untitled letters published publicly), the PhRMA Code on Interactions with Healthcare Professionals, sunshine reporting (Open Payments), and the distinction between branded promotion and unbranded disease-state education. Agencies train new staff on these, but candidates who already understand them are easier to onboard. For medical and regulatory-adjacent roles, deeper FDA Guidance familiarity (Risk Communication, Direct-to-Consumer guidance, social media draft guidance) is expected.
How are the IRA (drug pricing) and GLP-1 boom affecting pharma marketing work?
The Inflation Reduction Act introduced Medicare drug price negotiation for selected high-spend Medicare Part D and Part B drugs, with the first negotiated prices taking effect in 2026. This compresses lifetime brand value for affected drugs and is changing the strategic calculus for late-lifecycle marketing investment, payer engagement, and patient access programs. Agencies are investing in IRA-aware launch strategy and access-marketing capabilities. Separately, the GLP-1 weight-loss class (semaglutide / Wegovy / Ozempic, tirzepatide / Mounjaro / Zepbound, and forthcoming compounds) has created the largest pharma marketing opportunity of the decade, with massive HCP and DTC budgets, manufacturing-supply communications challenges, and competitive dynamics across endocrinology, primary care, and obesity medicine specialists. Both topics come up in interviews.
Is the patient-mission element real, or is it marketing?
Real for most staff. Working on rare disease (Vertex CF, Sarepta DMD, BioMarin lysosomal disorders), oncology, neurology (Alzheimer's, MS, Parkinson's), and serious cardiovascular and immunology brands brings frequent contact with patient stories, patient advocacy organizations, and KOL clinicians. Ogilvy Health, like its peer agencies, screens during interviews for candidates who engage authentically with the patient impact of the work and avoids candidates who frame pharma marketing cynically. The work can also be emotionally demanding — staff working on terminal-illness brands often describe needing peer support and benefit from the agency's mental-health resources.
What is the typical interview-to-offer timeline and how should I prepare?
Plan for 4-8 weeks for individual contributor and mid-level roles, 8-12 weeks for senior leadership and medical-director-level searches. Preparation: review Ogilvy Health's case studies on ogilvyhealth.com and Ogilvy.com, read the most recent MM&M Agency 100 issue for industry context, refresh on FDA OPDP recent enforcement letters, and study the therapeutic area you are targeting (recent label changes, competitive launches, congress data readouts). Bring redacted portfolio samples that show MLR-aware craft, prepare two or three behavioral stories about navigating MLR conflict, and have informed questions about the brands and clients the team supports. Salary research: compare against MM&M, AdAge, and Glassdoor data for Parsippany/NYC pharma agency roles, and negotiate using the healthcare-agency premium as your anchor.

Open Positions

Ogilvy Health US currently has 6 open positions.

Check Your Resume Before Applying → View 6 open positions at Ogilvy Health US

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Sources

  1. Ogilvy Health — Official Site —
  2. Ogilvy — Careers (Greenhouse) —
  3. Ogilvy CommonHealth Rebrands as Ogilvy Health (Adweek) —
  4. WPP plc — Annual Report and Investor Materials —
  5. MM+M (Medical Marketing & Media) — Agency 100 Rankings —
  6. Pharmaceutical Executive — Industry Coverage —
  7. FDA Office of Prescription Drug Promotion (OPDP) —
  8. PhRMA Code on Interactions with Healthcare Professionals —
  9. Inflation Reduction Act — Medicare Drug Price Negotiation (CMS) —
  10. Glassdoor — Ogilvy Health Reviews and Salaries —
  11. LinkedIn — Ogilvy Health Company Page —
  12. FiercePharma — Pharma Marketing News —
  13. AdAge — Healthcare Agency Coverage —
  14. American Medical Writers Association (AMWA) —
  15. Veeva PromoMats — Promotional Content Management —