Associate Director- Health Strategy
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Who We Are
VML, part of WPP, is a leading creative company that combines brand experience, customer experience, and commerce, creating connected brands to drive growth. VML is celebrated for its innovative and human first, award-winning work for blue chip client partners including AstraZeneca, Colgate-Palmolive, Dell, Ford, Microsoft, Nestlé, The Coca-Cola Company, and Wendy's. The agency is recognized by the Forrester Wave™ Reports, as a Leader among Marketing Creative and Content Service Providers, Commerce Services, Global Digital Experience Services, Global Marketing Services and, most recently, Marketing Measurement & Optimization. In addition, VML’s specialist health network, VML Health, is one of the world’s largest and most awarded health agencies. VML’s global network is powered by 26,000 talented people across 55+ markets, with principal offices in Kansas City, New York, Detroit, London, São Paulo, Shanghai, Singapore, and Sydney.
About WPP
WPP is the trusted growth partner for the world’s leading brands. We unite cutting-edge media intelligence and data solutions, world-class creativity, next-generation production, transformative enterprise solutions and expert strategic counsel in a single company – powered by exceptional talent and our agentic marketing platform, WPP Open, to help our clients navigate change, capture opportunity and deliver transformational growth. For more information, visit WPP.com.
Associate Director, Commercial Strategy
Who We Are:
VML Health is a global healthcare agency with a vision to make the world of health human-first. VML Health has offices across the world & three global healthcare hubs in London, New York, & Milan. VML is a WPP company.
The Global Strategy Team
Within VML Health, the Global Strategy Team is home to a diverse collective of bold, curious strategic thinkers. Operating within an agile model, we partner seamlessly with clients and collaborate as part of integrated agency teams. All with a shared mission to unlock transformative impact in healthcare.
We are united by Radical Empathy, immersing ourselves in the lives and beliefs of the people we serve to uncover the unspoken tensions where the most powerful insights begin.
Our culture is supportive, entrepreneurial and growth focused. We collaborate across geographies and disciplines, take ownership with agency and continuously evolve our thinking to stay ahead of a dynamic healthcare landscape.
Our people and work thrive on integration across the strategy team, while also championing distinctive areas of expertise: Medical, Engagement, Brand and Commercial. Together, these disciplines create a connected approach that elevates every challenge we take on. This role sits within our Commercial Strategy team, based within the VML Health EU Hub.
Our Commercial Strategy team helps to shape how an asset, franchise, or portfolio creates sustainable competitive advantage—through early alignment on scientific narrative, unmet need, evidence and differentiation strategy, competitive foresight, and category context. We take a consultative approach to support clients through strategic programs with a particular focus on early commercialization, market readiness, category leadership and patient engagement and advocacy. Grounded in early cross-functional working, integration of the patient voice, and expert partnership, the team works with a variety of global clients, involving close collaboration with our creative, engagement, medical education and marketing teams to deliver creative solutions.
About the position
Title: Associate Director, Commercial Strategy
Reports to: Group Director, Commercial Strategy
We are looking for an established Associate Director with strong client engagement and delivery leadership skills to help lead Commercial Strategy engagements and support growth across key accounts. The ideal candidate understands the healthcare and pharmaceutical landscape, and can lead cross-functional teams to deliver high-quality, insight-led strategy, that meets client objectives, budgets and timelines.
This role plays a key part in delivery excellence – setting clear project structure and ways of working, managing dependencies and risks, and guiding teams to produce consistent, client-ready outputs. The Associate Director will also contribute to organic growth and net new business activity by supporting proactive account planning and helping translate opportunities into well-scoped programs of work. In addition, the role supports talent development through mentoring, coaching and supervision/line management of team members as required.
The candidate should have experience shaping and delivering commercialization strategy work from early pipeline through launch and/or indication expansion, across projects such as; category leadership & ecosystem shaping activities, clinical to commercial strategy, competitive differentiation, evidence generation strategy and early strategic scientific narrative & value architecture development. They should demonstrate commercial acumen and strategic context, connecting asset-level strategy to a broader franchise/portfolio/category story and anticipating relevant ecosystem and macro-environment considerations. Experience should be underpinned by strong primary and secondary research capability, and comfort working with external experts (e.g., KOLs, HCPs, patient advocates, policymakers) to generate insight and drive alignment.
This role is based in our London office with close collaboration across our core hubs and strategic disciplines.
Requirements
Associate Director should have strong healthcare strategy or consulting experience, with demonstrated leadership across complex commercialization engagements across a wide range of disease areas, as well as:
- Ability to lead delivery across workstreams, with strong governance (scope, resourcing, risk) and day-to-day financial stewardship
- Consultative client partnership: able to clarify objectives and translate them into a practical engagement roadmap/ways of working
- Strong team leadership: supervises and develops junior strategists through coaching, feedback, and (where applicable) line management
- Growth mindset: proactively identifies opportunities to deepen work and supports proposals/pitches in partnership with senior leads
- Comfortable leading integrated teams in a fast-paced, deadline-driven environment; confident managing stakeholder issues and escalating appropriately
Experience
- 7+ years' experience in healthcare strategy/consulting or closely related pharma/biotech roles
- Global and/or regional client experience across multiple therapy areas
- Track record delivering commercialization strategy work, owning defined workstreams and/or smaller engagements
- Experience directing primary research components (e.g., objectives, discussion guides, stimuli) and leading facilitation/expert engagement (e.g., workshops, advisory boards)
- Experience engaging with external stakeholders (e.g., HCPs/KOLs, payers, patient advocates, policymakers), and translating their input into actionable strategic direction
- Demonstrated contribution to business development (supporting and shaping proposals/pitches; progressing organic growth opportunities into scoped follow-on work)
Knowledge and skills
- Commercial acumen and strategic context: ability to link asset-level strategy to broader franchise/portfolio/category narratives and ecosystem/macro dynamics to shape adoption and long-term value
- Strong research craft across secondary and primary methods; rigorous synthesis into decision-driving insights and implications
- Excellent strategic storytelling and slide craft (storylining, executive-ready decks, clear recommendations, substantiation)
- Strong program leadership (workplans, dependencies, documentation quality); high proficiency in PowerPoint, Excel and Word
- Comfortable leveraging technology (including AI) to improve efficiency and rigor, with appropriate validation and governance
Personal characteristics
- Consultative, client-focused, and professional
- Accountable delivery leader with strong ownership
- Collaborative and inclusive team player
- Proactive and growth-oriented
- High standards, detail-minded, and resilient under pressure
- Willingness to travel as required (UK/EU/USA)
Qualifications
- Degree-level qualification (Life Sciences, Pharmacy, Medicine, Public Health, or similar). Advanced degree is a plus but not required.
We believe the best work happens when we're together, fostering creativity, collaboration, and connection. That's why we’ve adopted a hybrid approach, with teams in the office an average of four days a week. If you require accommodations or flexibility, please discuss this with the hiring team during the interview process.
WPP (VML) is an equal opportunity employer and considers applicants for all positions without discrimination or regard to characteristics. We are committed to fostering a culture of respect in which everyone feels they belong and has the same opportunities to progress in their careers.
VML is a WPP agency (NYSE: WPP). For more information, please visit www.vml.com, and follow along on Instagram, LinkedIn, and X.
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