Overview
Senior Strategist, Commercial Strategy at VML Health, a global healthcare agency and part of WPP. The Global Strategy Team supports clients with bold, curious strategic thinking and operates in an agile model, collaborating with clients and integrated agency teams to unlock transformative impact in healthcare. The role sits within the Commercial Strategy team, based in the London office, with collaboration across core hubs and strategic disciplines.
About The Position
Title: Senior Strategist, Commercial Strategy
Reports to: Director, Commercial Strategy
We are looking for a Senior Commercial Strategist to lead workstreams and deliver high-quality outputs across Commercial Strategy engagements and new business pitches. This role translates complex scientific, clinical, and market information into clear strategic implications and client-ready outputs. It also ensures strong delivery excellence, taking end-to-end ownership of assigned project components.
The Senior Commercial Strategist will contribute across core Commercial Strategy workstreams, including unmet need and market assessment, competitive foresight, secondary research and insight synthesis, primary research (e.g., interviews, advisory boards, workshops), strategic scientific narrative and value architecture, evidence generation and differentiation, and market readiness/activation planning. The role involves building client relationships and contributing to new business activities, supporting proposals and identifying organic growth opportunities.
This role is based in our London office with close collaboration across our core hubs and strategic disciplines.
Responsibilities
- Lead workstreams within Commercial Strategy engagements and new business pitches, delivering high-quality outputs.
- Translate complex scientific, clinical, and market information into clear strategic implications and client-ready content.
- Shape strategic narratives, value architecture, and evidence generation plans.
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams (creative, engagement, medical education, and marketing) to deliver solutions.
- Build and maintain strong client relationships; support proposals and identify growth opportunities.
- Mentor junior team members on research tasks and project logistics.
- Ensure delivery excellence and end-to-end ownership of assigned components.
Qualifications
- 3–5 years’ experience in healthcare strategy/consulting, pharma/biotech, medical communications, clinical research, or scientific academia.
- Experience producing high-quality research outputs and translating findings into actionable strategic recommendations.
- Exposure to multi-stakeholder healthcare environments (clinicians, patients, payers, advocates, policymakers).
- Experience supporting or co-leading primary research activities (interviews, advisory boards, workshops) including material development and synthesis.
- Contribution to new business/proposals (e.g., pitch research, development of sections).
Knowledge And Skills
- Understanding of core commercialization concepts (competitive landscape, positioning/differentiation, evidence needs, stakeholder decision drivers) and asset lifecycle implications.
- Ability to apply an adoption/value lens, connecting evidence and stakeholder needs to uptake and differentiation.
- Growing awareness of how asset-level work ladders into broader context and ecosystem dynamics.
- Strong problem-solving skills and ability to work with ambiguity; uses structured thinking to build coherent outputs.
- Attention to detail and high-quality control standards.
- Strong workstream management skills (planning, tracking, coordinating inputs, documentation).
- Comfort with leveraging technology (including AI) to improve efficiency and rigor, with appropriate validation.
Personal characteristics
- Proactive, curious, and intellectually ambitious.
- Takes ownership and drives work forward with minimal prompting.
- High standards for quality and clarity; provides constructive feedback.
- Collaborative team player who supports junior colleagues.
- Flexible and resilient in a fast-moving environment.
Qualifications
- Degree-level qualification (Life Sciences, Pharmacy, Medicine, Public Health, or similar). Advanced degree is a plus but not required.
We are an equal opportunity employer and consider applicants for all positions without discrimination. We support a hybrid work approach; if accommodations or flexibility are required, please discuss with the hiring team during the interview process.
VM L/VML is a WPP agency. For more information, please visit www.vml.com and follow on Instagram, LinkedIn, and X.
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