Health Director

Edelman is a voice synonymous with trust, reimagining a future where the currency of communication is action. Our culture thrives on three promises: boldness is possibility, empathy is progress, and curiosity is momentum. 

At Edelman, we understand diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB) transform our colleagues, our company, our clients, and our communities. We are in relentless pursuit of an equitable and inspiring workplace that is respectful of all, reflects and represents the world in which we live, and fosters trust, collaboration and belonging.

The Company

Edelman is a global communications firm that partners with businesses and organizations to evolve, promote and protect their brands and reputations. Our 6,000 people in more than 60 offices deliver communications strategies that give our clients the confidence to lead and act with certainty, earning the trust of their stakeholders. In the last three years, our work has garnered more than 30 Cannes awards and multiple Sabre and European Excellence Awards. We were named as Contagious Top 10 Best and Bravest Agencies on the Planet. Since our founding in 1952, we have remained an independent, family-run business. Edelman owns specialty companies Edelman Data & Intelligence (DxI) and United Entertainment Group (entertainment, sports, lifestyle). Championing diverse skills, backgrounds and specialisms in our team is the key to our success.

About the Health Team

We help the world's largest pharmaceutical companies and healthcare brands to show patients, regulators, government, policy makers, doctors and the media how their complex products deliver the thing we value most: life. The Health Team at Edelman strategically partner with clients to deliver global, regional and UK integrated campaigns for disease awareness, medical education, patient and employee engagement, digital communications, and much more!

Job Purpose

As a Director and a member of the London Health team, you will be responsible for securing, maintaining and growing business. You will provide senior strategic counsel and guidance to clients on achieving communications and business objectives, lead and manage teams, as well as oversee the development and delivery of high-quality integrated communications programs.

You are a strong leader and have a highly entrepreneurial mindset, working as part of the Health Brands senior leadership team to support the aims of the department/team and taking on key departmental tasks.

The Role

This is an opportunity for a seasoned professional to focus on an established global pharmaceutical client leading, mentoring and managing a highly integrated and diverse team across multiple geographies. The successful candidate will be responsible for overseeing and nurturing both brand and above brand work, counselling clients to help them achieve their communication and business objectives and ensuring that we’re bringing the best of Edelman to deliver high quality work, and excellence in project implementation.

Success in this role is demonstrated through evolving the work offered by Edelman, building our reputation for delivering best-in-class pharmaceutical communications work, bringing innovation and fresh thinking through specific briefs but also proactively against commercial priorities.

Experience and skills required for this role:

Health Expertise:

• Deep experience and track record working with the pharmaceutical industry, as well as understanding of the regulatory and compliance environment, data milestones, health equity and access, etc. 
• Previous experience leading global large communications programmes and proven ability to build campaigns and programmes that come to life across owned, earned and paid. 

• Practical understanding of the media relations within the sector and strong ability to direct and oversee the delivery of sharp content within the regulatory constraints and tailored to a wide range of audiences (medical and general population). 

People management: 

• Experience in working well in a highly matrixed organisation, siding with the senior management team and working collaboratively to deliver company priorities. 

• Superb people management skills, motivating and coaching large account teams in devising and managing projects. 

• Career-pathing development and line-management experience. 

Strategic counsel: 

• Experience working with research, strategy and creative teams to ensure insights and analytics are at the core of all the work. 

• Demonstrate deep sector and client business knowledge within pharmaceutical communications to deliver high-value strategic client counsel that yields consistently high scores in client satisfaction. 

• High quality oversight and impeccable client-servicing. 

Business development:  

• Hunter mentality with ability to spot and unlock organic growth opportunities within existing client relationships.  

• Drive effective, high quality, collaborative responses to RFPs and other briefs, and be able to demonstrate ability to pitch and win business. 

• Understand different pricing structures and how they work. 

Operations: 

• Collaborate with senior members of the London Health team to ensure optimal team design and structure across teams for both high quality delivery and efficiency. 

• Deep finance, including scoping, forecasting and capacity planning understanding. 

We are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace, so if you’re excited about this role but your experience doesn’t perfectly align with every qualification, we encourage you to apply anyway. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.