Vice President, New Business - New Business, Health
Full-TimeUpdated on 10/22/2026
$100k - $230k
Expert
New York, NY, USA
In Person
Project & Program ManagementProposal Management
About the job
Requirements
At least 10 years of experience in business development or a senior client services/account leadership role within a recognized healthcare, pharmaceutical, or wellness marketing agency.
Deep understanding of pharmaceutical commercialization, including factors influencing pharmaceutical chief marketing officers, brand directors, and procurement decisions across healthcare professional, direct-to-consumer patient, and payer/market access audiences.
Solid understanding of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Office of Prescription Drug Promotion, and global regulatory environments, with an appreciation for how to push creative boundaries safely and strategically within regulated parameters.
Exceptional oral and written communication skills, with the ability to deliver professional, highly persuasive, and scientifically sound presentations.
Demonstrated ability to think abstractly, identify health and wellness trends, show curiosity about human behavior and patient journeys, and recognize outstanding creative work.
Strong leadership, long-range strategic planning, budget management, and operational and time-management skills.
Responsibilities
Lead mid-to-large new business pitches as a strategic architect, facilitating the entire pitch process from opportunity qualification through proposal development and pitch delivery.
Guide integrated teams in crafting compelling strategies and narratives that balance breakthrough, culture-shifting creativity with medical and scientific accuracy and regulatory compliance.
Foster creative ambition across disciplines and champion bold, winning creative concepts that go beyond requests for proposals and challenge standard healthcare communications conventions.
Partner with scientific, medical, strategy, and creative leads to translate clinical data and complex disease-state landscapes into compelling, human-centric creative narratives.
Lead pitch-team discussions about winning strategies and improvements, ensuring recommendations address prospective clients’ commercial challenges and tell a compelling story about their brand’s potential.
Ensure pitch teams have relevant brand, clinical, regulatory, and competitive background, and provide strategic, effective feedback throughout the process.
Build relationships with C-suite executives, commercial leads, pharmaceutical procurement teams, and health-specific pitch consultants.
Partner with Ogilvy Health Group sister agencies and WPP partners, providing leadership and support for network and integrated pitches.
Work with Project Management and Finance to determine financial and staffing models, including statements of work, full-time-equivalent allocations, and health/pharma rate cards; understand internal resource costs and align growth goals with investment and expected return on investment.
Ensure deliverables meet high standards for scientific accuracy and creative execution.
Maintain thorough knowledge of major pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and consumer healthcare trends, therapeutic categories, digital health innovation, and market access and payer dynamics, and educate agency leadership on market developments.
Manage and nurture New Business team talent, create an inclusive environment that supports equity and professional growth, conduct regular team meetings, set clear goals, and lead according to the organization’s core values.
OGILVY HEALTH: WE INSPIRE PEOPLE AND BRANDS TO IMPACT THE WORLD
Guided by this vision, Ogilvy Health, part of WPP, combines borderless creativity, scientific precision, cultural fluency, andAI-enabled capabilities to build healthcare's most influential movements.We believe the future belongs to those who can seamlessly blend human ingenuity with emerging technologies, using AI not simply as a tool, but as a catalyst for deeper insights, faster problem solving, and more impactful work. We drive measurable impact and category-defining growth for brands ready to shape what's next. Our approach is powered by fearless creativity that dares to be different, sparks emotional connections, and inspires action, ensuring cultural resonance. Scientific precision translates complex data into stories that resonate, while our impact-obsessed mindset focuses on delivering real-world outcomes.
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.
POSITION OVERVIEW:
Ogilvy Health is seeking a highly motivated and experienced VP, New Business to lead and drive strategic pitch processes for large, complex healthcare opportunities. This key role will be highly visible at the most senior levels of Ogilvy Health and will require collaborative leadership across highly specialized, cross-disciplinary teams. Reporting to the Chief Growth Officer, this role will be responsible for leading and supporting purposeful growth across our teams in North America.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:
Pitch Leadership: Lead mid-to-large new business pitches for as a strategic architect, facilitating the entire pitch process from opportunity qualification through proposal development and pitch delivery. Guide integrated teams crafting compelling strategies and narratives that balance breakthrough, culture-shifting creativity with medical/scientific accuracy and regulatory compliance.
Creative Ambition: Works across disciplines to foster a culture of creative ambition, championing bold and winning creative concepts that go beyond the RFP by showcasing a creative vision that challenges standard healthcare communications conventions.
Scientific & Creative Integration: Partners closely with scientific, medical, strategy, and creative leads to ensure clinical data and complex disease-state landscapes are translated into compelling, human-centric creative narratives.
Strategic Alignment: Leads discussions with pitch teams on “what will win this” and “how do we make this even better?,” ensuring our recommendations addresses specific commercial challenges and tell a compelling story for our prospective clients, helping them envision their brand’s highest potential.
Pitch Preparation: Ensures the pitch team has relevant brand, clinical, regulatory, and competitive background. Gives strategic and effective feedback to the team throughout the process.
Client & Procurement Relations: Helps build relationships with C-suite, commercial leads, and pharmaceutical procurement teams throughout the process. Develops and owns relationships with key health-specific pitch consultants.
Ogilvy Group & WPP Integration: Serve as a partner and collaborator both with our sister agencies in Ogilvy Health Group and our WPP partners, providing leadership and support to help drive network and integrated pitches.
Financial & Operational Oversight: Works with Project Management and Finance on the best financial and staffing model approach (SOWs, FTE allocations, and rate cards specific to health/pharma). Understands internal resource costs and aligns growth goals to investment and expected ROI.
Quality & Execution: Ensures everything delivered meets our exceedingly high standards—both in scientific content accuracy and design/creative execution.
Industry Expertise: Acquires and maintains a thorough knowledge of major pharma, biotech and consumer health care trends, therapeutic categories, digital health innovation, and market access/payer dynamics to regularly educate agency leadership on market developments.
Talent & Culture Management: Manages and nurtures talent on the New Business team, creating an inclusive environment supporting equity and professional growth. Conducts regular team meetings, sets clear goals, and leads through the lens of our core values.
WHAT YOU WILL NEED:
10+ years’ experience in a Business Development or senior Client Services/Account Leadership role within recognized healthcare, pharmaceutical, or wellness marketing agencies.
Pharmaceutical Landscape Expertise: Deep understanding of the pharmaceutical commercialization process, including what drives Pharma CMO, Brand Director, and Procurement decisions across Professional (HCP), Patient (DTC), and Payer/Market Access audiences.
Regulatory Familiarity: Solid understanding of FDA, OPDP, and global regulatory environments, with an appreciation for how to push creative boundaries safely and strategically within highly regulated parameters.
Outstanding Communication: Exceptional oral and written communication skills with a proven ability to deliver professional, highly persuasive, and scientifically sound presentations.
Analytical & Cultural Instincts: Demonstrated talent for abstract thinking, spotting health and wellness trends, an innate curiosity about human behavior/patient journeys, and a nuanced understanding of outstanding creative work.
Problem Solver: Excited by the opportunity to identify challenges, diagnose them and provide solutions
Adaptable: Ready and able to embrace change
Ambitious: Motivated by collective success, with a competitive spirit and strong desire to win
Accountable: Always there for your teammates and reliable
Creative: Putting together pieces in new ways to create new approaches that inspire teams and keep our new business work fresh
Action-Oriented: Acting on ideas to make things happen and get stuff done
Collaborative: Focused on the greater good with generosity as a core value
The base salary range for this position at the time of this posting is indicated below. Individual compensation varies based on job-related factors, including location, business needs, level of responsibility, experience, and qualifications. We offer a competitive benefits package, click here for more details.
Pay Range
$100,000—$230,000 USD
At Ogilvy, our people are at the heart of what we do: a creative agency that sparks game-changing ideas across culture and business through collaboration, integrity, and a celebration of self-expression.
We believe in building powerful teams with purpose – and we relentlessly curate transformative initiatives that make our commitment to fairness, and equity a reality. Our ultimate mission is to leave a positive impact on the world, creating a better future for all, while supporting and uplifting the global communities we serve. This is central to our mantra of Borderless Creativity.
Ogilvy is an equal opportunity employer and considers applicants for all positions without discrimination or regard to particular 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.
If you need any assistance seeking a job opportunity, or if you need reasonable accommodation with the application process, please contact us at [email protected]. Please note that this contact is only for candidates who are requesting accommodation. Emails for other purposes, including application status requests, will not receive a response.