Senior Associate/Policy (Life Sciences practice) in Cambridge

About Charles River Associates

For over 50 years, Charles River Associates has been a premier consulting firm that offers employees a place to learn from a diverse group of consultants, industry experts, and academics. At CRA you will be exposed to leading minds who use economic, financial, and business analysis to solve complex world problems for an impressive roster of clients. Through a collegial environment, formal and informal training opportunities, and a broad array of professional development resources, your experience at CRA will open doors for you as you accelerate your career.

CRA’s Life Sciences practice helps pharmaceutical, biotechnology, diagnostics and medical device companies achieve optimum performance across key aspects of their business, including innovation, commercial success, organization, and reputation, all for the long-term benefit of patients, clinicians, employees, and shareholders. Our goal is to bring clarity and solutions to complex challenges. Clients turn to us when they need to make the right decision, implement it the right way, and secure buy-in from key stakeholders.

Our dedicated Policy team works with Life Sciences companies, industry associations, government organizations, and advocacy groups to anticipate and respond to policy challenges. Our projects focus on analysing ongoing or anticipated policy challenges, assessing the impact on patients, competition or innovation, and helping clients with developing solutions that address these challenges whilst supporting their commercial priorities.

We are seeking an experienced consultant with knowledge of the Life Sciences industry and strong understanding of key Life Sciences policy issues across international markets to join our team.

Job Overview

As an integral member of the policy team, you will help us deliver rigorous analysis and high-impact solutions. We provide professional development and mentoring to contribute to a global Life Sciences practice, allowing you to work with colleagues from across our offices and gain experience in a wide range of geographies, therapy areas, aspects of the industry and project types. Senior Associates at CRA work on project teams alongside senior and more junior consultants on a variety of client engagements. They take an active role in managing consulting projects and workstreams. In this role, you will deliver key components of client engagements, managing defined workstreams, coordinating inputs from junior team members, and contributing to both project quality and overall delivery.

As a Senior Associate, you will be expected to demonstrate strong advisory and project management skills, with increasing responsibility for execution, coordination, and client interaction. Growth within this role would involve managing the execution of defined projects or major workstreams on larger, more complex projects, conceptualising and analysing issues, and performing or directing a wide variety of analytical tasks. We also highly value a strong work ethic, creativity, a positive attitude, a high level of energy, and the ability to take ownership and lead by example.

Responsibilities

• Work with senior colleagues to design and lead analytical tasks, and contribute to the development of overall analytical frameworks.
• Provide direction to junior team members on research and analytical tasks, review and synthesise analytical outputs, and ensure quality control.
• Lead internal discussions that build insights from the analytical process and integrate findings into the broader project work.
• Draft and quality-review reports or presentations.
• Interface directly with client representatives to communicate developments, present results, and support day-to-day client engagement.
• Contribute to business development efforts, including drafting client proposals and supporting the development of new project opportunities.
• Support efforts to strengthen the team’s external visibility through thought leadership, internal knowledge sharing assets, participating in events and sector outreach where relevant.

Qualifications

• Bachelors or Masters degree relevant to consulting in life sciences policy (e.g., health policy, economics, health economics, public health, business, life sciences).
• Previous consulting experience in life sciences, health policy or a related field required.
• Strong knowledge of Life Sciences policy issues.
• Deep understanding of quantitative and qualitative analytical methods, with the ability to review, interpret, and synthesise complex analysis.
• Strong attention to detail, self-motivated, and able to take ownership for delivering high-quality work on time.
• Excellent written and oral conversational and business English; additional language skills are preferred.

CRA is proud of its ability to manage work/life balance. However, some travel may be required, and successful candidates must demonstrate a willingness and ability to travel to client locations when necessary.

How to Apply

To be considered for this role, please submit your CV and cover letter. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.

Workplace Flexibility and COVID Safety

At CRA, we believe in creating a work environment that enables our colleagues to benefit from being together in the office to best deliver on our promise of career growth, mentorship, and inclusivity. At the same time, we recognize individuals may realize a range of benefits when working from home. We currently ask that individuals spend at least 3 to 4 days a week on average working in the office (which may include traveling to another CRA office or to a client’s location). The specific days may be determined in coordination with your practice or team. There may be times of the year (e.g. over holiday periods) when additional remote work options are offered to those whose work commitments permit it, although our offices will remain open for those who choose or need to be there.

Our Commitment to Equal Employment Opportunity

Charles River Associates is an equal opportunity employer (EOE). All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, status as a protected veteran, or any other protected characteristic under applicable law. The statements included in this job description are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by people assigned to this job. They are not intended to be an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties and skills required of personnel so classified.