Senior Health Commercial Strategist — Growth & Market Strategy in London

About the Position

We are looking for a Senior Commercial Strategist to lead workstreams and deliver high‑quality outputs across Commercial Strategy engagements and new business pitches. Working with Commercial and Global Strategy Team leadership, this role transforms complex scientific, clinical, and market information into clear strategic implications and client‑ready outputs. This role also plays a key part in ensuring 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
• market readiness/activation planning

The Senior Strategist will build strong client relationships and contribute 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.

Requirements

• Strong analytical capability with increasing independence; comfortable working with complex scientific/clinical and market information in a commercialization context
• Ability to independently synthesize complexity into clear insights, implications, and well‑structured, client‑ready content
• Strong written and verbal communication; able to craft compelling, well‑structured presentations and documents with minimal guidance
• Strong workstream leadership; able to plan, coordinate, and drive delivery across assigned project components
• Proactively supports and guides junior team members on research tasks and project logistics
• Professionalism in client communication and external stakeholder interactions
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office (PowerPoint, Excel, Word)

Experience

• 3–5 years’ experience in healthcare strategy/consulting, pharma/biotech, medical communications, clinical research, or scientific academia
• Demonstrated experience independently producing high‑quality research outputs and translating findings into clear, actionable strategic recommendations
• Exposure to multi‑stakeholder healthcare environments (e.g., clinicians, patients, payers, advocates, policymakers)
• Experience supporting or co‑leading primary research activities (e.g., interviews, advisory boards, workshops), including material development and synthesis
• Contribution to new business/proposals (e.g., pitch research, development of sections)

Knowledge and Skills

• Good understanding of core commercialization concepts (e.g., competitive landscape, positioning/differentiation, evidence needs, stakeholder decision drivers) and how they connect across an asset lifecycle
• Ability to apply an adoption/value lens – connecting evidence, stakeholder needs, and market context to implications for uptake and differentiation
• Growing awareness of how asset‑level work ladders into broader franchise/portfolio/category context and ecosystem dynamics
• Strong problem‑solving skills and ability to work with ambiguity; applies structured thinking (hypotheses, frameworks, story‑lining) to build coherent strategic outputs
• Strong attention to detail (data accuracy, referencing, and consistency) and high‑quality control standards
• Strong workstream management skills (planning, tracking, coordinating inputs, maintaining documentation)
• Comfortable 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; applies and shares feedback constructively
• 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 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.