Senior Planner - Healthcare Brands

OLIXIR is a next‑generation healthcare agency, created by uniting FCB Health London and McCann Health London as part of Omnicom Health’s evolving European structure. By bringing our teams together and combining our strengths, we’re building something entirely new: a more agile, more connected, and more ambitious partner for healthcare brands. OLIXIR blends award‑winning creative excellence with deep scientific expertise, strategic thinking that drives meaningful brand growth, and fully integrated production at scale. We’re also unlocking new innovation opportunities, powered by AI and future‑focused ways of working.

While our name is new, our people, values, and commitment are not. You’ll find the same trusted teams, the same high standards, and the same passion for creating work that makes a real difference to patients and healthcare professionals, alongside new possibilities to grow, innovate, and shape what’s next. OLIXIR is built for the future of healthcare communications - and this is just the beginning.

About the Role:

The Senior Strategic Brand Planner is responsible for the strategic output of the agency and lead planning for allocated brands and campaigns. At its core, the role of Senior Strategic Planner is about understanding people’s behaviour and beliefs in order to define brands’ problems and objectives with the aim of providing our clients with a competitive advantage in the market.

Responsibilities:

• Brand Planning: Understanding and execution of strategic discipline, agency processes and pharma compliance requirements. Gathering of relevant customer dynamics, understand disease state and how to apply this to a brand strategy. Builds storytelling skills as it relates to written strategy skills, focus on tactical planning and writing project briefs.
• Client Management: Conducts client workshop preparation and grows workshop facilitation skills. Begins to become more exposed to client meetings and interactions. Growing ability to address internal and client questions on the agency’s POV and recommendations.
• Cross Functional Collaboration: Act as internal brand team(s) day to day point of contact and fosters positive team dynamic. Hone ability to consume and distill information into clear, concise summaries of key takeaways and create a strong point of view.
• Planning & Strategy: Conducting and cascading as appropriate relevant research to understand or deepen knowledge on markets, competitive environments and target audiences of our clients’ brands. Conducting market research and to develop research briefs, observing research, and conducting analysis/developing research findings into actionable next steps. Research and acquire knowledge quickly in scientifically complex therapy areas where required. Strategic development through boiling down information, insights, and research findings into a brand/comms strategy that is simple yet powerful, and aligned with what the clients’ brands really need. Lead end-to-end projects from unpicking the brief through to workshop moderation, strategic development, analytics and reporting. Championing consistency of use of processes across all parts of the agency to ensure a collective understanding of the tools and processes used with the strategy planning process. Support wider agency strategy through everyday work, to effectively build client brands, create business opportunities and support business growth.
• Client Management: Working closely with Lead Planner, start developing strategic relationships with clients; become a confident and trusted planning advisor for allocated brands. Attend and contribute to strategically and creative-led meetings both internally and with clients, proactively offering appropriate challenge to improve the brief. Routinely present internally and externally as required, have a presence and support Lead Planner with managing the audience effectively. Start identifying and contribute to creating new business opportunities. Plan and co-ordinate all aspects of ‘off-the-shelf’ workshops and to develop bespoke workshops with support.
• Teamwork & Creative: Writing creative briefs with Planning and Creative teams, and briefing Creative teams in an informative and inspirational way. Appraising creative work based on suitability of idea, strategic realisation, and resonance with customer. Set the highest standards in terms of management behaviours; support a culture of diversity and inclusion; respect for others, collaboration, responsibility and accountability. Through effective line management, ensure high quality selection, training, development and performance management of all line reports.

Experience:

• Prior experience in a strategy role, ideally in a healthcare or complex communications environment.
• Experience contributing to brand development, insight generation and omnichannel planning.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills, persuasive and concise.
• Comfortable working independently and collaboratively across departments.
• Skilled in simplifying complex science, data and behavioural insight into actionable strategy.
• Understanding of creative processes, agency workflows and campaign delivery.
• Able to lead projects and contribute to pitches or workshops.
• A proactive, solution-focused mindset with a drive to keep learning.

We value difference and believe in creating an inclusive environment where everyone can belong and succeed. If you need any support or adjustment due to a disability during the application process, please let us know.