Senior Scientific Director; SBUL Development Pathway Medical Communications

At Obsidian
, we’re passionate about transforming scientific communications to improve healthcare outcomes for everyone. As a specialist healthcare agency, dedicated to medical & scientific communications, we partner with global healthcare organisations to share knowledge that truly makes a difference.

Our team of >60 academic scientists, strategists, and communications experts deliver cutting-edge solutions across:

• Medical Affairs
• Strategic Consultancy
• Scientific Meetings and Events
• Medical Education
• Publications Planning and Delivery

This is an exciting opportunity for an accomplished Senior Scientific Director to join one of our thriving Business Units on a structured development pathway to Scientific Business Unit Lead (SBUL). You’ll take on the full responsibilities of a Senior Scientific Director from day one and, over a dedicated 6-month development programme, grow into leading the scientific side of the whole Business Unit.

As a Senior Scientific Director (SSD), you will:

• Lead strategic direction and scientific excellence of designated accounts providing senior counsel to clients and internal teams with minimal oversight
• Lead the editorial team across your accounts, including longer‑term resource and recruitment planning.
• Act as a valued partner to clients and medical experts
  , leading liaison on scientific content and its strategic implications.
• Nurture and develop writers of all levels
  , coaching junior line managers and helping to design and deliver training.
• Partner with client services to grow your accounts
  , spotting organic growth opportunities and driving the scientific development of proposals and pitches.

Your 6-month programme is jointly mentored by our Director of Scientific Services and the Business Unit Director, with monthly check-ins. You’ll build experience across six areas:

• Business Unit leadership and decision‑making – operating with a Business Unit‑wide mindset as a leadership partner to the Business Unit Director.
• Resourcing and capacity planning – taking ownership of capacity and allocation decisions across all Business Unit accounts and anticipating capacity gaps and making recruitment and succession recommendations.
• Financial and commercial awareness – understanding Business Unit and wider agency financial targets and the editorial drivers of performance.
• New business strategy and growth – leading the scientific/strategic element of new business proposals and pitches, and organic growth proposals.
• People leadership and team development – building a team‑wide view of strengths, development needs and succession.

Promotion to SBUL is considered at the 6-month review. As an SBUL, you’ll be the scientific half of the Business Unit leadership partnership: responsible for editorial output across the team, lead scientific and editorial counsel for our clients, and a member of our Core Management Team (CMT), acting as senior counsel and a role model across Obsidian.

• Lead the editorial, scientific and strategic development of projects, owning the overall editorial output of your accounts.
• Shape and refine account strategy, monitoring market changes and ensuring every project is strategically aligned and scientifically accurate.
• Build trusted, long‑term partnerships with key clients and medical experts.
• Line manage, coach and mentor your team, ensuring new starters are onboarded effectively.
• Master budgets and resourcing, taking a long‑term view of workload and keeping projects on time and profitable.
• Champion compliance and process, recommending improvements that raise quality and efficiency.
• Spot growth opportunities and drive the scientific development of standout pitches and proposals.
• Step up progressively into…