Vice President, Strategy

Overview

GCI Health is the leading global health impact agency built to realize the future of health. We turn client innovation into health impact through engagements that transcend traditional communications. Our services include pipeline and product communications, brand marketing, corporate and enterprise communications, medical affairs and clinical trial marketing. We are a recognized employer with industry honors and a commitment to a diverse, inclusive culture.

We are looking for a VP, Strategy to help reimagine what’s possible in corporate health and wellness. The role focuses on solving brand and business problems for existing and prospective clients with a strategic approach driven by research and analytics, resulting in actionable, people-centric insights. You’ll craft strategy from initial research to final decks and inspire creative teams and clients.

Your primary role will be supporting corporate strategies for clients across the pharmaceutical, biotech, and consumer healthcare sectors. You may also support non-corporate projects, including developing brand and product strategies, so flexibility is critical.

The VP, Strategy will collaborate with agency team members to produce impactful work that shifts audience mindsets and behaviors. You’ll manage multiple projects simultaneously, including an active new business pipeline. You are a problem solver who can mine the human story and cultural tension from data and guide internal teams and clients to effective solutions; a self-starter prepared to manage multiple client engagements as the day-to-day strategist.

The VP, Strategy reports into our GSVP of Strategy and collaborates closely with Market Leaders, Practice Leaders, Account Leads, and Specialty Leads (Digital, Earned, Creative, Design Analytics).

• Agency Growth
  • Supports GCIH’s strategic plan with a vision for driving growth, innovation, and excellence
  • Embeds in and grows a high-functioning Strategy team in partnership with the GSVP
  • Participates in the development of processes and best practices for the strategy offerings at GCI Health
  • Leads the definition, planning, and implementation of strategies across a portfolio of corporate business for both online and offline experiences
  • Supports training for the broader organization (e.g., account staff) so they can be productive participants in the strategic process
  • Participates in the rollout of strategy offerings to internal audiences and clients
• Business Growth
  • Key role in understanding the client’s business needs and the strategic competencies required to address them, activating those competencies across multiple business units
  • Supports optimization of GCIH strategic process for key clients and pitches, guiding teams from research to insight, to strategy, and optimization
  • Contributes to the new business process from kickoff and discovery to research and synthesis of findings into actionable, people-centric insights
  • Works collaboratively to conduct ecosystem audits, map customer experience touchpoints, identify opportunities and gaps
  • Contributes to the development of customer segmentation, customer profiles, and journey maps to understand current and prospective customers
  • Helps teams to develop the “big idea” and creative executions across multiple channels
  • Partners with account leads and GSVP of Strategy to identify and win opportunities for growth with current clients
• Day-to-Day business
  • Serves as lead strategist for key pieces of business: corporate positioning and architecture, white space identification, message mapping, competitive tracking, and emerging trend identification
  • Deeply analyzes research and analytics to develop communications strategies for clients
  • Extracts provocative insights that form the basis for creative strategies and develops inspiring briefs and briefings
  • Strives for financial and operational excellence

• Successful integration onto account teams
• “Sales” of strategy offerings
• Roll out of strategy training for account teams (Healthy Tensions)
• Team growth
• New business win rate

• 8+ years of experience; PR agency experience strongly preferred to bring a communications and earned-plus mindset to the work
• Familiarity with modern research, strategy and planning techniques
• Genuine passion and ability to understand people, culture and connection points for brands
• Experience supporting a team through times of transformation
• Excellent written and verbal communications skills with strong attention to detail
• Desire to work in a diverse and inclusive organization as an active participant in culture initiatives, training opportunities and employee resource groups

GCI Group is an equal opportunity employer and considers applicants for all positions without discrimination or regard to protected characteristics. We are committed to fostering a culture of respect in which everyone belongs and has equal opportunity to progress in their careers.