Senior Strategist - Brand; Health

About VML

VML is a leading creative company that combines brand experience, customer experience, and commerce, creating connected brands to drive growth. VML is celebrated for its innovative and human‑first, award‑winning work for blue‑chip client partners including AstraZeneca, Colgate‑Palmolive, Dell, Ford, Microsoft, Nestlé, The Coca‑Cola Company, and Wendy’s. The agency is recognized by the Forrester Wave™ Reports as a Leader among Marketing Creative and Content Service Providers, Commerce Services, Global Digital Experience Services, Global Marketing Services and Marketing Measurement & Optimization.

VML’s specialist health network, VML Health, is one of the world’s largest and most awarded health agencies. VML’s global network is powered by 26,000 talented people across 55+ markets, with principal offices in Kansas City, New York, Detroit, London, São Paulo, Shanghai, Singapore, and Sydney. VML is a WPP agency (NYSE: WPP). For more information, please visit  and follow along on Instagram, Linked In, and X.

VML HEALTH is a global healthcare agency that partners with healthcare clients across a broad definition of health, from high‑science to wellness and everything in between. It operates fluidly within the VML agency, as a core group of health specialists ('vertical') that has the benefit of autonomy in management, but with the support of non‑health expertise. At the heart of health is the story of life – all the highs and lows, ambitions, and possibilities.

Facing a health challenge can suddenly pull people away from these stories, knocking them off course. Our purpose is to bridge this gap, bringing people closer to life and all its meaning. We gain a deeper understanding of Healthcare Professionals’ and patients’ needs, behaviors and lived experiences through what we call ‘radical empathy’. VML Health creates connected brands that get to the heart, bringing people closer to the lives they want to live.

Get to the heart. Connect for life.

A Senior Strategist to support Directors/Group Directors in research, launch projects, and strategic development. This role requires a highly collaborative individual with strong analytical skills, experience in healthcare marketing, and a passion for driving impactful change.

• Prioritize research objectives, recommend methodologies, and manage logistics. Develop research proposals, screeners, and discussion guides.
• Analyze research findings, summarize insights, and identify implications.
• Create in-depth category and competitive analyses, highlighting emerging trends, critical success factors, and actionable recommendations relevant to both HCP and DTC landscapes.
• Develop customer journeys, identify key pain points, and uncover customer attitudes and behaviors.
• Generate insights to inform positioning, strategy, and communication.
• Develop a strong understanding of positioning fundamentals and formulate positioning statements.
• Draft creative briefs and background briefing documents with guidance.
• Participate in creative review meetings and provide constructive feedback.
• Prepare workshop proposals and materials, manage logistics, and draft summaries of outcomes.
• Identify research needs, generate customer insights, and contribute to pitch deck development.

• A critical and analytical thinker, innovator, and visionary who inspires creativity.
• Highly collaborative and effective across internal and external stakeholders.
• Excellent written and verbal communicator.

• 3+ years of experience in market research and strategic planning, with a focus on the healthcare industry.
• Experience working across diverse audiences, specifically with HCPs and DTC segments.
• Demonstrated experience in conducting and analyzing qualitative and quantitative research, including developing research proposals, screeners, and discussion guides.
• Strong analytical and problem‑solving skills, with the ability to synthesize complex information and develop actionable insights.
• Proven ability to develop customer journeys, identify pain points, and uncover customer attitudes and behaviors.
• Experience in developing positioning statements…