Senior Medical Director

The Senior Medical Director provides scientific and strategic direction for all tactical medical communications activities for assigned therapeutic areas and products and partners with the Account Services, Strategic Services, Creative Services, Editorial Services, and Project Management departments and clients to develop branded and unbranded medical and promotional communications for healthcare professional (HCP) and patient audiences. The Senior Medical Director participates as a department representative at internal functions requiring scientific input, participates in strategy and scientific/medical components of new-business development activities, represents the company at client meetings at which scientific expertise is needed for the planning or acquisition of future projects, and interacts with clients, faculty, key clinical experts, and patients in support of pharmaceutical advertising/promotional initiatives.

Job Duties

Medical Services

• Provide scientific direction, support, and leadership for all strategic and tactical communications activities for assigned therapeutic areas and products
• Develop clinical content for branded and unbranded promotional communications tactics and activities, including hands-on writing and annotation of content for HCP and patient educational material/brochures, videos, websites, and other multimedia initiatives
  • Effectively communicate complex medical and scientific concepts in a clear, engaging, audience-appropriate manner
  • Ensure scientific integrity, accuracy, and clinical relevance of all materials
  • Support projects toward development across multiple brands
  • Review, analyze, and interpret current product literature and leverage information to support promotional claims 
  • Interpret and apply clinical data; use clinical expertise to benchmark client versus competitor products
• Assume final responsibility for content of assigned projects, including relevance, technical accuracy, audience appropriateness, strategy, and consistency with communications plan
• Present and appropriately defend promotional materials to client review committees for approval and apply resulting comments while maintaining the integrity and objectives of the material
• Maintain up-to-date knowledge of medical scientific information related to assigned therapeutic areas, products, and competitors
• Generate strategically sound project ideas and maintain a proactive approach on initiatives for existing and prospective clients
• Work in conjunction with Account Services and Project Management departments to develop logical and attainable timelines for project completion
• Provide mentorship/guidance, support, and feedback to junior medical team members, copywriters, and freelance contract writers as needed during the content development process
• Follow all internal processes and procedures with regard to workflow and development of deliverables
• Attend professional meetings (live or virtual) to maintain relationships with clients and opinion leaders, and to remain abreast of up-to-date therapeutic area and competitive landscape information
• Assist in designing healthcare professional and patient market research to more clearly define audience attitudes and behaviors
• Keep core teams and management informed of status of ongoing projects

Internal and External Relationships

• Build effective working relationships with internal and external stakeholders
• Build strong client relationships; inspire client confidence
• Collaborate with internal and external personnel from all disciplines to ensure innovative solutions to client needs related to new business and existing work
• Communicate and collaborate with faculty and key opinion leaders on programs to meet strategic objectives through relationship building and use of scientific expertise; note, synthesize, and interpret feedback and insights to drive actionable strategy and tactics

Business Development

• Support new-business teams to ensure data are medically sound and teams are well informed about all medical aspects of the product
• Assist in the development of new-business presentations by analyzing and synthesizing literature, pharmacologic attributes, clinical data, product profile and strategy, and market research into a strategic application for capabilities
• Represent Synchrony at capabilities presentations and other new business–related meetings as a full-time, permanent resource that has had extensive relevant training and expertise
• Support the execution of healthcare professional and patient interviews as part of qualitative research for new-business presentations
• Help to identify potential clinical experts as advisors or research participants

Key Competencies

• Sound strategic and analytical thinking, planning, prioritization, and execution skills
• Ability to manage outcomes to win-win resolutions
• Strong creative design, conceptual, and visual story-telling skills
• Ability to effectively communicate both verbally and in writing
• Solid medical writing skills
• Exceptional organizational skills with adeptness at multitasking
• Flexibility and adaptability to change; ability to work under time constraints 
• Effective attention to detail and high degree of scientific and medical accuracy
• Ability to identify key issues and to creatively and strategically overcome challenges or obstacles
• High level of integrity, ethics, confidentiality, and accountability
• Ability to interact effectively in a team environment
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office applications (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook)
• Ability to oversee, manage, and support priorities and workflow to ensure high-quality project execution according to project timelines and budgets
• Strong presentation and persuasion skills
  • Develops a clear point of view and tells a meaningful “story”
  • Demonstrates effectiveness in a variety of settings and group sizes with clients, peers, subordinates, and management
  • Confidently expresses both data/facts and more controversial topics
  • Commands attention and can manage group dynamics

Qualifications

Requirements

• PhD, PharmD, or MD
• Minimum of 5 years’ experience with at least 1 of the following key activities: medical education, medical communications campaigns, promotional medical/marketing initiatives, digital and interactive programs
• Ability to travel as client needs require
• Specific industry or therapeutic area expertise

Working Conditions

• Ability to travel as client needs require
• Ability to commit to extra and/or nontraditional hours as client needs require

Additional Information

Synchrony places high value on the well-being of its employees; therefore, Synchrony team members are eligible for a comprehensive array of benefits, including competitive salaries, generous paid time off, excellent health insurance, family leave, and a 401(k) plan with employer matching.

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.

EOE. Synchrony is not able to provide visa sponsorship for this role.