Healthcare Strategic Design and Innovation — London / Hybrid
Open to Contract & Permanent. Competitive rates and salary offered.
1. About Crackle
Crackle Digital Health is a boutique consultancy that partners with global pharma, med tech and healthcare teams to reimagine care pathways, shape markets and accelerate real-world adoption.
We work with companies like AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson at above-market and Global level, where strategy meets clinical reality and commercial impact.
We’re small, agile, and straight-talking. We think and do, fast.
Our approach moves teams from ambition to action without the bloat of a large consultancy.
We’re proudly independent and intend to stay that way.
2. The Opportunity
Crackle is at an inflection point. Alongside our core pharma pathway transformation work, we’re building a venture design practice. We are partnering with a proven venture builder to co-create ventures within global transformation programmes.
We’re looking for someone who can operate across both worlds: the strategic consulting work that is our foundational expertise, and the venture design work that will define the business tomorrow. You’ll work directly alongside the founder, shaping programmes of work, stretching our IP into new contexts, and driving senior client conversations.
Expect ownership, high-stakes client relationships, and the rare chance to shape a boutique consultancy’s next chapter from the inside.
3. What You’ll Do
Shape strategy and programme architecture. You’ll lead the design of multi-layered programmes that span policy, medical affairs, market implementation, and technology. These are systems running at different speeds that need connecting, not just mapping.
Stretch and evolve our IP. We have been successful in developing modular solutions for our clients. We want to extend this into operational design that can serve as the connective tissue between venture creation and client business integration. We’re also exploring software-based models.
Lead venture design engagements. Working with our venture partners, you’ll run hypothesis-driven discovery across markets, build stakeholder alignment, and shape the conditions for new ventures to emerge from within pharma programmes. This means comfort with ambiguity, lean experimentation, and building something from nothing.
Own senior client relationships. You’ll hold conversations with VP Global Strategy, above-market Medical Affairs, and Global Franchise Heads. This is a relationship-building role as much as a delivery one — you need to be credible, curious, and direct.
Connect insight to action. Our pathway work blends clinical, behavioural and systems signals to reveal adoption drivers. You’ll triangulate and translate insight into strategies that prioritise care delivery levers, focus investment, and ultimately outmanoeuvre competitors.
4. What You Bring
Strategic consulting. You’ve worked in consulting where strategic rigour meets entrepreneurial instinct. You’re adept at developing new partnerships, cultivating clients, developing proposals and selling programmes of work. Your prior experience is rooted in fields such as service design, product strategy, value proposition design, business transformation, innovation and primary research.
Healthcare vertical expertise. You have industry relevant experience working either in Lifesciences consulting, Pharma, Medtech, Medical devices etc. You understand the key forces and dynamics between payers, providers, patients and policy makers in shaping and delivering care. Direct experience with venture models, Care Transformation programmes, or pathway transformation is a bonus.
Systems thinking. You see interdependencies and synergies before you see deliverables. You grasp the complex webs of stakeholder needs and processes across policy, medical affairs, health system implementation, and technology.
IP Creativity. You’ve taken frameworks, methodologies and products from early-stage concept to something clients connect with and buy. You focused on validation and commercialisation, not just project delivery.
Venture & value proposition design experience. You’ve built propositions from scratch. You’re comfortable driving a hypothesis driven innovation process across cross functional teams, conducting primary research, synthesising findings, building business cases and communicating with impact.
AI mindset. You get that AI is a paradigm shift for business. AI tools help you accelerate your thinking, prototype outputs, stretch your perspectives and level-up your capabilities and capacity, fast. AI is an active part of your day-to-day workflow.
Design strategy fluency. You intuitively understand the different ‘altitudes’ of problems across a business stack from the corporate vision right down to interface level. You move seamlessly between service design and business design without needing to be told which hat to wear. Most importantly, you shape the conditions for the best work and bring stakeholders along with you.
Swiss army knife dexterity – You’re a strong all-round performer and haven’t lost your craft skills, whether that’s prototyping a concept, service blueprinting or running primary research. You are equally comfortable leading from the front, as well as rolling up your sleeves to ship deliverables as required.
5. What This Isn’t
This is not a pure strategy role. We need someone who can wear different hats and relishes the diversity of work. We don’t need someone who writes decks but doesn’t get their hands dirty in delivery. You’ll be equally involved in shaping and delivering.
This is not a role for someone who needs well-scoped briefs and clear deliverable lists.
The work is emergent and you’ll be central in shaping and defining it.
This is not a rigid corporate environment. We’re a founder-led boutique.
6. What You Get
A direct partnership with the founder on the most strategically important work in the business.
The chance to shape a venture design practice in life sciences. This is a space where very few boutique consultancies are operating.
Ownership in shaping IP evolution. Opportunity to evolve and deepen our IP for new contexts.
Exposure to a global pharma portfolio at above-market and Global level.
A flexible working model. No bench pressure. No performative busyness. We care about the quality of your thinking.
7. Working Arrangement
We’re open to permanent or contract arrangements, the right person matters more than the structure. We’ll figure out the best format once we’ve met.
The role is hybrid: 3 days in office, 2 days work from home. We are a London based office in
Old St. Client work may occasionally require travel within the UK and internationally.
8. How to Apply
Send a short note telling us why this role interests you, along with your CV or LinkedIn profile.
We’re not looking for a cover letter, we’re looking for signal that we’re on the same frequency.
Our process: A structured competency interview first, followed by a challenge brief.
We give you a brief, you have one hour to prepare any format of your choosing
and then present back to us.
We’ll give you a real scenario from our current work.
We want to see how you think critically, not how polished your slides are.