Senior Scientific Director (Medical Writing Team Lead), Medical Consulting
Manchester (hybrid working)
VML HEALTH is a global healthcare agency with a vision to make the world of health human-centric with connected brands. VML HEALTH has offices across the world & three global healthcare hubs in London, New York, & Milan. VML Health is a WPP company.
Within VML HEALTH is the Global Strategy Team (GST), home to a diverse set of strategic thinkers and consultants. It represents the highest levels of strategic competency and consulting acumen under an agile business model, working independently with clients or as part of an integrated agency team. The GST brings together four key disciplines to build brands and shape the healthcare environment from as early as pipeline development through to loss of exclusivity: Medical Strategy, Engagement Strategy, Brand Strategy, and Medical Consulting. This role sits within the Medical Consulting discipline.
The Medical Consulting team focuses on early engagement across a range of disciplines including Commercial, Medical Affairs, Clinical Development, Patient Advocacy, Policy and value communication teams – our clients include pharmaceutical, medical device and diagnostic companies alongside patient advocacy organizations and academic organizations. The Medical Consulting team supports organisations to achieve more effective decision making through a focus on early and cross functional working, enhanced focus on patient engagement, early commercialisation and disease leadership programmes. We run a variety of global accounts involving close collaboration with our creative, digital, medical education, and marketing teams to bring creative solutions for clients as they move forward in development and launch of their assets.
About the Role
Medical writing is a critical discipline within the consulting team, leading development of a range of writing projects including; commercial and advocacy whitepapers, policy briefs, value communications, and posters/publications. A core focus for this team in 2025 and beyond is growth and expansion of capabilities to service the evolving needs of our clients and the business.
VML Health is seeking a Medical Writing Lead to drive the expansion of the discipline, provide senior level client management, deliver coaching & development across the team, establish updated processes & methodologies to support business delivery and bring a clear focus of growth, in partnership with the medical consulting leadership team.
We are looking for an established senior level candidate with in-depth writing experience and expertise across a wide range of scientific communications. The candidate must bring excellent client engagement and people management skills to provide strategic leadership for the discipline. Experience in managing both internal & client teams to shape, develop and deliver effective and high-quality deliverables that meet client objectives, budgets, and timelines is critical. In addition, the candidate must demonstrate a solid understanding of the healthcare and pharmaceutical landscape with experience working across multiple disease areas and complex scientific concepts.
The Medical Writing Lead will ultimately lead the strategic evolution of the medical writing team to support the broader needs of both Medical Consulting and the Global Strategy Team. This unique role provides the opportunity to shape the future business model and growth of a multifunctional writing discipline, requiring a proactive, innovative thinker with a both in-depth writing expertise and strong business acumen.
This role is based in Manchester with close collaboration across our core hubs and domestic teams.
Responsibilities
* Must have extensive (minimum 10 years) scientific & value communication writing experience including team/discipline leadership and management experience.
* Broad range of experience across disease areas with preference for some or all of the following (Oncology, Haematology, Rare Disease, Immunology, Neuroscience).
* In depth technical writing experience across a wide range of deliverables including scientific communications, whitepapers, posters/publications, perspectives papers and value communications.
* Ability to understand, interpret and analyse complex data sets such as clinical trials results and statistical analyses.
* Commercial mindset with a proven track record of driving business growth for writing based projects & clients across organic, net new and pitch settings.
* Ability to own & lead teams & programs of writing work to a high standard.
* Strong evidence of leadership and ability to network, within a company, clients and healthcare systems, including experience engaging with and developing content for senior leadership.
* In-depth knowledge of the pharmaceutical industry, healthcare environment and healthcare systems, with understanding of a broad range of stakeholders including clinicians, patients, advocates, and policymakers.
* Proven ability to work and lead teams effectively in a busy, deadline-driven environment across the spectrum of discipline needs from research design and execution, scientific strategy, writing, editorial and resource management.
* Can-do attitude, leadership and management agility, and ability to deliver and manage issues and deadlines with teams.
* Outstanding leadership and role model behaviours and ability to motivate and lead teams.
Qualifications
* Extensive healthcare agency experience as a Scientific Director, Scientific Team lead and senior/principle writer.
* A life sciences MSc, PhD or clinical qualification, and/or previous experience as a Medical Writer.
* A life sciences BSc will also be considered.
* A track record of scientific and editorial leadership for large/complex accounts.
* Leadership experience with writing teams, in particular with a focus on growth and capability expansion.
* Strong leadership and communication skills, high emotional intelligence, the ability to adapt your approach according to the needs of clients and teams, and the ability to respond rapidly to situations and manage internal/external issues.
* A track record of driving business growth and providing scientific insight to proposals and pitches.
* Excellent understanding of pharmaceutical regulations and medical writing standards, e.g. ABPI, GPP3, ICMJE.
Required Skills
* Enthusiastic and motivated leader.
* Driven by both people and business growth.
* Client image and style awareness.
* Planning resources and time efficiently to keep to timelines.
* Ability to work on your own initiative and proactively bring new ideas to evolve the discipline.
* Excellent attention to detail.