Senior Strategist

FSi CX, a Division of Fresh Squeezed Ideas; Canada; Hybrid; CAD 100,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

RRSP matching program

4-day work week

Job summary

A leading market research firm in Canada seeks a Senior Project Leader to drive qualitative market research initiatives. This role requires a PhD in a relevant field and at least 3 years of experience managing client relationships and leading project teams. The successful candidate will leverage behavioral science insights to create strategic solutions and facilitate workshops, contributing to thought leadership and client engagement. The position offers a competitive salary and supports a 4-day work week for work-life balance.

Qualifications

• Minimum 3+ years in strategy and qualitative primary market research.
• Experience leading in-depth interviews with healthcare stakeholders.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead qualitative market research projects and manage client relationships.
• Collaborate with team to develop strategic business solutions.
• Design and facilitate co-creation workshops.

Skills

Client relationship management

Strategic thinking

Analytical skills

Education

PhD in Social Science or Behavioral Science

Job description

Reporting to an SVP, Strategy & Innovation, you will provide senior project leadership on qualitative primary market research projects, inspiring your project team and nurturing the day-to-day client relationship, resulting in an excellent client experience. Leveraging your PhD, behavioral science expertise and skills, and collaborating closely with the team of strategists, you will develop deep human behavior-based insights to craft strategic business solutions, design and facilitate client co‑creation sessions that translate strategy into behavioral action. You will also contribute to thought leadership through the writing of behavioral science blogs and social media posts to expand our client’s understanding of how we uniquely apply behavioral science to the work we do.

Role

Responsibilities & Duties

• Effectively leads multiple complex, multi‑phased qualitative primary and secondary market research projects such as integrated patient and HCP experience journeys, emotional drivers & barriers, concept development, optimizing and testing, etc. Oversees the project team, leads the day‑to‑day client relationship, and development of the strategic deliverables
• Able to use market research insights to answer our clients’ broader business questions and challenges
• Innovates with team of strategists, foresight practitioners and experience design experts to deliver new frameworks and thinking models to solve client business challenges
• Leads all methods of fieldwork and is skilled at deep ethnographic interviewing. Has achieved mastery research skills across a range of modalities (e.g. interviewing, discussion groups, longitudinal digital ethnographic journaling, literature review, meta‑analysis, etc.)
• Leads their project team in analysis, emerges the strategic story, crafts the strategy solution and identifies tactical behavioral solutions
• Is skilled at emerging the deeper psychological drivers of belief and behavior, leading to the revelation of deep human insight, critical for client empathy and strategy creation
• Will collaborate closely with an Executive Sponsor/project coach to act as a sounding board and to refine story and strategic solutions, and is open to feedback and interested in personal growth/learning
• Contributes to or leads the design of and facilitates co‑creation workshops

Client Relationship

• Engages clients in discussions around their larger business issues and identifies opportunities for deepening client relationships
• Ability to identify strategic opportunities for a client beyond what has been requested in the RFP
• Can become a trusted advisor
• Expertly delivers behavioral science concepts in accessible, salient, and compelling ways
• Demonstrates confidence and knowledge when delivering findings and recommendations

Thought Leadership

• Supports Behavioral Science thought leadership initiatives with other members of the strategy team: including writing several blog posts per year, leading the development of lunch and learns and other thought leadership initiatives
• Identifies opportunities for behavioral science innovation within the FSi Strategy offering, leading to the development of new tools, perspectives, and offerings

Culture

• Brings a strong growth mindset, with genuine openness to feedback and collaboration as core to learning, improving the work, and supporting one another
• Relentlessly curious and always looking for the why behind the why behind the why
• Actively contributes to a team and company culture of care and respect
• Commits to creating an equitable and inclusive environment for members of the team and clients

AI Fluency & Judgment

• Comfortable using AI tools to support research, analysis, and synthesis, with curiosity to learn and adapt as tools evolve
• Exercises strong judgment about when AI adds value and when human expertise, interpretation, and empathy are essential
• Approaches AI use thoughtfully, responsibly, and critically, with an awareness of its limitations, potential bias, and appropriateness in healthcare and qualitative research contexts

Experience & Qualifications

• PhD in a Social Science or Behavioral Science related field: Anthropology, Medical Anthropology, Psychology, Sociology, or Cognitive Neuroscience preferred
• Minimum of 3+ years of work experience in strategy and qualitative primary market research with HCPs, patients, caregivers, in the health sciences/pharma industry
• Experience conducting and leading in depth interviews with a range of healthcare stakeholders
• Proven success working with multidisciplinary and diverse teams
• Excellent client relationship skills
• Strong collaborator and ability to emerge great thinking from others
• Strategic thinker with strong analytic and critical thinking skills
• Commitment to empathy for research participants, our client, and members of the FSi team
• Strong verbal and written communication skills
• Demonstrated ability to manage multiple projects efficiently
• Ability to travel (~10%) within North America for project work and business development

Requirements

• Legal authorization to work in Canada, without sponsorship.
• Education minimum: high school or CAEC (College or University is an asset)
• Clear background check: Criminal, US Exclusions Database, US Denied Persons List, and EU, UK, and UN Sanctions List.

Compensation And Work-Life Balance

• Pay scale: $100,000 - $130,000 annual salary
• FSi offers health insurance and an RRSP matching program for qualified employees.
• FSi supports a 4‑day work week, from Monday to Thursday, to provide personal flexibility and support professional and personal development for team members.
• Joining our team offers the opportunity for professional growth and adventure. You will work with highly experienced professionals, holding PhDs in Behavioral Science, Medical Anthropology, and other fields. You will benefit from these experts’ decades of experience in healthcare market research and consulting, to expand your own capabilities and help grow at FSi.

We look for people who:

• Work in a way that upholds and promotes the FSI core values: Passion, Curiosity, Empathy, Agility and Frankness.
• Contribute to and develop a culture of collaboration, nimbleness, care, and respect.
• Create an equitable and inclusive environment for members of the team and clients.
• Understand that Friday is flexible, not guaranteed time off (while we strive to maintain a 4‑day work week, we ask that team members are flexible around client needs).
• Can attend Quarterly Town Halls in‑person (held on Fridays)
• Understand that we are consultants and, while we strive for typical business hours, sometimes work extends beyond the 9–5 workday.
• Assist colleagues outside of the current project you are working on (e.g., proposal development, brainstorms, thought leadership, etc.).

Applying

Fresh Squeezed Ideas celebrates diversity in both its innovative solutions and its workforce. We strongly encourage applications from Indigenous peoples, racialised people, people with disabilities, people from gender and sexually diverse communities and/or people with intersectional identities who are eligible to work in Canada and travel to the US. We understand that experience comes in many forms. We’re dedicated to adding new perspectives to the team - so if your experience is this close to what we’re looking for, please consider applying.

If you are interested in this role and meet the criteria, we would love to hear from you!