Senior Strategist - Health

VCCP Health; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 50,000 - 70,000; Full time

Job summary

VCCP Health in London seeks an ambitious Senior Planner who is deeply analytical, creatively driven and thrives across pharma, health and wellness projects. You will lead brand planning, develop integrated customer journeys, and craft strategic narratives for campaigns and activations.

The role requires strong healthcare background, ability to pitch, and collaboration with medical, creative and account teams.

Qualifications

• Ability to lead as the main planner on an account and act as the client contact
• Strong competency in brand planning: positioning, purpose, value proposition, brand DNA
• Integrated comms planning experience; develop customer journeys and content plans
• Fluent in modern media approaches (paid, owned and earned) in healthcare omnichannel
• Experience leading strategy on new business proposals and pitches
• Commercially-minded with KPIs and campaign effectiveness measures

Responsibilities

• Lead strategy on medium- to large-sized business or pitches with planning leads
• Develop customer journeys and content plans across channels
• Draft and brief creative briefs and strategic narratives for campaigns and activations
• Present and pitch briefs independently to clients
• Lead client workshops (F2F, hybrid, and virtual)
• Collaborate with creative, medical, and account teams to deliver high-quality work
• Set KPIs, track campaign performance, and identify new client opportunities from data

Skills

Brand planning

Integrated comms planning

Presenting / briefing

Client workshops facilitation

AI tools experimentation

Tools

AI planning tools

Data interpretation

Job description

We transform the fortunes of our clients' businesses by placing them at the centre of our strategy, and using cutting edge insight from consumer advertising to give them the competitive edge.

Our challenger mindset and extensive range of capabilities means we can build the team that's right for your challenge, whether you are focused on KOLs, ROI, or AI.

We can speak to HCPs, patients, payers, or the public. Whoever's perspective you need to change.

VCCP Health is a specialist agency that was set up to bring greater strategic rigour and higher creative standards to healthcare communications. Our aim is to bring a Challenger Spirit to this sector, not settling for doing things as they've always been done, but rather looking at how things could be done differently. The agency works on prescription, OTC & wellness brands, developing the full range of materials required for communications aimed at healthcare professionals and consumers. The client portfolio spans human and animal health, and a wide range of therapy areas and markets. Wherever possible, we bring the most innovative approaches and thinking from the consumer agency to the world of healthcare.

The future of health

Advances in technology are driving and changing the way that we all communicate, and whether our target audience is consumers, healthcare professionals or any other stakeholder, integration is now crucial to all marketing communications: At VCCP "we believe it only works if it all works".

As part of the VCCP Partnership, one of the leading consumer agencies, VCCP Health is perfectly positioned to be leading the way in this new era and transforming healthcare communications.

Our culture

VCCP has a unique culture, and we are looking for people who will make a positive contribution to this; therefore, the candidate must have the following attributes:

• A collaborative nature
• An entrepreneurial spirit
• Take pride in their work
• An honest approach
• Be un-precious and able to recognise that a good idea can come from anywhere
• Take responsibility

The role:

We are looking for an ambitious and highly organised individual who is articulate, curious, proactive and thrives in a fast-paced environment across a range of pharma, health and wellness projects.

Essential to this role is proven healthcare agency or sector experience. Whilst the successful candidate needs to be a natural self-starter, it is also important that the candidate can work as part of a team across a range of disciplines from medical writers and creatives to account handlers.

We need a Senior Planner who is creatively driven, deeply analytical, and just as comfortable with foundational brand strategy as they are with communications and healthcare omni-channel planning.

The candidate will have a firm grasp of (but healthy skepticism towards) traditional planning processes and 'the done way of doing things.' They will identify with VCCP's Challenger positioning and recognise it in the way they approach their own work, pushing beyond conventional patient and HCP engagement models. They understand today's complex, highly regulated, and fragmented healthcare landscape, knowing how strategies must flex across paid, owned, and earned channels to reach patients, caregivers, and healthcare professionals in modern, non-traditional ways. They are passionate about humanising health and identifying proactive ways to make healthcare brands culturally relevant and deeply resonant.

They will have successful experience on medium- to large-sized business or pitches with oversight from their planning leads, with at least five years' experience. They will be confident presenting and briefing, with no problem taking complex clinical briefs from inception right through to delivery. Perhaps most importantly of all: they will have an unpretentious approach to advertising. This is not a position for those who put the proposition on a velvet cushion and baulk at the thought of mucking in with creatives, the medical team and account management to get to the best and most powerful work, sometimes at the last minute, always to a high standard.

About you:

• A passion for all things creative, advertising and healthcare
• Resilience to keep going in a fast-paced environment
• Thrive on working in a high-energy and fast-paced environment, where no two days are the same
• Be proactive with a can-do attitude - be eager to get your sleeves rolled up and learn
• Strive for excellence - be proud of your work and have meticulous attention to detail
• Friendly and approachable
• Build rapport and be able to quickly establish excellent working relationships
• Live and breathe the agency's values
• Strives for excellence
• Can-do attitude
• Approachable and personable
• Builds rapport and is able to quickly establish excellent working relationships
• Team player

Your experience:

• Ability and confidence to work as the main planner on an account and accustomed to being the planner the client wants to talk to
• Strong competency in the principles of brand planning: positioning, purpose, value proposition, brand DNA
• Integrated comms planning experience and can confidently develop customer journeys and content plans
• Modern media fluent (understanding approaches to paid, owned and earned in healthcare omnichannel communications)
• Solid experience developing creative briefs and strategic narratives for campaigns and creative activations, including collaborating with and inspiring creative teams
• A confident presenter, willing to pitch and lead briefs independently
• Experience leading strategy on new business proposals and pitches
• Ability and confidence to lead the design and facilitation of client workshops across different settings (F2F, hybrid and virtual)
• Strong pharma and healthcare background with thorough understanding of the sector
• Commercially-minded with a solid understanding of effectiveness measures (able to set KPIs and track campaign performance, and identify new client opportunities from the data)
• Can write compelling awards papers and case studies
• Approachable, personable and not afraid to challenge established ways of thinking
• Desirable: Eager to embrace AI tools across the planning workflow and actively experiments with emerging technologies to sharpen insights, streamline agency processes, and unlock innovative ways of working

VCCP DE&I STATEMENT

We believe that DE&I is about creating a strong culture of inclusion within our agency, where everyone can thrive and be their authentic self. VCCP is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of gender, age, disability, religion, belief, sexual orientation, marital status, or ethnicity.

CRIMINAL RECORDS INFORMATION

As part of our onboarding process, you will be required to complete a Criminal Records Declaration regarding any unspent convictions. For roles in finance, HR, Legal, IT or senior management, we may be required to verify your declaration with a basic DBS check, as well as an Adverse Finance and ID check.