Medical Director - Medical Communications

Petauri; Carmel (IN); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Petauri seeks a Medical Director to act as the scientific lead for internal and client teams, driving high-quality content and strategic direction across multiple projects.

The role requires leadership, mentoring, and strong collaboration with cross-functional teams, with a focus on delivering timely, cost-effective outcomes and maintaining regulatory standards.

Qualifications

• Advanced science or clinical degree required or equivalent with significant relevant experience.
• Minimum 5 years in an agency, pharmaceutical industry, or related medical writing role.
• Experience leading medical communications accounts across multiple disease states.

Responsibilities

• Lead medical content across projects; ensure quality and strategic alignment.
• Provide scientific expertise during pitches, meetings, and client discussions.
• Collaborate cross-functionally to manage scope, budget, and timelines.
• Mentor junior team members and collaborators; oversee hiring decisions.
• Drive business development by understanding client strategies and needs.

Skills

Medical leadership

Cross-functional collaboration

Regulatory awareness

Strategic thinking

Mentoring

Client relationship building

Content creation

Project management

Public speaking

Data analysis

Education

Advanced science or clinical degree

Tools

MS Office

Adobe Acrobat

Veeva Vault

Job description

• In partnership with CS/AM, serve as the medical leader, scientific expert, responsible for ensuring quality and rigor, scientific pertinence, and strategic alignment


• Provide scientific, tactical, historical, and strategic expertise during pitches, meetings, and discussions with client and team.


• In collaboration with CS/AM, monitor and direct work cross functionally within scope and budget


• Supportive leadership driving multiple projects and accounts


• Independently create high quality content, execute exceptional research to support internal or external endeavors, and exceeding client expectations


• Maintain medical, legal, and regulatory expertise and support others in achieving it


• Review and ensure consist high quality content achieving strategic objectives


• Build relationship with clients through regular and consistent engagement in meetings


• Collaborate with applicable cross functional teams to support internal timelines. Ensure work is executed within budget and on time.


• Coach and train Medical/Scientific employees and/or contractors to exemplify Petauri Advance values, anticipate client issues, help them solve issues and provide contingency plans, as necessary.


• Ensure capacity is used efficiently, including reaching out to team members to support when under capacity, and overseeing opportunity to fill capacity of reports

Brief Description

Client & Team Interactions

• In partnership with CS/AM, serve as the medical leader, scientific expert, responsible for ensuring quality and rigor, scientific pertinence, and strategic alignment


• Provide scientific, tactical, historical, and strategic expertise during pitches, meetings, and discussions with client and team.


• In collaboration with CS/AM, monitor and direct work cross functionally within scope and budget


• Supportive leadership driving multiple projects and accounts


• Independently create high quality content, execute exceptional research to support internal or external endeavors, and exceeding client expectations


• Maintain medical, legal, and regulatory expertise and support others in achieving it


• Review and ensure consist high quality content achieving strategic objectives


• Build relationship with clients through regular and consistent engagement in meetings


• Collaborate with applicable cross functional teams to support internal timelines. Ensure work is executed within budget and on time.


• Coach and train Medical/Scientific employees and/or contractors to exemplify Petauri Advance values, anticipate client issues, help them solve issues and provide contingency plans, as necessary.


• Ensure capacity is used efficiently, including reaching out to team members to support when under capacity, and overseeing opportunity to fill capacity of reports

Business Development

• Provide scientific expertise and market guidance to support proposals, ensuring scientific accuracy of content


• Present ideas that leverage capabilities and novel solutions during pitches to stay competitive


• Assist in development and maintenance of relationships for new business opportunities


• Support business development efforts by leveraging strategic understanding of client products and disease states


• Partner with clients to identify additional needs based on client strategy, EG, brand planning

Staffing

• Mentor junior teammates and may have direct reports


• Aid in building and mentoring proficient, competitive teams that provide medical content and strategic expertise in multiple therapeutic areas


• Assists with interviews and review of writing tests, providing input regarding hiring decisions


• Train new team members and identify opportunities for growth within the Medical/Scientific team


• Provide leadership and encourage/develop team-centric staff; provides feedback cross functional development


• Support development and implementation of processes for the Medical/Scientific Team


• Lead solutions for cross-functional level dynamics and issues


• Align workload and assignments to skill


• Delegate responsibilities and supervise the work product as needed to achieve quality and timelines


• Identify needs regarding additional support and manage contractors


• Routinely report project status and resourcing schedules to department head(s) to make and adjust department-related forecasting and decisions and propose solutions to department head(s)

Company

• Engage with vendors as needed


• Exemplify company culture, values, policies, operating objectives, and standards of performance and take accountability for achieving company goals


• Communicate and maintain trust relationships with employees, cross-functional partners, and clients


• Maintain a positive and professional attitude as a representative of Petauri Advance


• Analyze problematic situations and occurrences and provide solutions

Requirements

Competencies

• Established knowledge in various disease state markets


• Excellent quantitative and analytical skills and ability to synthesize complex or diverse information


• Strong attention to detail and ownership of quality; ability to steer team toward higher quality


• Curious and creative mindset with a willingness to provide innovative suggestions to benefit the company and our clients


• Ability to take initiative, communicate clearly and work collaboratively in a dynamic, remote environment


• Strong working knowledge in pharmaceutical and biotech industries and medical communications


• Strong understanding of a variety of medical communications deliverables; ability to design novel solutions


• Able to work calmly under high pressure and prioritize effectively in a rapidly changing environment. Able to communicate changes in a timely manner to the appropriate team(s) (e.g., changes in deadlines, timelines, client requests, etc.).


• Excellent presentation skills both verbal and written communications to the intended audience


• Ability to give and receive constructive feedback for continuous improvement


• Strong familiarity with AMA Manual of Style guidelines


• Highly proficient with MS Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook), Adobe Acrobat, and Veeva Vault preferred


• Strong problem-solving abilities in demanding situations and has the ability to influence others


• Proactively takes accountability for work and cross functional relationships


• Demonstrates Petauri Advance values and assists others in aligning to culture


• Ability to build and maintain external relationships by being attentive to their needs


• Demonstrate leadership capabilities to inspire the team and appropriately set the vision for the organization.


• Strong ability to work through conflict by encouraging open communication, thinking strategically, and delegating effectively


• Ability to lead others and delegate work

Education And Experience

An advanced science or clinical degree (eg, PhD, MBBS, MD, PharmD, RN, RPh) or a lesser degree with significant relevant experience is required. A minimum of 5 years of work experience in an agency, the pharmaceutical industry, or a related scientific or medical writing position. At least 3-5 years of experience leading medical communications accounts in various disease states. Preferably at least 2-3 years of experience in management. Business development, mentoring other writers, leading client-focused teams, and client partnering a must. Demonstration of success in pitching new products to potential clients is a plus.

Summary

The Medical Director is the scientific lead for internal and client teams and is critical to the overall organizational client experience. The Director will provide leadership and expertise in high quality content development, aligning with clients and experts to drive the strategic direction of the product. They will also coordinate deliverables, resources and staffing, and work to ensure timely and cost-effective achievement of project milestones. The individual plays a critical role, along with cross function team, in managing client and HCP satisfaction and relationships, planning for execution across multiple projects, implementing processes, managing and mentoring members of the Medical/Scientific team, creating and delivering high quality content, and serving as a supportive leader of the team. This role is responsible for supporting business development and alignment with company goals. This role has both managerial and direct content work expectations.

About Petauri

Certified as a 2026 Great Place to Work®, Petauri takes pride in having a culture rooted in trust, collaboration, and a strong sense of community. We seek to attract individuals from a wide range of backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives to join us in our mission of improving patient outcomes by accelerating access to life changing healthcare innovations. A global healthcare consulting and solutions organization, Petauri brings together decades of experience across market access, evidence generation, medical communications, commercialization strategy, and policy to help life sciences organizations navigate complex healthcare challenges with clarity, integrity, and impact.

About Petauri Advance

Petauri Advance is the organization’s collective of medical and scientific communication platforms (Bluprint Oncology, Verascity, Cogency, Drive, Propel, and Momentum-All Powered by Petauri). Grounded in scientific expertise, the teams deliver innovative medical communication strategies that transform evidence into understanding, which in turn empowers informed decisions and advances patient care.