Senior Director, Scientific Strategy

Fingerpaint Group; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Fingerpaint Group seeks a Director, Scientific Strategy to lead the scientific direction for multiple brands in healthcare advertising. You will own deliverables, guide workshops, mentor scientists, and partner with medical affairs to advance evidence generation.

The ideal candidate has a PhD and 6+ years in pharma marketing, with strong presentation skills and a collaborative, client‑facing approach. As scientific lead, you will influence strategy, manage client relationships, and help shape

Qualifications

• PhD preferred with pharma marketing experience.
• 6+ years in pharmaceutical industry or pharma marketing.
• Experience developing medical communications programmes preferred.
• Strong presentation and client-facing capabilities.

Responsibilities

• Lead scientific strategy for multiple brands.
• Own deliverables and client relationships.
• Mentor scientific strategists and manage teams.
• Develop workshops and guide sessions.
• Collaborate with medical affairs and HEOR teams.
• Contribute to new business pitches and scope development.
• Ensure high-quality scientific storytelling across brands.

Skills

Scientific strategy

Leadership

Client relationship mgmt

Mentoring

Presentation skills

Education

PhD preferred

Tools

Microsoft PowerPoint

Adobe

Word

Job description

Reset your expectations of a health and wellness agency. From our inception, Fingerpaint has been driven by an unstoppable collective spirit of possibility. It’s that curiosity that’s at the heart of everything we do. From our legendary people-first culture to the hundreds of Fingerpainters who define us, we’ve reimagined what it means to be a healthcare and wellness advertising agency. Here, creativity happens naturally—we attract top talent and collaborate.

Objectives Of This Role

Are you hungry to help push the boundaries of what’s possible in medicine? Come join our team in translating the latest scientific discoveries into compelling brand strategies, provider education, and patient care. At Fingerprint, we focus on infusing science into all aspects of a unified brand‑building process to drive commercial and medical communication strategies. The director, scientific strategy will need to utilize all of their capabilities as a scientist and a person, tapping into both their scientific thinking and creative core.

The director is the scientific lead for multiple brands and will own the approach and finalisation of deliverables, leading client relationships and interactions while learning to support scope of work development, design workstreams, and mentor/manage others.

Duties And Responsibilities

• Partner across the disciplines of strategy to drive brand building, unbranded initiatives, and communication planning
• Foster authentic and effective relationships with client brand and medical teams, as well as other relevant medical personnel (eg, key opinion leaders, MSLs, etc)
• Partner on development and execution of strategic workshops, inclusive of development of workshop agenda, framework, content and shared meeting leadership, and breakout group facilitation
• On-site congress and advisory board coverage and generation of an accurate and comprehensive output report complete with perceptions, barriers, opportunities, and Fingerpaint recommendations
• Manage and mentor scientific strategists in all aspects of career and personal development
• Run client workshops and advisory boards independently
• Actively participate in development of and attendance at new business pitches
• Maintain status as being highly informed and knowledgeable across brands
• Independently create and guide a scientific concept and brand advantage
• Partner with medical affairs, HEOR, and/or clinical development to propose novel approaches to evidence generation
• Elevate the quality or increase the efficiency of existing projects and propose novel ideas for Fingerpaint services or deliverables
• Make recommendations about brand coverage and staffing based on in‑depth brand understanding of workload fluctuations
• Partner in annual scope development and review
• Develop meaningful and productive lead client relationships (medical and commercial)

Job Requirements

• Relevant degree (PhD preferred)
• Minimum of 6 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry and/or pharmaceutical marketing
• Experience developing medical communications programmes preferred
• Is effective in a variety of formal presentation settings—one‑on‑one, small/large groups, with peers, sub‑ordinates, and bosses— both inside and outside the organization
• Proficiency in Microsoft PowerPoint, Word, and Adobe
• Constant curiosity with the passion to explore and create

Don’t meet every single requirement? That’s okay! Studies have shown that women and people of color are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification. At Fingerpaint, we are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace, so if you’re excited about this role but your experience doesn’t align perfectly.

Fingerpaint Group provides equal employment [and affirmative action] opportunities to all applicants and employees. We are proud to recruit qualified applicants without regard to race, colour, religion, gender, age, ethnic or national origin, protected veteran status, physical or mental disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, or citizenship status.