Scientific Director

Overview
Scientific Director
Location: 12 Bishop's Bridge Rd, Greater, London W2 6AA
Reports to: Senior Scientific Director
About DDB Remedy:
We're a bunch of creative, Intelligent, friendly, Interesting, Interested, diverse and happy people (and dogs). Surprising and delighting our clients and ourselves is what gets us out of bed In the morning.
We have a simple belief — Unexpected Works. Meaning that the best idea is the one you that you could never see coming. And the only way to get there is through genuine creativity. The kind of creativity that scares and excites us at the same time because it’s so different. We even get goosebumps just thinking about it. This kind of work takes guts, luckily, we’ve got plenty of that here.
We’re one of the leading Healthcare Communications agencies and our goal is simple, to improve people’s health and wellbeing. We develop strategic solutions, create identities, produce beautiful content, and create experiences for HCPs, patients, salesforces, and consumers across multiple channels.
We’re proud of what we do, creating unexpected work that makes a difference.
Our commitment:
DDB Remedy is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate individuality and diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment and a sense of belonging for all employees without regard to race, age, sex, disability, neurodiversity, sexual orientation, gender identity or religion.
Everyone has the right to be themselves. That’s why we cherish 4 important ‘freedoms’, that protect our rights to be creative, to experiment, to be who we are and to feel included and safe at work. These inform our every word, every action and every result, every day. They are Freedom from fear, Freedom to fail, Freedom from Chaos and Freedom to be.
For us, inclusivity and diversity aren’t “nice-to-have” – they’re central to our business strategy. The more inclusive we are, the more people feel they can bring their whole selves to work, the better our work will be.
We are committed to providing reasonable adjustments for employees with disabilities and for candidates in our application process. If you need assistance or adjustment due to a disability, please contact us
Job description:
You uphold the scientific truth of the work that flows through the agency, ensuring the copy department delivers high-quality medical and scientific writing across a variety of channels and audiences. Demonstrating a passion and skill for medical and scientific writing, you always deliver and inspire others to do so, ensuring work can have award-winning potential.
As part of the Copy Leadership Team (includes all CLs), you work closely with the Senior Scientific Director (SSD) to lead the Copy team. You work synergistically with individuals and cross-functional teams, while keeping calm and resolute in the face of pressure and deadlines.
You ensure Copy Leads (CLs) and their teams receive the guidance, direction, training and support they need to advance. You also provide agency-wide scientific counsel and as one of the most senior medical/scientific people at DDB Remedy you contribute to the growth, development and smooth-running of the agency. You will be able to raise the bar of our product by advancing agency scientific-writing skills.
Promoting agency culture and developing strong relationships both internally and externally, to help attract and retain the best talent and clients, is also key to this role.
Key Capabilities:
Strong scientific background, with good understanding of the drug development and commercialisation process.
Champions medical/scientific writing ensuring outputs are grounded in science
Highly strategic mindset, applying this to grow brands/products and overcome challenges during their lifecycles
Strong management and interpersonal skills, empowering others around them to do ‘unexpected work’ (UW)
Always approachable, remaining unflappable and solution-focused in a crisis
Recognised as a trusted partner, by both agency colleagues and clients
Position Requirements:
Creativity
Provides agency-wide creative scientific counsel across accounts and for new business efforts.
Adeptly turns clinical data into medically accurate, approvable copy, and creates the environment to ensure others can.
Able to create ‘award-worthy’, [TBC] with the Creative Director Art/Art Director/Designer, Digital and/or other team members.
Creatively thinks about the client’s business and demonstrates initiatives to identify new business opportunities
Works closely with their strategy counterpart to develop briefs and pushes back on them when appropriate
Demonstrates passion for creativity and ideas, with an eye on grounding them scientifically
Proactively feeds their imagination, and empowers others to do so
Productivity
Responsible for the smooth-running of your copy pillar and supports the smooth-running of the wider copy team
Oversight of the SOWs within your copy pillar with the CLs, while working closely with the SSD/OD (Operations Director) to ensure overarching copy pillar staffing/resourcing needs are met
Has strong time management skills, prioritising and delegating tasks efficiently, empowering others to do the same
Has a high degree of accuracy and reliability with everything they do, empowering others to do the same
Remains calm under pressure, does not pass stress on to co-workers
Creates systems and processes and challenges them to improve the functioning and output of the copy department and the wider agency
Possesses an excellent work ethic and, leading by example, fosters the same work ethic in others
Creates, promotes and follows departmental and agency SOP
Completes AX timesheets on time every week, leading by example
Relationships/Communication
Champions and elevates the role and skills of medical writers and proofreaders; empowering copy colleagues to feel proud and valued about what they do
Creates an inclusive and inspiring environment, empowering others to do the same
Acts as an ambassador for DDBR, actively promoting its culture both at work and outside of work, empowering others to do the same
Upholds our four freedoms and ensures other team members do, empowering others to do the same
Knowledge & Skills
Possesses excellent medical and scientific writing skills, training and mentoring copy team members to develop these skills
Broad understanding of key therapy areas and able to onboard and train colleagues on these
Excellent understanding of the external regulatory/approval processes and codes of practice, imparting this knowledge to the copy team and wider agency
Presents work confidently, professionally and persuasively to colleagues and clients
Shares knowledge regularly and passionately, seeking out new data and messages
Partners with their strategy counterpart to create and shape brand strategy, applying it skilfully, to unlock great ideas and tactics
Has good knowledge of different companies and individual brands language and lexicon
Develops and mentors others to build an understanding of client’s business, brands and category
Keeps CPD record up-to-date
Management & Leadership
Leads scientific output across the agency
Takes ownership of their copy pillar and responsibility for the output and behaviour of their writing teams
Trains and mentors copy colleagues effectively and empathetically, empowering others to do the same
Manages and motivates colleagues thoughtfully and successfully, empowering others to do the same
Effectively collaborates with colleagues across the agency
Capable of stepping in for the lead writer on an account or a pitch, as required
Capable of inspiring colleagues to create or contribute to UW-driven, ‘award-worthy’ ideas and copy
Helps grow and develop the department and the agency
Delegates effectively and appropriately as required
Seen as a role model by others
Qualifications and Skills:
Desirable
Experience with Veeva/other client referencing software systems
Good proofreading and QC skills
Essential
Minimum, degree-educated in science or medicine with a strong scientific background – a PhD or Masters isn’t essential, but you will need to be able to keep up with (and be a source of knowledge for) a team who mostly have this level of scientific knowledge
10+ years of experience of medical/scientific writing in a (creative) healthcare agency
Understanding of the UK and European medical regulatory environment (e.g. ABPI, EMA guidelines, etc)
Understanding of the drug development and commercialisation process
A strategic mindset – to partner with our client and planning teams in strengthening our relationship with clients and helping to grow their brands/products
Strong management skills, ideally with experience managing four or more people/a team previously
Ability to resource and manage the daily-through-quarterly workflow of a medium-sized team of writers
Adept at communicating clearly, working effectively, and collaborating with colleagues and clients
Confident and persuasive presenter, being able to lead client update meetings and present at pitches
Positive and collaborative, with strong interpersonal skills
Enthusiastic, committed to delivering quality and exceeding expectations
Highly organised and methodical
Professional, client-focused communication at all times
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