Senior Account Director, Healthcare PR (up to £70K, DOE)

About us: 

Virgo Health is a specialist health communications agency, part of the GOLIN group and the wider IPG network of companies with more than 200 offices around the world as well as hubs in London, New York and Chicago.

We are passionate about helping people to make better decisions around health and wellbeing. Whether it’s clinicians selecting the best treatment, patients understanding their disease better or empowering consumers to self-treat, we always make sure that the human aspect is at the heart of what we do. We work with pharmaceutical, diagnostic and consumer health companies, industry bodies, public and private health providers as well as patient organisations. We support clients across the communications spectrum.

When we choose to work in healthcare, we choose to work in an industry with people at its heart; we celebrate our differences and how we complement each other. But at Virgo, ‘Being Human’ is what unites us, and it’s fundamental to our culture. We show empathy and support for each other to grow our skills. embracing inclusive and flexible ways of working and rejecting outdated workplace culture. We have a brilliant team that works well together to deliver effective content and to celebrate our successes.

What is the role?

As a Senior Account Director, you will be the go-to person from clients and from teams, providing oversight and guidance, while still getting stuck in with content development and review. You will be involved in strategic planning and issues management, leading strong client relationships and delivering projects and content. You will coordinate actions, managing both up and down, to ensure we are delivering high standards of work to deadlines, ensuring strategy and insight are embedded throughout.

What will you be doing?

• Develop and maintain strong relationships with clients through appropriate regular contact and account direction
• Contribute to client communications strategy to ensure clients start to view Virgo as a strategic advisor, constructively negotiating where appropriate to ensure programme is as effective as possible
• Recognise and seek out opportunities to build relationships with wider client team and generate organic growth opportunities
• Draft of high-level client and competitor materials, including Q&As, with rapid and accurate turnaround, including full and accurate scientific referencing
• Review of first drafts of materials from junior team members, including briefing and training
• Financial management, including capacity planning and forecasting, ensuring invoicing, finance trackers, etc. are produced on time
• Project management of large projects, and management of team (junior and senior) to ensure project success
• Line management and contribution to broader company training, e.g. suggesting topics and supporting with running training

What are we looking for?

• Several years’ (5–7) experience in pharmaceutical PR with a good understanding of data and regulatory communications
• Experience working in an agency, particularly on global accounts
• Good organisational skills and ability to delegate effectively both up and down
• Excellent people-management and leadership skills
• Able to gain client trust and the confidence to lead client management
• Able to quickly understand and interpret scientific data, e.g. congress abstracts, and communicate them succinctly and accurately
• Good financial oversight to build and manage client budgets, playing a key role in account financial management

What do we offer?

• Competitive salary and benefits
• Flexible working
• 6 weeks annual leave
• 2 volunteering days
• Monthly well-being allowance
• A fantastic office space in Shoreditch with a dog friendly policy
• Clear career progression and leading training programmes developed by our L&D Director

At IPG we are proud to be a Disability Confident Employer. We are committed to equality of opportunity for all staff and applications from individuals are encouraged regardless of age, disability, sex, gender reassignment, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief and marriage and civil partnerships.