Senior Director, Patient Ambassador Strategy

Ruder Finn•Washington, DC

23h•$125,000 - $160,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Ruder Finn is seeking a Senior Director, Patient Engagement to join their growing rf.voices team. This role is responsible for developing the strategy, structure, and plans for patient ambassador programs for pharmaceutical and healthcare clients. The Senior Director will collaborate with clients, patients, caregivers, and internal agency teams to oversee program delivery, ensuring initiatives are authentic, compliant, measurable, and patient-centered. The position involves managing the entire ambassador lifecycle, from identification and onboarding to story development, training, activation, and ongoing engagement, preparing patients and caregivers to share their stories confidently and authentically across various approved channels.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in communications, marketing, public health, health sciences, behavioral science, social work, business or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and relevant experience.
10+ years of experience including direct experience managing pharmaceutical patient ambassador, patient-speaker, peer-support or comparable patient engagement programs.
Demonstrated experience designing patient ambassador program models, selection criteria, training approaches and activation plans.
Experience overseeing multiple programs or a complex patient engagement account.
Strong client-counsel skills and experience presenting strategic recommendations to senior stakeholders.
Experience overseeing the training and coaching of patients or caregivers; ability to develop training and coaching standards and processes.
Strong interviewing and story-development skills, including the ability to work with sensitive and emotionally complex health experiences.
Working knowledge of pharmaceutical regulatory and compliance requirements affecting patient-facing communications.
Experience managing client relationships, cross-functional teams, budgets, timelines and program deliverables.
The ability to balance empathy for ambassadors with accountability to client, program and regulatory requirements.
Strong presentation, facilitation, coaching and interpersonal communication skills.
Sound judgment and the ability to identify when an issue should be escalated.
Experience supporting organic account growth and contributing to new-business development.
Ability to use AI and emerging technologies responsibly and in accordance with client, privacy and regulatory requirements.
Experience establishing and overseeing patient contracting, consent, content-rights, fair-market-value, payment and documentation processes within healthcare or pharmaceutical programs.

Nice To Haves

An understanding of health literacy, patient journeys and disease-specific communities a plus.

Responsibilities

Develop patient ambassador strategies and program plans that align client objectives, patient needs, disease-state insights, and regulatory considerations.
Define program audiences, ambassador eligibility criteria, roles, engagement channels, and activation models.
Establish program governance, decision-making processes, escalation pathways, and quality standards.
Contribute to recommendations for branded, unbranded, or blended program approaches.
Develop annual and project-specific activation plans for live, virtual, digital, social, and peer-to-peer channels.
Apply knowledge of disease states, patient journeys, health literacy, and audience considerations to program recommendations.
Establish program timelines, deliverables, KPIs, and reporting plans in partnership with senior leadership and measurement teams.
Evaluate program performance and use findings to refine strategy, enhance ambassador experiences, and improve future program design.
Establish the approach and criteria for identifying, assessing, and onboarding patients and caregivers.
Oversee ambassador recruitment, screening, and selection.
Review and approve recommendations for ambassador participation, especially for sensitive or high-visibility opportunities.
Set standards for respectful, consistent, and long-term ambassador relationship management.
Provide guidance on sensitive ambassador situations and direct responses to changes in personal circumstances.
Monitor the overall ambassador experience and identify opportunities for improvement.
Oversee the development and delivery of training to prepare patients and caregivers to share their experiences confidently and authentically within approved parameters.
Oversee the ambassador story-development process, ensuring narratives are authentic, compelling, and aligned with program objectives.
Provide direction and quality oversight for ambassador coaching on presentation skills, messaging, interviews, media readiness, and handling difficult questions.
Ensure ambassadors are prepared for participation across various channels, including videos, advertising, blogs, social media, live events, and peer-to-peer programs.
Establish and reinforce standards for clear communication of personal experiences while avoiding unsupported claims.
Review training plans and ambassador readiness, providing direct coaching for complex engagements as needed.
Guide team members responsible for day-to-day training and coaching.
Provide strategic direction for story-mining and content development, ensuring patient narratives reflect lived experiences and support program objectives.
Establish narrative approach and content-development standards, overseeing sensitive or high-visibility content.
Guide editorial and creative teams.
Review and approve key narratives before client submission, resolving conflicts between authenticity, brand objectives, and regulatory limitations.
Advise client teams on regulatory, privacy, consent, disclosure, and fair-market-value considerations affecting program design and execution.
Partner with client medical, legal, and regulatory stakeholders to develop viable program approaches.
Oversee agency coordination of client MLR reviews and ensure required revisions are addressed.
Establish program-level escalation and quality-control practices for compliance-sensitive activities.
Serve as a primary day-to-day client contact for patient engagement programs.
Lead client meetings, status updates, planning discussions, and program reviews.
Build strong working relationships with client teams.
Manage client expectations, identify potential issues, and work with senior leadership to resolve challenges.
Coordinate multidisciplinary agency teams and external partners to deliver work on time, within scope, and at the expected quality.
Support scope development, staffing plans, budgets, forecasts, and financial reconciliation.
Develop recommendations, scopes, and proposals to identify organic growth opportunities.
Determine team roles and staffing needs for assigned programs.
Manage and develop Directors and other team members, providing direction, feedback, and growth opportunities.
Establish quality-control expectations and hold teams accountable for consistent execution.
Review deliverables for accuracy, quality, sensitivity, and compliance.
Drive consistent patient-centered practices across accounts and project teams.
Contribute subject-matter expertise, program ideas, and case examples to proposals and new-business pitches.