Senior Director, Strategic Planning

Synchrony Group • West Chester, PA

5h

About The Position

The Senior Director, Strategic Planning will establish and lead brand strategy, serving as the connective tissue across account, medical, and creative teams. The Senior Director, Strategic Planning will be responsible for building the strategic foundation of our work—shaping brand narratives, translating science into compelling platforms, and helping our clients bring transformative therapies to market. The Senior Director, Strategic Planning will bridge rigorous medical insights with creative ambition, ensuring our work changes behavior and delivers impact in the real world.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree required in Business Administration, Finance, Management, or a related field
• 10+ years of healthcare advertising/communications experience, with deep expertise in brand strategy and planning, leading AOR HCP and Patient accounts
• Proven track record leading strategy for pharmaceutical/biotech brands across the product lifecycle (pre-launch experience strongly preferred)
• Effective leadership skills, with strong focus on account services, strategic pharmaceutical marketing, and business processes
• Ability to work seamlessly between big-picture thinking and hands-on execution, across multiple clients and accounts
• Strong facilitation skills: workshops, co-creation sessions, and client presentations
• Collaborative, entrepreneurial spirit with a passion for building new capabilities
• Excellent communication skills—able to distill complex data/science into clear, compelling stories
• High level of integrity, confidentiality, and accountability
• Well-defined sense of diplomacy, including solid negotiation, conflict resolution, and people management skills
• Ability to manage outcomes to win-win resolution
• Ability to provide management direction and developmental support to direct reports in preparation for future positions; provide challenging and stretching assignments; push tasks down to empower others; share ownership and visibility
• Demonstrated ability to manage key constituent relationships
• Able to identify key issues; creatively and strategically overcome challenges or obstacles
• Effective attention to detail and a high degree of accuracy
• Sound analytical thinking, planning, prioritization, and execution skills
• Expert communicator both verbally and in writing
• Strong presentation and persuasion skills: Can develop a clear point of view and tell a meaningful "story"; is effective in a variety of settings and group sizes with clients, peers, subordinates, and management; confidently expresses both data/facts, plus more controversial topics; commands attention and can manage group dynamics
• Ability to travel as needs require, including client events and presentations
• Ability to commit to extra and/or nontraditional hours as client needs require

Responsibilities

• Serve as the lead strategic partner on client accounts, guiding positioning, messaging, and brand expression
• Lead the development of brand strategy across client accounts, from early-stage positioning through launch and lifecycle management
• Partner closely with accounts, creative, and medical teams to ensure strategic alignment and excellence in execution, translating complex science into clear, motivating brand platforms and campaign strategies
• Collaborate with accounts, medical, and creative teams to shape briefs that deliver market-shifting creative solutions
• Craft differentiated brand narratives and strategic platforms that align with client objectives and resonate with target audiences, including HCPs, patients, and consumers
• Serve as a trusted strategic advisor to clients, guiding them through product launches, brand evolutions, and market-shaping initiatives
• Drive the strategic narrative through market research, developing insights into actionable strategies through messages, channels, projects, and deliverables
• Partner closely with cross-functional department leads in establishing pre-kickoff project plans
• Develop, refine, and apply brand planning approaches and tools: positioning workshops, journey mapping, segmentation, insights mining, and competitive assessments
• Contribute to business development efforts, including pitches and proposals, as necessary
• Identify opportunities for brand growth and differentiation through proactive strategic thinking
• Foster ongoing collaboration with client teams to mitigate issues and identify new business opportunities
• Ensure cross-functional collaboration among internal departments to drive innovative and client-centered solutions
• Mentor and grow talent, building a high-performing team as the function expands
• Establish and evolve best practices, frameworks, and processes for brand planning within Synchrony
• Represent the organization in an appropriate manner
• Be a positive force for enhancing the work culture, consensus-building, and internal communications
• Facilitate communication between team members and clients necessary to maintain strong relationships and effective account management
• Resolve conflict and celebrate success; set clear team priorities; explain client/brand objectives and strategies; define success in terms of the whole team
• Keep senior management apprised of critical client and internal issues, concerns, and opportunities

Benefits

• Synchrony places high value on the well-being of its employees; therefore, Synchrony team members are eligible for a comprehensive array of benefits, including competitive salaries, generous paid time off, excellent health insurance, family leave, and a 401(k) plan with employer matching.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Number of Employees: 101-250 employees