Vice President, Brand Strategist

Ogilvy•New York, NY

10d•$100,000 - $230,000

About The Position

At Ogilvy Health, brand strategy is where science, audience truth, creativity, and culture come together to create ideas that move people. Our strategists help define what brands stand for, why they matter, and how they can change behavior in meaningful ways. We are seeking a Vice President, Brand Strategist who can serve as a strategic leader across assigned brand teams, helping shape the insights, positioning, creative briefs, workshops, and strategic narratives that guide our work. This is a role for someone who can move fluidly from deep research and brand architecture to creative inspiration and client influence. The VP, Brand Strategist will be a trusted strategic partner to clients and internal teams, helping brands find sharper points of view, stronger audience relevance, and more compelling paths to growth. This person will also help mentor junior strategy talent, contribute to new business opportunities, and bring curiosity around emerging tools, technology, and AI-enabled ways of working. This role is for a strategist who is both rigorous and generous: someone who can lead the room, strengthen the work, grow the team, and help build what comes next.

Requirements

7+ years of experience in brand strategy, strategic planning, account planning, healthcare marketing, research, consulting, or a related strategic discipline.
Significant experience in healthcare, pharmaceutical, biotech, wellness, or other regulated categories.
Strong ability to translate science, data, research, and audience understanding into clear strategic direction.
Experience developing brand positioning, messaging strategy, creative briefs, strategic workshops, research synthesis, and client presentations.
Demonstrated ability to lead brand teams, partner with clients, and influence cross-functional teams.
Strong understanding of HCP, patient, caregiver, and stakeholder audiences.
Ability to identify meaningful insights from primary research, secondary research, competitive analysis, cultural trends, and marketplace dynamics.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to simplify complexity and tell a compelling strategic story.
Strong facilitation and presentation skills, including comfort leading workshops and presenting to clients.
Experience mentoring junior talent and helping elevate the strategic work of others.
Curiosity about AI, emerging technologies, modern marketing platforms, and how they can enhance strategic thinking and brand-building.
Proficiency in PowerPoint and the ability to create clear, compelling, executive-ready strategic presentations.

Nice To Haves

Advanced degree or relevant experience in strategy, communications, psychology, sociology, marketing, life sciences, or a related field preferred.

Responsibilities

Serve as a strategic lead across assigned brand teams, guiding the development of brand strategy, positioning, messaging, creative briefs, and strategic recommendations.
Develop a deep understanding of assigned brands, categories, customer needs, competitive dynamics, and cultural context.
Translate clinical complexity, market dynamics, and audience insight into clear, compelling brand stories.
Help teams uncover the “contagious” strategic idea that can inspire creative development and drive meaningful behavior change.
Ensure strategic thinking is embedded early and consistently across brand, creative, engagement, medical, account, and analytics workstreams.
Bring a strong point of view to brand challenges while remaining collaborative, flexible, and open to building better ideas with others.
Serve as a primary strategic partner for assigned clients, building trusted relationships through clarity, confidence, and strategic leadership.
Partner closely with Account, Creative, Medical Strategy, Engagement Strategy, Strategic Intelligence, and Analytics teams to deliver integrated strategic solutions.
Facilitate client conversations, strategic workshops, and internal working sessions that help align teams around brand opportunities, audience needs, and creative direction.
Help clients navigate complexity by turning research, data, science, and competitive context into actionable strategic direction.
Identify opportunities to expand the strategic value we bring to clients, helping grow relationships and deepen Ogilvy Health’s role as a strategic partner.
Lead and synthesize primary and secondary research to identify meaningful insights into HCP, patient, caregiver, and stakeholder beliefs, behaviors, needs, and barriers.
Apply research, data, cultural foresight, and marketplace understanding to define strategic opportunities for brands.
Partner within the Integrated Strategy team and other specialist teams to ensure strategic recommendations are grounded, differentiated, and actionable.
Identify important cultural, category, and marketplace trends and translate them into potential implications for client businesses.
Shape brand narratives that connect audience truth, scientific credibility, and creative opportunity.
Craft clear, inspiring creative briefs that give teams the strategic foundation, audience insight, and creative tension needed to develop powerful work.
Partner with Creative teams throughout the development process, helping ensure ideas remain strategically grounded and brand-building.
Brief teams in a way that inspires, focuses, and unlocks better creative thinking.
Help evaluate creative ideas against strategic objectives, audience relevance, and brand ambition.
Support the development of compelling presentations that bring strategic thinking to life with clarity and conviction.
Contribute to new business opportunities by helping shape strategic insights, brand stories, pitch narratives, workshops, and presentation materials.
Support senior strategy leaders in developing differentiated strategic approaches for pitches and organic growth opportunities.
Bring fresh thinking to new business challenges, helping teams identify sharper audience truths, brand opportunities, and creative springboards.
Help demonstrate the value of Ogilvy Health’s integrated strategy model to prospective and existing clients.
Build confidence presenting strategic thinking in high-stakes internal and client-facing settings.
Bring curiosity and fluency around how AI-enabled tools, emerging technologies, and new ways of working can strengthen the strategic process.
Explore how platforms such as WPP Open and other AI-enabled tools can enhance audience understanding, competitive analysis, creative briefing, personalization, and strategic storytelling.
Help identify smarter, faster, and more effective ways to turn data, research, and human insight into strategic opportunity.
Champion responsible experimentation with AI across brand strategy workstreams.
Inspire teams to see technology not as a shortcut, but as a way to sharpen thinking, expand possibilities, and elevate the quality of the work.
Mentor and develop junior strategists, helping them strengthen their strategic craft, presentation skills, creative briefing, and client confidence.
Model what great strategy looks like: curious, collaborative, rigorous, imaginative, and generous.
Help create an environment where strategy talent can learn, contribute, grow, and take ownership.
Partner with senior strategy leadership to raise the standard of strategic output across assigned accounts.
Foster a culture of curiosity, experimentation, collaboration, and continuous learning across strategy disciplines.