Vice President Client Development

Vice President, Client Partnerships & Research Solutions

Location : Norwalk, CT (2 days per week)

**potentially remote for the right person - but local to come in as needed**

Compensation : Commensurate with experience (base + bonus + commission + a really cool team & quality culture)

Our client is a boutique market research and consulting firm that blends art and science, the left brain and the right. They've been at it for over a decade, with deep roots in pharma, biotech, medical devices, diagnostics, and consumer health.

They're looking for a leader who already leads accounts and a team, and doesn't need anyone to show them how.

The Role:

This is a senior leadership role, and the job is to run things. You'll own a portfolio of key accounts and lead the team that delivers them, with very little involvement from firm leadership. Clients will come to you, the team will look to you, and the decisions will mostly be yours.

Bringing in new relationships is part of it. Keeping and growing the ones already in place is the bigger part. Whoever takes this on should be able to hit the ground running, not ramp up for six months.

Why it's worth a look:

• Real ownership. Your accounts, your team, your calls. Leadership is close by but not hovering.
• A seat at the table. You'll work directly with firm leadership on client strategy and where the business goes next.
• More than research. The firm combines insights, product innovation, brand, marketing strategy, data science, and creative under one roof, so you have more to offer clients than a study.
• The work travels. About 75% of projects are global, with research in 90+ countries and 80+ languages.
• Established, privately held, and still small enough that one senior hire changes things.
• Certified minority- and woman-owned.

What you'll do:

Lead accounts and people

• Own a portfolio of key accounts: the relationships, the delivery, and how healthy they are
• Lead, mentor, and develop a team of researchers, and keep the work good and on time
• Run several complex qual, quant, and mixed-method engagements at once
• Be the main point of contact for your clients on expectations, timelines, and budgets
• Make the day-to-day calls on project direction and staffing yourself

Keep clients, and grow them

• Stay close to existing clients and find where else you can help, across brands, therapeutic areas, and teams
• Act as a trusted advisor, recommending research that answers both the immediate question and the longer-term one
• Build account growth plans and keep an eye on what clients will need next

Shape the research

• Lead discovery and research design conversations, and recommend the right mix of methods
• Write proposals, scopes, and budgets with the research team
• Bring a working knowledge of pharma commercialization, brand strategy, and healthcare stakeholders to every engagement

Open new doors

• Develop new client relationships, drawing on your own network in pharma, biotech, and life sciences
• Represent the firm at conferences and industry events
• Work with leadership on growth plans, account strategy, and how the firm's services evolve

What you Bring:

• 10–15+ years in market research or insights consulting
• You lead client accounts and manage a team or group now, or did very recently
• Significant pharma and life sciences market research experience, ideally at a custom research agency or consultancy
• A track record of running projects and client relationships on your own, without senior leadership checking in
• A strong command of qual and quant design, and the confidence to recommend an approach and defend it
• Experience writing proposals, scoping and pricing work, and managing budgets
• Real relationships inside pharma, biotech, or life sciences companies (strongly preferred)
• Comfort with senior clients across research, marketing, and commercial teams
• Good business sense and the instinct to act without being asked