Director, Patient Ambassador Strategy

Director, Patient Engagement, Ruder Finn

Ruder Finn is one of the world’s largest independent global communications and integrated marketing agencies, known for bold ideas, sharp strategy, and a culture that pushes what’s next. Ruder Finn continues to earn recognition for its industry leadership, creativity, and continued growth, including being named Large Agency of the Year at the 2026 PRWeek U.S. Awards and one of PRWeek’s Best Places to Work.

We’re looking for a Director, Patient Engagement to join our growing rf.voices team. This role will manage the day-to-day planning and delivery of patient ambassador programs for pharmaceutical and healthcare clients. Working directly with clients, patients, caregivers and cross-functional agency teams, the Director will translate approved strategies into authentic, compliant and measurable engagement programs.

The Director will manage programs across the ambassador lifecycle, including identification, assessment, onboarding, story development, training, activation and ongoing engagement. They will help prepare patients and caregivers to communicate confidently and authentically through videos, advertising, blogs, social media, live events, peer-to-peer programs and other approved channels.

Key Responsibilities

Program Execution and Management

• Execute approved patient ambassador program strategies and translate them into detailed workplans, timelines and deliverables.
• Document program audiences, ambassador eligibility criteria, participant roles, and engagement channels and activation models.
• Contribute to recommendations regarding branded, unbranded or blended approaches based on program objectives, patient needs and regulatory considerations.
• Build and maintain detailed activation plans across live, virtual, digital, social and peer-to-peer channels.
• Incorporate approved disease-state information, patient-journey insights, health literacy principles and audience considerations into materials and activities.
• Manage timelines, deliverables, and status reports; track KPIs and compile information for program reporting.
• Monitor execution, ambassador feedback and audience response; flag concerns and propose tactical adjustments for leadership review.

Ambassador Identification and Relationship Management

• Support ambassador identification, recruitment, screening, onboarding and readiness assessments using established program criteria.
• Conduct patient and caregiver interviews to understand lived experiences, motivations, communication abilities, boundaries and support needs.
• Maintain accurate ambassador profiles, participation records, consent documentation and engagement preferences.
• Serve as an ongoing point of contact for assigned ambassadors, coordinating program communications and addressing routine questions or concerns.
• Escalate changes in an ambassador’s health, comfort, availability or readiness that may affect participation.

Training and Coaching

• Deliver individual and group training that prepares patients and caregivers to share their experiences confidently, authentically and within approved program parameters, tailoring training for each ambassador’s uniqueness
• Help ambassadors develop their stories by identifying meaningful experiences, decisions and insights rather than simply recounting a medical chronology.
• Coach ambassadors on presentation skills, message delivery, interviews, media readiness, approved messaging and message delivery, audience engagement and responding to difficult or unexpected questions.
• Prepare ambassadors for participation in videos, advertising, blogs, social media, live events, internal meetings and peer-to-peer programs.
• Help ambassadors distinguish their individual experiences from general medical or product claims.
• Observe selected live or virtual engagements and provide constructive feedback and follow-up coaching.

Story and Content Development

• Conduct interviews and story-mining sessions, working directly with patients and caregivers to uncover the emotional meaning and broader relevance within their lived experience
• Draft or coordinate scripts, narratives and interview guides, collaborating with editorial and creative teams
• Review materials for health literacy, sensitivity, accessibility and accuracy
• Maintain ambassador’s voice throughout execution

• Preserve each ambassador’s authentic voice while ensuring content remains accurate, appropriate and aligned with approved information.

Regulatory and Compliance Support

• Apply working knowledge of promotional and non-promotional communications, FDA requirements, FTC disclosure expectations, privacy and consent, adverse-event and product-complaint reporting, and fair-market-value considerations.
• Incorporate medical, legal and regulatory requirements into program plans, training materials and ambassador activities.
• Participate in client medical/legal/regulatory review processes and coordinate required revisions.
• Ensure ambassadors are appropriately briefed on their responsibilities before each engagement.
• Identify potential compliance or reputational concerns and escalate them promptly.

Client and Account Management

• Serve as a primary day-to-day client contact for assigned patient engagement programs.
• Participate in client meetings, status updates, planning discussions and program reviews.
• Build strong working relationships across client communications, marketing, patient advocacy, medical and regulatory teams.
• Help manage client expectations, identify potential issues and work with senior leadership to resolve challenges.
• Collaborate across multidisciplinary agency teams and external partners to deliver work on time, within scope and at the expected level of quality.
• Support scope development, staffing plans, budgets, forecasts and financial reconciliation.

• Identify and communicate potential opportunities to expand existing programs.
• Help 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.

Qualifications

• 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.
• 6+ years of experience including hands-on experience executing pharmaceutical patient ambassador, patient-speaker, peer-support or comparable patient engagement programs from onboarding through activation.
• Demonstrated experience conducting sensitive interviews and delivering patient training.
• Experience managing program timelines, documentation, budgets and MLR workflows.
• Experience training and coaching patients or caregivers for live, recorded, digital and written communications.
• 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.
• Ability to use AI and emerging technologies responsibly and in accordance with client, privacy and regulatory requirements.
• An understanding of health literacy, patient journeys and disease-specific communities a plus.
• Experience supporting patient contracting, consent, content-rights, payment and documentation processes within healthcare or pharmaceutical programs.

Benefits & More

• You will receive a competitive base salary and bonus opportunity
• You will also be able to enroll in our Health, Dental, Vision, company paid Life Insurance, Flexible Spending Account, as well as 401k (match) plan.
• Monthly allowance for cell phone, office equipment, etc.
• Generous PTO policy with paid maternity/paternity leave
• Professional learning and development opportunities
• Workplace flexibility
• On-site and off-site social gatherings

The anticipated salary range for this position, at the time of posting, is $95,000 - $115,000. The salary of the applicant selected for this role will be based on a variety of factors, including but not limited to, education, internal equity, geography, relevant years of experience, certifications, skills, abilities of the selected applicant, and other job-related qualifications. In addition, a range of medical, dental, vision, disability, 401(k) matching, paid time off, and/or other benefits also are available by the company.

Ruder Finn provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy (including childbirth, lactation and related medical conditions), national origin, age, physical and mental disability, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, genetic information, military and veteran status, and any other characteristic protected by applicable law. Ruder Finn will not tolerate discrimination or harassment based on any of these characteristics. Ruder Finn believes that diversity and inclusion among our employees is critical to our success as a global company, and we seek to recruit, develop and retain the most talented people from a diverse candidate pool.