Senior Director, Business Development

Senior Director, Strategic Partnerships

Pharmaceutical Marketing & Health Education Agency

Position Summary

We are seeking an entrepreneurial, highly creative, and consultative Senior Director, Business Development to drive growth for our expanding healthcare communications and health education agency.

This is not a traditional sales role. We are looking for a curious "hunter" who enjoys opening doors, building relationships, and partnering with pharmaceutical marketers to solve meaningful business challenges. The ideal candidate is energized by developing new ideas, uncovering unmet needs, and connecting clients with innovative solutions that improve healthcare professional engagement, strengthen patient education, and ultimately help more patients receive better care.

We're looking for someone who doesn't simply sell agency services - they bring ideas. Someone who can walk into a meeting with a Professional or Consumer Brand Manager, ask insightful questions, understand their business challenges, and leave with the beginnings of a solution. This person should be equally comfortable discussing brand strategy, omnichannel engagement, field force effectiveness, patient engagement, digital innovation, AI-enabled solutions, and educational initiatives that create value for brands, healthcare professionals, and patients.

Success in this role requires equal parts business development, strategic thinking, creativity, and relationship building. You will become a trusted partner to pharmaceutical marketing teams by helping them solve challenges - not by selling products, but by bringing fresh ideas that improve outcomes.

Primary Stakeholders

The Senior Director, Business Development will primarily build relationships with commercial marketing leaders within pharmaceutical and biotechnology organizations, including:

• Professional Brand Managers
• Consumer Brand Managers
• Brand Directors
• Omnichannel Marketing Leaders
• Patient Marketing & Patient Services Teams
• Digital & Innovation Teams

Success in this role comes from understanding the priorities of these stakeholders, uncovering unmet needs, and introducing innovative educational, digital, AI-enabled, and engagement solutions that help brands improve healthcare professional engagement, enhance the patient experience, and achieve their commercial objectives.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and execute a strategic growth plan to achieve and exceed annual revenue goals.
• Identify, research, and engage Professional Brand Managers, Consumer Brand Managers, Brand Directors, and other commercial leaders within pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.
• Build trusted executive relationships by understanding client business objectives, commercial challenges, and patient needs.
• Lead consultative discovery conversations that uncover opportunities where innovative educational, digital, AI-enabled, and engagement solutions can create measurable value.
• Bring fresh strategic ideas to every client interaction and proactively recommend solutions that improve healthcare professional engagement, strengthen patient education, enhance patient support, and drive measurable business outcomes.
• Partner with internal strategy, medical, creative, and digital teams to develop customized solutions that address client needs.
• Present agency capabilities, strategic recommendations, and creative concepts that differentiate our organization from traditional healthcare agencies.
• Lead the complete business development process from prospecting through proposal development, negotiation, and contract execution.
• Build, manage, and accurately forecast a healthy sales pipeline.
• Represent the agency at industry conferences, client meetings, and networking events while expanding the agency's visibility and reputation. This role requires 25% travel.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Marketing, Communications, Healthcare, or a related field.
• 5+ years of successful business development, strategic partnerships, or pharmaceutical agency experience.
• Proven success selling strategic marketing, digital, communications, educational, or commercial solutions to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.
• Existing relationships with pharmaceutical marketing organizations strongly preferred.
• Naturally curious and highly creative with the ability to identify unmet needs and develop innovative solutions.
• Strong executive presence with exceptional presentation, communication, negotiation, and relationship-building skills.
• Entrepreneurial mindset with the ability to thrive in a fast-growing organization.
• Passion for helping pharmaceutical companies improve healthcare professional engagement and patient outcomes.

Success Metrics

• Annual new business revenue.
• Qualified sales pipeline generated.
• Proposal-to-win conversion rate.
• Average deal size.
• Client retention and account growth.
• Growth of strategic pharmaceutical relationships.
• Forecast accuracy and CRM pipeline health.

Compensation & Benefits

• Competitive base salary ($120,000-150,000 based on experience).
• Commission and performance incentives.
• Health, dental, and vision insurance.
• 401(k) with company match.
• Flexible hybrid/remote work environment.
• Opportunity to help build and shape a high-growth healthcare agency.

About Us

We are a healthcare communications and health education agency that partners with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to solve some of healthcare's biggest engagement challenges. Through innovative strategy, compelling creative, AI-enabled technologies, educational resources, digital platforms, and omnichannel engagement solutions, we help brands improve healthcare professional engagement, strengthen patient education, increase meaningful interactions, and ultimately improve patient outcomes. We're building a different kind of healthcare agency - one driven by curiosity, creativity, innovation, and a passion for solving meaningful problems. If you're energized by building relationships, bringing big ideas to clients, and helping shape the future of healthcare engagement, we'd love to meet you.