Objectives of this role:
The Vice President, Client Services, is a senior executive responsible for the strategic oversight and management of a major portfolio of client business. This role serves as a key bridge between the agency's scientific expertise and its business objectives, directly driving revenue, growth, and client retention. The VP provides top-level strategic guidance and financial accountability across multiple accounts while championing organizational process improvement and developing senior talent.
Position Responsibilities:
Strategic & Client Leadership
- Lead the client relationship function by serving as the principal business partner to the lead client executive(s), monitoring the marketplace, and guiding strategic/tactical changes aligned with brand goals.
- Provide organizational leadership to both internal and client teams, implementing change in process or workflow to adjust to different clients and market dynamics.
- Resolve complex strategic and operational conflicts between internal staff, teams, or clients where expectations do not align with service agreements.
- Guide strategy by leveraging high-level scientific and medical communications knowledge, ensuring all deliverables compliantly advance client objectives.
- Accountable for overall client satisfaction and ensuring the client’s goals and objectives are met.
Financial & Business Oversight
- Manage staffing responsibilities for an entire portfolio of accounts, ensuring sustainable growth and profitability.
- Oversee forecasting revenue accuracy across multiple accounts and control costs by monitoring key financial metrics, reports, and trends.
- Directly drive revenue, growth, and client retention by identifying expansion opportunities that fuel company growth.
- Responsible for overall financial health of portfolio and achievement of revenue goals.
- Participate in new business development, prospecting, and onboarding.
Personnel & Team Leadership
- Provide strategic oversight to Client Services leads (ADs/SADs/GADs) managing complex client relationships and ensuring regulatory compliance.
- Provide senior leadership and mentorship to develop talent across all levels of Client Services, including managing difficult personnel situations involving underperforming team members.
- Collaborate with operations leadership to improve internal processes, thereby enhancing company profitability and efficiency.
- Maintain knowledge of management software and financial tracking systems to provide authoritative guidance.
- Manage team dynamics and set an atmosphere where innovation, a growth mindset, and delivering excellent work is expected.
- Conduct annual performance reviews and identify developmental opportunities for team members.
Agency & Growth
- Represent the organization in the industry to build the company's capability and contribute to its reputation as a thought leader.
- Ensure creative and scientific output is on strategy, on message, and exceeds client expectations.
- Ensure the team follows agency processes for estimates, change orders, workflow, and other protocols.
Qualification Requirements
- Education: Bachelor’s degree (minimum) in a relevant field; an advanced degree (PharmD, BSN, PhD, MS, MBA) is a plus.
- Experience: 10+ years of progressive pharmaceutical and/or medical communications agency experience, demonstrating sustained success in a high-level leadership capacity (prior experience as Account Director required).
- Skills:
- In-depth knowledge of the pharmaceutical and agency industries, including an understanding of the product lifecycle and marketing mix.
- Exceptional business acumen and the financial skills necessary to manage P&L responsibilities for a portfolio of accounts.
- Expertisein relationship management, with a proven ability to build and maintain trust with both internal teams and external clients.
- High-level scientific knowledge and a thorough understanding of medical publications and affairs to guide complex strategies.
- Ability to navigate rapidly changing industry compliance and technological evolution without compromising regulations.
- Ability to deal with personnel issues with tact, discretion, and authority
- Ability to travel up to 10-15% annually.
Skills Required
- Bachelor's degree in a relevant field
- 10+ years of progressive pharmaceutical and/or medical communications agency experience
- Prior experience as an Account Director
- High-level leadership experience in pharmaceutical or medical communications agency settings
- In-depth knowledge of pharmaceutical and agency industries, product lifecycle, and marketing mix
- Financial skills to manage P&L responsibilities for a portfolio of accounts
- Expertise in internal and external relationship management
- High-level scientific knowledge and understanding of medical publications and medical affairs
- Ability to navigate industry compliance and technological changes while maintaining regulatory standards
- Ability to handle personnel issues with tact, discretion, and authority
- Advanced degree such as PharmD, BSN, PhD, MS, or MBA
- Ability to travel up to 10-15% annually
What We Do
Fingerpaint is a marketing and advertising company that offers marketing, web design, and advertising services. Reset your expectations of a health and wellness firm. Independent by design and built on a foundation of empathy, Fingerpaint is biopharma's commercialization partner for analytics-enabled integrated solutions. At its core is an award-winning global team of more than 580 people who are committed to creating and executing meaningful brand experiences for healthcare providers, care partners, and patients. Fingerpaint was founded in 2008 on a radically simple ideal: Put people first. Thirteen years later, it continues to pay off. Our people-first philosophy attracts top talent and gives them a space to thrive. Our strict no-titles, no-offices, no-egos structure creates an environment in which collaboration and creativity happen naturally. This level playing field lets us learn more from one another, integrate our services and teams better, and, ultimately, create work that solves our clients’ most complex marketing challenges. Learn how we never paint by number at fingerpaint.com.
