Associate Director - Creative Marketing

Associate Director 

Team – Creative Marketing

Location – UK London Hybrid, (3 days in the London Office 2 days WFH)

Summary
An Associate Director holds an important leadership role internally and externally and is an active 
member of the Senior Leadership Team within their Practice and AXON. They serve on their Senior 
Management Team and are also responsible for co-leading a business within their Practice as 
appropriate. The Associate Director provides strategic consultancy to key external stakeholders on 
accounts within their business stream. The Associate Director is a seasoned professional with 
client-facing responsibilities, as well as significant learning and development duties. They will 
also take on operational duties for AXON as needed.

The Associate Director is expected to familiarize themselves with our values and adhere to these in 
their day-to-day. These values guide our decisions, actions, and interactions with colleagues, 
clients, and others in the AVENIR Global network. By embodying our values, the Associate Director 
contributes to our collective success and helps to create a positive and inclusive workplace where 
diverse ideas are encouraged.

Key Responsibilities
Accountability
The Associate Director is responsible for directing internal and external programs and initiatives 
that deliver tangible business outcomes for their client partners and contribute to setting the 
excellence bar for all staff in their Practice. They regularly provide strategic leadership across 
one or more of the following aspects: new business opportunities, a group of consultants, meetings 
excellence, or an area of knowledge, or one or more large client account and training program for 
upskilling of staff at all levels. The Associate Director is also responsible for delivery elements 
of the Practice plan for which they have direct responsibility.

•  Reviews project briefs, providing guidance on how to align with client strategy and scope of 
work, proactively collaborates with account leads to identify ways to mitigate risk of overages, 
drives efficiencies in project delivery and sets up their accounts for sustainable organic growth.

•  Effectively manages client requests/needs by identifying solutions that minimize impact on scope 
and/or alignment with strategy.

 • Proficient in driving teams to think critically about how to develop focused, inspired, 
strategic, and efficient content, largely through an advisory role.

•  Drives teamwide adherence to operational processes by communicating and collaborating 
effectively across departments and across all projects.

•  Models exemplary behaviour to inspire teamwide advocacy of the agency’s culture and
goals.

•  Collaborates with agency leadership colleagues to support new and ongoing growth 
activities.

Client Services
The Associate Director acts as a trusted adviser to their client partners across multiple accounts. 
They provide professional/technical leadership across multiple and diverse mandates, building 
trusted long-term client relationships and establishing strong account teams.

•  Demonstrates leadership to deliver the highest possible standards in scientific and/or client 
service excellence throughout the entire project process.

•  Defines and clearly communicate objectives, strategies, and scope consistent with client 
expectations; supports account leads in work planning, scoping, and budget development in line with 
strategy and deliverables; assembles team. Manages client needs in a way that demonstrates AXON’s 
strategic and operational best practices.

•  Lends their extensive knowledge and experience of the pharmaceutical landscape to the strategic 
and tactical implementation of AXON’s service offerings, demonstrates good knowledge of compliance 
and processes related to stakeholder engagement and events best practice (face-to-face, virtual, 
and hybrid), and is able to upskill mid to senior level team members.

•  Leverages precedent to anticipate client requests/needs and mitigates these risks by identifying 
creative solutions that minimize impact on scope and/or alignment with strategy.

•  Provides timely and relevant strategic advice to client partners, informed by broad 
intelligence-gathering on client, sector, and competitor environment and expertly manages their 
expectations.

•  Fearlessly drives collaboration with other Practices within AXON and sister brands 
within the AVENIR Global Network in support of expanding AXON’s service offering portfolio.

•  Responsible for strengthening and diversifying client relationships through regular partnership 
discussions with client leads.

•  Serves as Client Expansion Lead for one or more accounts within their business stream.

Project Management

The Associate Director is responsible for ensuring that everyone on their team(s) adheres to best 
practices for efficient delivery of all client deliverables. When needed, they will undertake 
training of team members to ensure compliance with AXON’s SOPs. They will provide internal 
briefings, perform quality assurance reviews, and provide timely feedback to the team to ensure 
that work is delivered to exceed client expectations.

•  Demonstrates ability to lead an account that may have multiple workstreams/projects from a 
strategic role.

•  Drafts timely, accurate workload projections with the ability to propose solutions to 
anticipated triggers/challenges.

•  Utilizes skills, capabilities, or knowledge to assist team members in problem solving on behalf 
of clients, teams, or general management.

•  Demonstrates ability to keep creativity and innovation at the forefront of projects in a time- 
and cost-efficient and strategic manner.

•  Drives detection and resolution of cross-functional team conflicts through proactive 
communication, consistently identifying solutions and working with the team to propose and 
implement an action plan.

•  Accurately completes timesheets and time approvals on a weekly basis and helps team members to 
do likewise.

People Management
The Associate Director is responsible for driving team morale and spirit by sharing wins and 
successes with members of their Practice and acknowledging contributions across account teams. They 
also foster cohesion within their Practice and routinely demonstrate an ability to inspire others 
to act through direct, clear, and specific communication of priorities.

•  Works with team leads and line managers to recognize strengths and weaknesses of individual team 
members and match those with development opportunities.

•  Leverages their network of relationships with internal stakeholders to deliver on the priorities 
for their Practice.

•  Creates a positive and inspiring work environment.

•  Garners respect among colleagues and others in the organization by displaying strong 
collaborative skills and building effective partnerships.

•  Demonstrates ability to diplomatically defend the Practice’s needs.

Benefits

As well as the basic salary, great social events, and a culture of continual learning, our competitive benefits package includes but is not limited to:

• 5% employer pension contribution
• Private medical insurance (for you and your family)
• Critical Illness cover
• Income Protection cover
• Travel insurance (for you and your family)
• An annual “wellness” benefit after 3 month service
• Hybrid working options, 3 days in the office, 2 days WFH
• 25 days’ holiday (with the ability for it to rise to a maximum of 30 days alongside length of service) – in addition to bank holidays
• Life assurance service insurance at 4 x your salary
• Paid sabbaticals after 5 years’ service

 

AXON

AXON is a global healthcare communications agency that ignites change in healthcare. Through the power of life-changing communications, we contribute to medical advances that improve lives. At the core of every scientific innovation and advancement, there is a simple and compelling story to be told. We know how to tell that story, how to use the right tools to reach the right audiences at the right time, to provoke meaningful change.

We specialize in advising clients on medical affairs, clinical studies, real-world evidence, marketing, advocacy, and communications, all underpinned by insights and creative strategy. AXON has an international reach, with offices in Copenhagen, London, New York, and Toronto, and a worldwide affiliate network. Established in 2002, we have a deep heritage and expertise in healthcare strategy and communication, and we continue to learn and grow in the fast-changing healthcare sphere. AXON is proudly an AVENIR GLOBAL company.

Equal Opportunities

AXON is a diverse organization, committed to a policy of equal opportunities. At all times, we aim to recruit, develop, and promote the very best people, basing judgment solely on suitability for the job.

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