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About the Role

Ruder Finn is seeking a Creative Director, Health to shape audience-centered ideas and programs for clients across health care communications. This role will collaborate with various teams to support client work and new business, clarifying challenges, uncovering insights, and developing actionable plans. The ideal candidate possesses a strong background in health care communications and creative direction, exceptional leadership, and a passion for innovation.

Responsibilities

Design, lead, and support brainstorms, planning sessions, workshops, and concept development meetings for existing clients and new business opportunities.
Develop creative briefs, strategic platforms, audience journeys, content themes, campaign approaches, and integrated program recommendations.
Steer concept development and creative execution across integrated campaigns.
Translate client priorities, research findings, analytics inputs, cultural signals, social trends, stakeholder considerations, and marketplace dynamics into clear creative territories, executable ideas and actionable plans.
Ensure all creative outputs are aligned to strategy, creative concept, as well as all creative outputs — from visual assets to copy — are strategically aligned, on-brand, and delivered to the highest standard.
Present creative approaches, and integrated program ideas to internal teams and clients, clearly articulating rationale, business value, and creative opportunity.
Act as the primary creative point of contact for key clients, building trusted partnerships and delivering creative counsel that inspires confidence.
Partner with strategy, client leadership, digital, analytics, and creative teams to develop earned-first ideas that transform complex science, data, and healthcare issues into programs that build trust, shape reputation, and inspire action.
Support integrated healthcare communications programs across product, corporate, disease awareness, branded and unbranded campaigns, pipeline and milestone moments, thought leadership, executive visibility, advocacy, social, influencer, content, paid, and stakeholder engagement workstreams.
Contribute to new business efforts by developing pitch narratives, integrated program structures, activation concepts, planning frameworks, and presentation-ready recommendations.
Support proposal development and pitch preparation, including helping translate insights, ideas, and campaign approaches into clear, compelling materials.
Review, refine, and strengthen client-facing materials, including strategic plans, POVs, creative briefs, campaign write-ups, planning documents, creative rationales, and presentation decks.
Identify audience, cultural, healthcare, marketplace, digital, social, and influencer trends that can inspire stronger strategy, planning, program design, and creative development.
Ensure ideas and program plans are credible, compliant-aware, health-literate, audience-appropriate, and sensitive to healthcare communications considerations.
Bring strong organization, quality control, clear communication, and collaborative problem-solving to planning assignments.
Explore emerging technologies, AI-enabled creative workflows, and new storytelling approaches that improve creative quality, accelerate ideation, and enhance client outcomes.
Demonstrate curiosity by exploring emerging cultural behaviors, healthcare trends, audience needs, technologies, and creative inspiration to uncover new strategic opportunities.

Requirements

10+ years of experience in creative strategy, planning, integrated marketing, communications, or a related creative environment, with at least 5 years focused on health care strategy and communications.
Strong healthcare communications experience, with an understanding of audience engagement, stakeholder needs, and integrated program development.
Experience working in an agency environment or closely with cross-functional agency teams is strongly preferred.
Experience supporting product communications, including branded and unbranded campaigns, launch or lifecycle communications, data milestones, regulatory milestones, disease education, and competitive positioning.
Deep understanding of the health care landscape, including creating compelling creative in a compliant, regulatory friendly manner.
Strong knowledge of pharmaceutical marketing and all that it entails: disease state and product science, therapeutic industry standards, legal restrictions and competitive markets.
Experience in creating DSE, unbranded and branded programming, with drug launch know-how a must.
Strong conceptual thinking, writing, visualization, presentation, and facilitation skills.
Ability to translate complex healthcare topics, client priorities, research findings, marketplace dynamics, and audience insights into clear creative briefs, planning frameworks, and actionable recommendations.
Strong project management skills, including the ability to organize complex assignments, manage timelines, align stakeholders, track deliverables, and keep teams moving toward execution.
Ability to work effectively across account, digital, social, analytics, creative, and senior stakeholder teams.
Curiosity, creative energy, cultural awareness, and a strong understanding of how audiences engage with health information, brands, issues, and ideas.
Curiosity and comfort with integrating AI into communications and workflows.
Operational mindset with the ability to bring structure, clarity, accountability, and quality control to integrated planning and campaign development.
Portfolio demonstrating strategic, insight-led communications ideas across healthcare, corporate communications, integrated campaigns, or related work required.

Skills

Creative strategy
Creative planning
Integrated marketing
Communications
Health care strategy
Health care communications
Audience engagement
Stakeholder needs
Integrated program development
Agency environment collaboration
Product communications
Branded campaigns
Unbranded campaigns
Launch communications
Lifecycle communications
Data milestones
Regulatory milestones
Disease education
Competitive positioning
Pharmaceutical marketing
Disease state science
Product science
Therapeutic industry standards
Legal restrictions
Competitive markets
DSE programming
Unbranded programming
Branded programming
Drug launch
Conceptual thinking
Writing
Visualization
Presentation
Facilitation
Complex topic translation
Client priority translation
Research finding translation
Marketplace dynamic translation
Audience insight translation
Creative brief development
Planning framework development
Actionable recommendation development
Project management
Complex assignment organization
Timeline management
Stakeholder alignment
Deliverable tracking
Team motivation
Cross-functional collaboration
AI integration
Structure and clarity
Accountability
Quality control
Strategic planning
Campaign development

Location

Multiple locations

Work Type

Workplace flexibility

Experience Level

10+ years of experience
5+ years focused on health care strategy and communications

Education Level

Bachelor's degree in communications, marketing, advertising, writing, design, strategy, or a related field

Salary/Compensations

$150,000-$210,000

Benefits

Competitive base salary
Bonus opportunity
Health insurance
Dental insurance
Vision insurance
Company paid Life Insurance
Flexible Spending Account
401k with match
Monthly allowance for cell phone, office equipment, etc.
Generous PTO policy
Paid maternity/paternity leave
Transit benefits
Professional learning and development opportunities
Workplace flexibility
On-site and off-site social gatherings

About the Company

Ruder Finn is one of the world's largest independent global communications and integrated marketing agencies, recognized for bold ideas, strategic thinking, and a culture that pushes what's next.
The agency continues to earn recognition for its industry leadership, creativity, and 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.
Ruder Finn, Inc. is one of the world's largest independent global communications and creative agencies.
Founded in 1948, Ruder Finn serves the global and local communication needs of over 250 corporations, governments, non-profit organizations and startups.
The agency is organized around four strategic pillars that reflect its core areas of expertise: Health & Wellness, Corporate Reputation & Transformation, Technology & Innovation, and Consumer Connections.
RFI Studios, the agency's full-service digital practice, leads the industry in designing and developing internal collaboration platforms, building conversations and communities around brands, and staying top-of-mind in the world of mobile applications.

Equal Opportunity

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.