Senior Director, Patient Ambassador Strategy

Location: US New York

Senior 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 Senior Director, Patient Engagement to join our growing rf.voices team. This role will develop the strategy, structure and plans for patient ambassador programs across pharmaceutical and healthcare clients. Working closely with clients, patients, caregivers and cross-functional agency teams, the Senior Director will oversee program delivery and ensure each initiative is authentic, compliant, measurable and grounded in patient needs.

The Senior Director will develop and manage programs across the ambassador lifecycle, including identification, assessment, onboarding, story development, training, activation and ongoing engagement. They will oversee the preparation of 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 Strategy and Planning
• Develop patient ambassador strategies and program plans that translate client objectives, patient needs, disease-state insights and regulatory considerations into viable engagement models.
• Define program audiences, ambassador eligibility criteria, participant roles, engagement channels and activation models.
• Define the program governance structure, decision-making responsibilities, escalation pathways, and quality standards required for delivery.
• Contribute to recommendations regarding branded, unbranded or blended approaches based on program objectives, patient needs and regulatory considerations.
• Develop annual and project-specific activation plans across live, virtual, digital, social and peer-to-peer channels.
• Apply disease-state knowledge, patient-journey insights, health literacy principles and audience considerations to program recommendations.
• Establish program timelines, deliverables, KPIs and reporting plans in partnership with senior leadership and measurement teams.
• Evaluate program performance across accounts and use findings to refine strategy, strengthen ambassador experiences and improve future program design.
• Ambassador Identification and Relationship Management
• Establish the approach and selection criteria for identifying, assessing and onboarding patients and caregivers.
• Oversee ambassador recruitment, screening and selection to ensure alignment with program objectives, patient needs and participation requirements.
• Review and approve recommendations for ambassador participation, particularly for sensitive, complex or high-visibility opportunities.
• Set standards for respectful, consistent and long-term ambassador relationship management.
• Provide guidance on sensitive ambassador situations and direct the response to changes in health, treatment, personal circumstances or readiness to participate.
• Monitor the overall ambassador experience and identify opportunities to improve retention, support and engagement.
• Training and Coaching
• Oversee the development and delivery of individual and group training that prepares patients and caregivers to share their experiences confidently, authentically and within approved program parameters.
• Oversee the ambassador story-development process, ensuring patient narratives capture meaningful experiences, decisions and insights while remaining authentic, compelling and aligned with program objectives.
• Provide direction and quality oversight for ambassador coaching across presentation skills, approved messaging and message delivery, interviews, media readiness, audience engagement and responses to difficult or unexpected questions.
• Ensure ambassadors are appropriately prepared for participation across videos, advertising, blogs, social media, live events, internal meetings and peer-to-peer programs.
• Establish and reinforce standards that help ambassadors communicate their personal experiences clearly while avoiding unsupported medical or product claims.
• Review training plans and ambassador readiness, providing direct coaching for complex, sensitive or high-visibility engagements as needed.
• Guide team members responsible for day-to-day training and coaching, ensuring a consistent, patient-centered approach across programs and channels.
• Story and Content Development
• Provide strategic direction for story-mining and content development, ensuring patient narratives reflect meaningful lived experiences and support program objectives.
• Establish the narrative approach and content-development standards, providing oversight for sensitive or high-visibility content
• Guide editorial and creative team
• Review and approve key narratives before client submission, resolving conflicts between authenticity, brand objectives and regulatory limitations.
• Regulatory and Compliance Support
• Advise client teams on how regulatory, privacy, consent, disclosure and fair-market-value considerations affect program design and execution.
• Partner with client medical, legal and regulatory stakeholders to develop viable program approaches, recognizing that final determinations remain with the client.
• Oversee the agency’s coordination of client MLR reviews and ensure required revisions are appropriately addressed.
• Establish program-level escalation and quality-control practices for compliance-sensitive activities.
• Client and Account Management
• Serve as a primary day-to-day client contact for patient engagement programs.
• Lead client meetings, status updates, planning discussions and program reviews.
• Build strong working relationships across client communications, marketing, patient advocacy, medical and regulatory teams.
• Manage client expectations, identify potential issues and work with senior leadership to resolve challenges.
• Coordinate 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.
• Develop recommendations, scopes and proposals that convert identified client needs into organic growth opportunities.
• Determine team roles and staffing needs for assigned programs and ensure resources are aligned with scope and client expectations.
• Manage and develop Directors and other team members, providing clear direction, performance feedback and growth opportunities.
• Establish quality-control expectations and hold teams accountable for consistent execution across programs.
• Review deliverables for accuracy, quality, sensitivity and compliance.
• 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.
• 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.
• 10+ years of experience including direct experience managing pharmaceutical patient ambassador, patient-speaker, peer-support or comparable patient engagement programs.
• Demonstrated experience designing patient ambassador program models, selection criteria, training approaches and activation plans.
• Experience overseeing multiple programs or a complex patient engagement account.
• Strong client-counsel skills and experience presenting strategic recommendations to senior stakeholders.
• Experience overseeing the training and coaching of patients or caregivers; ability to develop training and coaching standards and processes
• 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.
• Experience supporting organic account growth and contributing to new-business development.
• 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 establishing and overseeing patient contracting, consent, content-rights, fair-market-value, 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 $125,000 - $160,000. 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.

Additional Locations: US Washington DC, US Chicago IL