Position Title: Creative Director
Assignment Duration: 3 Months
Work Location: South San Francisco, CA, 94080
Work Arrangement: Hybrid (Tue-Wed-Thu in office)
Position Summary
We are looking for a Creative Director to lead the medical content track. This role sits at the intersection of creative craft and scientific rigor: you will set the creative bar for medical and disease-state content, guide a multidisciplinary team of writers and designers, and ensure everything we produce is both compelling and compliant.
Background & Context
This is not a traditional agency CD role. You will operate inside a regulated environment where creative ambition has to coexist with MLR review, fair balance, and evidence-based claims. The ideal candidate sees those constraints as design parameters, not obstacles.
Key Responsibilities
- Own creative direction for medical and scientific content across formats: patient and HCP materials, disease-state education, congress assets, digital and social content, and internal scientific communications.
- Translate complex clinical data and scientific narratives into clear, accurate, and engaging creative work.
- Partner with medical affairs, brand marketing, and regulatory stakeholders to align creative concepts with medical strategy and label requirements.
- Lead and mentor medical writers, designers, and production staff; run creative reviews and elevate craft standards across the studio.
- Present creative work and rationale to senior stakeholders, and defend creative decisions with both aesthetic and scientific reasoning.
- Anticipate MLR feedback and build review-readiness into the creative process rather than treating it as a downstream gate.
- Contribute to studio playbooks: creative principles, medical content standards, and reference frameworks for future work.
Qualification & Experience
- 10+ years in creative leadership, with at least 5 years directing medical, pharmaceutical, or healthcare content (in-house, med-comms agency, or healthcare advertising agency).
- Demonstrated portfolio of medical or scientific creative work - HCP campaigns, patient education, MOA storytelling, congress materials, or similar.
- Working fluency in the regulatory landscape for promotional and non-promotional medical content: FDA/OPDP expectations, fair balance, ISI placement, on-label vs. off-label boundaries.
- Experience leading work through MLR (or equivalent medical-legal-regulatory review) and collaborating productively with reviewers.
- Strong conceptual and visual judgment across print, digital, video, and presentation formats.
- Excellent stakeholder management; comfortable presenting to and negotiating with senior medical and commercial leaders.
Nice to Have
- Oncology or biologics experience.
- Familiarity with Veeva Vault PromoMats or similar content management and review systems.
- Experience standing up or scaling an in-house studio or content team.
- AMA style familiarity; comfort reading clinical publications and prescribing information.