Director, Healthcare Social & Influencer Strategy, DIG, Ruder Finn

About the role

Ruder Finn is seeking an experienced Director, Healthcare Social & Influencer Strategy to join our growing Digital Integration Group (DIG). The role involves developing social strategies and content programs for healthcare and pharmaceutical clients, leading campaign content development, and overseeing the execution of digital initiatives.

Responsibilities

• Develop strategic social content plans and communications programs for healthcare and pharmaceutical brands, building content and channel recommendations driven by data
• Serve as a channel strategist across social platforms, developing platform-specific recommendations that align content, audience behavior, campaign objectives, and best practices
• Lead social strategy and content development, ensuring alignment with broader healthcare communications programs while identifying opportunities to uplevel storytelling across digital platforms
• Guide the development of social-first content, including platform-native concepts, editorial calendars, campaign messaging, and content recommendations tailored to audience behavior and channel best practices
• Partner with creative, paid media, analytics, and healthcare communications teams to uplevel social content and ensure cohesive execution across digital channels and platforms
• Support the operational performance of accounts, ensuring high-quality deliverables, adherence to deadlines, and thoughtful budget management
• Deliver superior client service by aligning social and digital objectives with senior management direction, providing clear updates on project timelines, and ensuring seamless coordination across internal teams and external stakeholders
• Mentor and develop junior team members, fostering expertise in social strategy, content planning, platform trends, and integrated digital campaign execution
• Review and analyze social and campaign performance to develop client-facing reports, identify actionable insights, and recommend optimizations that enhance content effectiveness, client reputation, and strategic impact
• Partner with external vendors, when needed, to support digital reputation management, issues response, and high-impact crisis communications strategies

Qualifications

• A minimum of 6+ years of experience in social, digital, or content strategy, with experience in healthcare or pharmaceutical communications
• Bachelor’s degree in communications, advertising, public relations, marketing, or a related field preferred
• Demonstrated experience upleveling social content through strategic storytelling, platform-native thinking, creative guidance, and performance insights
• Strong experience as a social channel strategist, with the ability to develop platform-specific recommendations
• Strong passion for social media, digital storytelling, and content marketing, with the curiosity to identify and apply emerging platform trends, formats, and best practices
• Expertise in owned social strategy and social-first content development, as well as a foundational understanding of social insights and performance optimization
• A firm understanding of the creative process, including experience partnering with creative and production teams to deliver high-impact social content for clients
• Adequate understanding of the regulatory and medical/legal review process as it applies to healthcare and pharmaceutical client needs
• Strong organizational skills with the ability to manage multiple high-profile and high-budget programs in a fast-paced, consistently changing environment
• Proven experience managing, mentoring, and coaching team members
• Curiosity and comfort with integrating AI into communications and workflows
• Experience supporting influencer or creator-led programs is a plus, but not required