Medical Director (Publications)

At Real Chemistry, making the world a healthier place isn’t just an aspiration—it’s our everyday reality. Our drive to transform healthcare is informed by our blend of deep scientific expertise, human-centred creativity, and AI-driven insights, fostering a unique environment where innovation thrives and our people are impact-obsessed. As a global agency, we provide a full suite of services across healthcare communications and marketing to our clients, including top players in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries.

Our #LifeatRealChem culture is rooted in our people—we believe we are best together and are committed to excellence for both our clients and colleagues. Whether you're a seasoned professional or just starting your career, if you share our passion for healthcare and connection, we invite you to explore our opportunities.

Discover your purpose. Embrace innovation. Experience #LifeatRealChem.

Real Chemistry is looking for a Medical Director, Publications to join our growing team!

The Medical Director leads scientific strategy and content delivery across assigned accounts or programs, bringing deep publication expertise and the versatility to support broader medical affairs deliverables. This role serves as a senior scientific partner to clients and internal teams, helping translate evidence into credible, compliant, and strategically aligned communications across publication and non-publication channels.

The role leads publication strategy and execution while contributing to broader medical affairs content and evidence dissemination across key scientific communication channels. This position connects publication planning with broader medical affairs priorities, stakeholder needs, and integrated scientific communication programs.

This is a hybrid role, based in any of our US offices—New York City, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, Indianapolis (IN), or Lambertville (NJ)—or remotely within the US, depending on team and business needs. We are also open to remote applicants in Canada. This role requires working eastern US hours .

What you’ll do:

Publication Strategy & Planning

Develop and execute publication strategies aligned with client objectives, evidence priorities, and broader medical affairs goals

Lead strategy for manuscripts, abstracts, posters, congress activity, plain language summaries, and other dissemination formats

Guide evidence gaps, sequencing, target journals/congresses, author engagement, and publication impact measurement

Broader Medical Affairs Strategy & Deliverables

Provide scientific direction for selected medical affairs deliverables, including platforms, core decks, advisory board materials, medical education content, field medical tools, and congress resources

Translate clinical, HEOR, real-world evidence, and published data into clear narratives for publication and medical affairs channels

Connect publication outputs with broader evidence dissemination, omnichannel engagement, and medical education needs

Scientific Communication

Provide senior scientific oversight to ensure accuracy, clarity, balance, and strategic alignment across deliverables

Lead or direct writing, review, and refinement of manuscripts, congress materials, scientific platforms, core narratives, and related content

Maintain consistent scientific messaging across publication plans, medical affairs materials, congress activity, and account deliverables

Client Leadership

Serve as a senior scientific and strategic contact for clients across publication and medical affairs workstreams

Build trusted relationships and guide content priorities, data interpretation, audience needs, and dissemination formats

Lead author, KOL, advisory board, steering committee, medical affairs, and cross-functional discussions where appropriate

Operational Excellence

Ensure deliverables meet applicable quality, publication ethics, journal/congress, ICMJE, GPP, client, and internal standards

Oversee progress, risks, review cycles, workflows, timelines, scope, resources, budgets, and client expectations

Identify issues related to scientific accuracy, evidence interpretation, review complexity, timelines, and stakeholder alignment, and recommend solutions early

Cross-functional Collaboration

Collaborate with medical affairs, publications operations, account, clinical, regulatory, analytics, editorial, design, strategy, and project management teams

Share publication and medical affairs best practices to strengthen consistency, quality, and strategic alignment

People Leadership

Provide leadership, mentorship, and feedback to writers, content leads, and cross-functional contributors

Build team capability in publication strategy, medical affairs content, data interpretation, scientific storytelling, and quality standards

Business Development

Support proposals, pitches, publication strategy recommendations, medical affairs content strategy, and organic growth opportunities

Help shape scopes that reflect scientific complexity, stakeholder review needs, and delivery requirements

This position is a perfect fit for you if:

Our Company values – Best Together, Impact-Obsessed, Excellence Expected, Evolve Always and Accountability with an “I” – really speak to you

You are adaptable, resilient, proactive, resourceful, highly organized, and comfortable adjusting priorities as client and business needs evolve

You bring scientific curiosity, collaborative instincts, strong prioritization skills, and a commitment to high-quality client service

What you should have:

Degree in life sciences, medicine, pharmacy, public health, or related discipline required ; advanced degree such as PhD, PharmD, MD, MPH, MSc, or equivalent experience preferred

6+ years of publications, medical affairs, or medical communications experience within an agency, pharmaceutical, biotech, academic, or related environment

Advanced publication strategy, scientific leadership, and client advisory capability, complemented by strong working knowledge of broader medical affairs deliverables

Strong command of publication ethics, ICMJE, GPP, journal/congress requirements, authorship considerations, and evidence dissemination best practices

Ability to lead scientific content across publications, scientific platforms, core decks, advisory board materials, medical education content, congress assets, and field medical resources

Excellent data interpretation, scientific writing, reviewing, and editorial judgment across clinical, HEOR, real-world evidence, and published data sources

A bility to connect publication strategy with medical affairs objectives , audience needs, stakeholder engagement, and integrated communication planning

Strong client, author, KOL, and cross-functional stakeholder management skills, with ability to lead teams under complex timelines while maintaining quality and scientific integrity

Ability to model responsible AI use and identify AI-enabled workflow improvements for research, content development, quality checks, and evidence synthesis

Demonstrated strength in publications required , with experience or strong working knowledge across broader medical affairs deliverables preferred

• Pay Range: $130,000.00-150,000.00
• This is the pay range the Company believes it will pay for this position at the time of this posting. Consistent with applicable law, compensation will be determined based on job-related, non-discriminatory factors including but not limited to work experience, skills, certifications, and geographical location. The Company reserves the right to modify this pay range at any time.

Real Chemistry is proud to be Great Place to Work® certified; check out what our people shared about our culture and workplace on our Great Places to Work Profile here .

We believe we can do our best when feeling our best, which is why we’ve put together a benefits program designed to give you t