Senior Medical Writer (publications & medical affairs) - Healthcare Practice

Location: Hybrid, minimum 3 days in London office

Salary band: £45,000 - £55,000 dependant on skills and experience

About this role

As a Senior Medical Writer, you will play a key role in delivering scientifically robust, strategically aligned, high-quality content across a range of medical communications outputs. Working as a key writer on client accounts or workstreams, you will create content across diverse medical communications outputs, including clinical publications and medical affairs, that meets client objectives, timelines, and budgets while contributing to broader account strategy and team development.

This role combines scientific expertise, project ownership, effective communication, and mentoring responsibilities. You will work closely with scientific, client services, and creative colleagues to deliver impactful work and help drive business growth.

Key Responsibilities

Scientific Content Development & Leadership

• Own and deliver scientifically accurate, well-crafted content across assigned accounts, requiring minimal editing and review
• Be experienced in creating clinical publications and congress submissions in line with study reporting guidelines
• Be experienced in medical affairs delivery, including ad boards, training materials, and presentations
• Serve as key writer on one or more accounts or workstreams, ensuring content aligns with communication objectives and strategic direction
• Maintain in-depth understanding of product, therapy areas, and competitor landscapes to ensure content relevance and accuracy
• Derive insights from literature, client discussions, and expert interactions to shape project ideas and recommendations
• Perform scientific review of other writers’ work, providing timely and constructive feedback

Understanding the Medical Communications Environment

• Maintain in-depth understanding of product, competitors and therapy area for assigned accounts, and use this understanding to ensure that content and projects meet client objectives
• Can quickly develop knowledge in new therapy areas and provide support across new accounts as needed
• Have a strong knowledge of clinical trial and publication reporting guidelines experience applying these to manuscript development
• Understand international regulatory and compliance requirements (e.g., ABPI, Sunshine Act)

Project and Account Delivery

• Manage editorial scheduling and resourcing for assigned projects
• Ensure efficient progression of projects from initiation to completion, maintaining high standards of quality
• Anticipate challenges to timely delivery and proactively flag resource needs or schedule risks
• Work with colleagues to prioritise tasks and align delivery with client expectations
• Provide clear written briefs for internal teams and freelancers, ensuring all necessary context and requirements are included

Client and External Engagement

• Lead scientific discussions with clients and external experts, demonstrating confidence, accuracy, and clarity
• Build strong client relationships by acting as a trusted scientific partner and expert on product and competitor data
• Present confidently and manage faculty/expert interactions through effective questioning and active listening
• Recognise and escalate potential project or client issues before they worsen

Internal Collaboration and Team Development

• Mentor and coach junior writers to support skill development and high-quality output
• Model good editorial practices and professional behaviours, promoting a collaborative, inclusive working environment
• May undertake line management of an Associate Medical Writer, with support from senior colleagues

Financial & Business Awareness

• Ensure awareness of budgeted hours across team members and flag variances or out-of-scope work proactively
• Develop the ability to provide accurate estimates of editorial time for budgets and proposals
• Participate in new business brainstorming sessions and contribute scientific sections to pitches and proposals
• Use scientific expertise to identify organic growth opportunities with existing clients

What You’ll Bring

• A degree in a life science or biomedical discipline (MSc or PhD advantageous)
• Proven ability to develop accurate, insightful, and compelling content across publications and other materials, with at least 3 years’ experience in medical writing
• Strong scientific literacy and the ability to interpret and communicate complex data with clarity and precision
• Excellent written English, with strong attention to detail and consistency
• Competence in Microsoft Office, reference management tools (e.g., EndNote), and client project management systems (e.g., Datavision, Veeva)
• Experience leading conversations with clients and/or external experts as a medical communications expert

What We Offer

• Structured support to move into Associate Principal and Principal roles, including targeted mentoring and coaching and exposure to cross-functional strategic work
• A supportive, people-focused culture that values curiosity, creativity and scientific excellence
• Professional development opportunities within the wider AVENIR GLOBAL network, including training to strengthen scientific, strategic, and leadership skills
• The opportunity to help shape scientific understanding and strategic decision-making across high-impact therapy areas, directly contributing to improving patient outcomes and advancing medical innovation

Important Information

Our recruitment process can consist of virtual interviews, in person interviews, and written tasks, please let us know if you have any accessibility requirements so that we can accommodate your needs during this process.

We embrace the use of AI across our business and see it as a valuable tool in our work. However, as part of our recruitment process, we ask candidates not to use AI to generate application content or complete written tasks. Submissions may be reviewed using AI detection tools to ensure we can fairly assess each candidate’s own skills and experience. AI use is encouraged once in role.