Associate Consultant - London

Have you ever wondered how the world’s top healthcare and life sciences companies make informed strategic and commercial decisions?

Are you looking for an opportunity to apply your life sciences experience in a consulting environment to advance the healthcare industry?

We are now recruiting for life sciences graduates to join our team in London and take the first step in building an exciting and rewarding consulting career, working with some of the world’s leading healthcare and life sciences companies to help them tackle their most significant challenges.

Who we are

Solici is the strategic competitive intelligence division of Cambridge Healthcare Research. Founded in 2013 and having grown to over 130 staff today, CHR gives healthcare decision makers the power of knowing by providing critical insights, analysis and interpretation that informs pivotal decisions that advance healthcare.

Our vision at Solici is to help the brightest ideas reach patients. We achieve this by combining research excellence with deep subject matter expertise in a range of therapy areas and a passion for enabling our clients to deliver innovative products and services to those who need them.

Our values enable us to embed considered and curious teams at the heart of any client challenge:

• Collaboration – We build solid connections to achieve more together
• Excellence – We aim for greatness in everything we do
• Community – We deliver beyond work for our people, our clients, and wider society
• Courage – We embrace challenges as opportunities for growth
• Integrity – We always do the right thing

Our opportunity

Associate Consultant is the entry-level role of the Solici consulting career path and provides an opportunity for you to build a great foundation for a successful career in consultancy.

You will be part of integrated project teams spanning research and analysis, consulting and client leadership, developing your expertise in competitive intelligence to support our clients in the pharmaceutical industry to better understand their competitive environment and make key strategic decisions for their assets.

Solici’s consulting career path provides opportunities for Associate Consultants who have mastered their role to progress into more senior roles providing greater opportunities in client and project management, leadership and business development.

What you will do

As an Associate Consultant, your key responsibilities will include:

• Research planning – Partnering with consulting and research colleagues to help develop robust research plans, including key milestones and deliverables, to support the successful delivery of projects that maximise client satisfaction.
• Briefing researchers – Briefing research colleagues clearly to help them identify and access relevant data sources for updates on competitive landscapes relevant to assigned projects and conduct primary research according to agreed terms. Providing honest, professional and constructive feedback to help researchers improve the quality of their outputs.
• Formulating client-ready output – Understanding therapeutic areas to authoritatively review [e.g. quality control], evaluate and develop primary and secondary research output into insightful content, through creating easy-to-navigate, concise and readable client-friendly slide decks and email notifications, covering key findings and actionable implications to support project deliverables.
• Project team and client interaction – Coordinating [e.g. building agendas and taking minutes] and participating in internal meetings with project teams and external meetings with colleagues and clients.
• Conference coverage – Attend conferences in the UK and overseas to deliver high quality coverage, engaging with relevant key opinion leaders and commercial sources to drive conversations that address the key intelligence questions, and writing up daily research outputs into clear, concise and client-ready summaries.
• Workshop support – Supporting workshops [as required by projects] by contributing to the development of materials [such as client briefing packs] and assisting facilitators on-the-day [e.g. through transcribing discussions].
• Commercial awareness – Developing an awareness and understanding of project scoping and profitability to shape one’s own approach to achieving project deliverables. Building a broad understanding of the external market, key client challenges and both industry and therapy area trends.
• Business development – Researching and contributing to the creation of proposal materials and pitches. Representing the company effectively in external settings [e.g. at industry events or publishing thought pieces etc.]
• Continuous improvement – Using expert knowledge and experience from past projects to proactively contribute towards the development of more effective and efficient ways of working that support CHR business strategy and culture.

Requirements

About you

At CHR, it is our team that makes us successful. We hire exceptional individuals and provide them with the support and opportunity to excel.

You will need to have either a:

• Master’s or PhD degree in a life sciences discipline; or
• Bachelor’s degree in a life sciences discipline together with at least some experience of post-study professional experience in either a life sciences or consulting environment

We welcome applications from candidates with a diverse range of specialisms, including but not limited to; Biochemistry, Biological Sciences, Biomedical Sciences, Biotechnology, Cardiovascular Medicine, Drug Discovery, Immunology, Medicine, Pharmacy, Pharmacology and Public Health. We will consider other disciplines if you can articulate how your skills, experience and aspirations will enable you to succeed in this role.

We will also be looking for you to demonstrate:

• Written and verbal communication skills [including excellent English] to proactively collaborate effectively with others and develop impactful and user-friendly materials with a clear narrative and logical flow
• Planning, organising and prioritisation skills to successfully complete deliverables and achieve milestones in a timely/punctual manner
• IT skills across the Microsoft suite [especially Excel and PowerPoint]
• Primary and secondary research skills to identify appropriate data sources and information
• Analytical skills to convert gathered research into relevant client-friendly outputs
• Attention to detail to ensure outputs are accurate and of the highest quality
• A growth mindset with an openness to accepting and acting on constructive feedback to improve your own capabilities
• A collaborative and solution-focused attitude to achieve success as part of a team
• An inclusive, empathetic and encouraging attitude to constructively challenge and get the best out of others
• Drive, ambition and self-motivation. Our work requires perseverance, proactivity and personal accountability.
• Proactivity and using your initiative to deliver beyond expectations.

Essential - you must be:

• Available to start by May 2025 .
• Based in the UK and able to commute to our London office on a frequent basis.
• Have the right to work in the UK by the start of your employment
• Willing and able to travel to conferences and other events in the UK and overseas throughout the year.

Benefits

With an opportunity to work in a truly hybrid working environment, we offer a adaptable and supportive atmosphere as well as a competitive salary and benefits package that includes:

• Annual salary of £40,000
• 25 days holiday per year (with an additional day per year of service, up to 30 days) plus all bank/public holidays and Christmas/New Year closure
• Contributory pension scheme
• Private health insurance
• Employee assistance programme
• Mind & Body allowance to support activities that proactively support your health & wellbeing (such as gym membership or wellbeing apps)
• Share option scheme
• Annual bonus
• Cycle to work scheme
• Adaptable [including hybrid] working
• Life assurance

The Recruitment and Selection Process

Round 1: Online Application

• When you register your details and submit your CV, you will be asked to complete our application questionnaire. These questions are designed to give you the chance to tell us why you will thrive at CHR
• The deadline for applications is Wednesday 12th February and early application is recommended.

Round 2: Online Assessment

• If you are shortlisted after the online application, we will invite you to complete an online assessment

Round 3: Video Interview

• If you are successful in the online assessment, you will speak about your skills and experience with our team at some point between Monday 3rd March – Friday 14th March.

Round 4: Assessment Day

• The final stage is to attend an assessment day in London on either Thursday 27th March or Tuesday 1st April 2025.

CHR is an Equal Opportunity Employer and makes all employment decisions objectively on merit without regard to age, national origin, race, ethnicity, religion, creed, gender, sexual orientation, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

Please note that New Minds Resourcing Ltd are acting as our retained consultants for the recruitment of this role. All applications will be shared with both New Minds and CHR.