Department: Business Intelligence & Strategy
Location: United States, Remote with Travel to Clients, Conferences, and Events
Senior Vice President, Growth & Commercialization- Position Overview
The SVP, Growth & Commercialization is accountable for Underscore's market-facing growth engine. This leader owns agency positioning, marketing, business development, pipeline generation, new client acquisition, and the commercialization of new products, services, and capabilities.
The role does not own Innovation governance or Product development. Instead, the SVP works as the commercial counterpart to the SVP, Innovation, Product & Technology: Growth brings market trends, prospect feedback, competitive intelligence, and client demand signals into the innovation funnel; Product brings selected products and capabilities into commercialization for packaging, positioning, enablement, launch, adoption, and revenue realization.
The role also partners closely with Client Services, which retains and grows existing accounts, Strategic Solutions, which delivers client solutions and consulting, and with Strategic Operations, which operationalizes new offerings so the organization can deliver them consistently and at scale.
Position Purpose
The primary mission of this role is to answer five critical questions:
Where should Underscore compete and grow?
How should Underscore continue to position and differentiate itself as market changes occur?
How do we continue to generate qualified demand and win new clients (strategic approach, staffing, messaging, materials) ?
How do new products and capabilities in development become market-ready offerings?
How do we drive adoption, utilization, revenue, and commercial learning after launch of new products and services?
Own the Growth Strategy and Commercial Engine
Build and lead the integrated system for market visibility, demand generation, pipeline development, new business, and new client acquisition.
Responsibilities
- Develop enterprise growth strategy, annual priorities, and measurable growth plans with support from leaders, consultants and staff
- Own agency marketing, ongoing brand positioning, thought leadership, and market visibility
- Lead business development and sales strategy, pipeline governance, and new-client pursuits
- Translate market trends, competitive activity, prospect feedback, and unmet needs into actionable opportunity signals for product and solution expansion
- Partner with Client Services on clear boundaries between new-logo growth and organic growth within current accounts as well as integration and onboarding into the agency for new-logo wins
- Build strategic partnerships and ecosystem relationships that strengthen market reach and commercial opportunity
Success Measures
- Forecast accuracy and pipeline discipline
- Market awareness and thought-leadership reach
- Qualified pipeline growth and quality
- New client acquisition and win rate
- Revenue from new clients
- Strategic-partnership contribution
Own Commercialization of New Offerings
Turn products, services, and capabilities into clear, differentiated, sellable offerings that can be launched, adopted, and scaled.
Responsibilities
- Partner with the SVP, Innovation, Product & Technology early in the product lifecycle to define commercial requirements and market viability
- Own offer design, packaging, value proposition, positioning, and commercialization plans
- Partner with Client Finance and Finance on pricing strategy, business cases, financial assumptions, and margin expectations
- Develop go-to-market plans, sales enablement, launch materials, proof points, and buyer narratives
- Coordinate market readiness with Product, Strategy, Media, Client Services, and external partners
- Own launch, adoption, utilization, commercial performance, and post-launch learning
- Feed market response and adoption data back to Product and Innovation to improve the roadmap and portfolio
Success Measures
- Time from product readiness to market launch
- Adoption and utilization
- Revenue and margin from new offerings
- Sales enablement readiness
- Commercial conversion and attach rates
- Post-launch learning incorporated into product decisions and ongoing improvements
Create the Market-to-Innovation Feedback Loop
Ensure Innovation and Product development decisions are grounded in external demand rather than internal ideas alone.
Responsibilities
- Monitor healthcare, biopharma, agency, media, data, technology, and buyer trends
- Bring market, prospect, partner, and client signals into the innovation funnel
- Partner with the SVP, Innovation, Product & Technology on opportunity assessment, business cases, and prioritization
- Validate value propositions, buyer audiences, willingness to adopt, and competitive differentiation before significant build investment
- Identify white-space opportunities that can become new services, products, or partnerships
Success Measures
- Quality and usefulness of market inputs to the innovation portfolio
- Percentage of prioritized ideas validated with market evidence
- Commercial potential of innovation pipeline
- Reduced investment in low-demand ideas
- Speed of learning from market validation
Lead Positioning and Market Activation
Create a distinct and consistent market presence across marketing, sales, partnerships, thought leadership, and new offerings.
Responsibilities
- Own the agency positioning framework and activation plan
- Ensure coordinated narratives and team training across company marketing, new business, offerings, and external thought leadership
- Guide competitive differentiation and category positioning in alignment with growth goals
- Partner with Strategy and Media leaders to ensure market claims reflect real delivery capabilities
- Establish positioning governance and reusable messaging tools
Success Measures
- Market differentiation
- Brand awareness and visibility
- Message consistency
- Thought-leadership engagement
- Win-rate and pitch-quality improvement
Build Strategic Partnerships
Develop relationships that expand reach, enable capabilities, or create commercial opportunities.
Responsibilities
- Identify and prioritize data, technology, industry, channel, research, and ecosystem partnerships
- Define the commercial rationale, value exchange, and success measures for partnerships
- Coordinate partnerships with Product, Media, Strategy, Finance, Client Services, and Strategic Operations
- Develop co-marketing, co-selling, referral, and capability-enablement opportunities
- Review partnership performance and discontinue relationships that do not create value
Success Measures
- Partnership-sourced opportunities and revenue
- New capabilities or reach enabled
- Market visibility created
- Partnership performance against business case
- Strategic value realized
Key Cross-Functional Partnerships
SVP, Innovation, Product & Technology: Receives market trends, buyer needs, prospect feedback, and commercial requirements; provides product roadmaps, release readiness, technical proof points, and new capabilities for commercialization.
Strategic Operations: Operationalizes offerings through workflows, Wrike, roles, handoffs, SOPs, QA, training, launch governance, and adoption support.
Client Services: Shares client needs, account risk, and expansion opportunities; Client Services owns organic growth and closing within current clients.
Strategy: Brings client and market insight, solution strategy, research, KBQs, message strategy, and strategic proof points.
Media: Contributes media-market trends, partner intelligence, differentiated media capabilities, and go-to-market innovation.
Client Finance / Finance: Supports pricing, business cases, revenue planning, margins, investment decisions, and financial performance.
Analytics: Provides commercial reporting, adoption analytics, performance evidence, and measurement support.
Ideal Candidate
Required Experience
- 15+ years of progressive leadership experience in growth, marketing, business development, commercialization, or related commercial functions
- Demonstrated ownership of marketing and new-business outcomes
- Experience commercializing new products, services, capabilities, or technology-enabled solutions
- Direct experience in media, healthcare marketing, life sciences, biopharma, medical device, or a closely related environment
- Experience building pipeline governance, commercial priorities, and measurable growth plans
- Cross-functional leadership across product, strategy, operations, finance, delivery, and client teams
- Agency leadership and/or consulting experience
- Healthcare or biopharma product launch experience
- Commercialization of data, analytics, AI, or technology-enabled offerings
- Strategic partnerships and ecosystem development
- Experience in a high-growth or transformation environment
Leadership Traits
- Strategic and commercially minded
- Market-oriented and customer curious
- Entrepreneurial and resourceful
- Highly collaborative and low-ego
- Operationally disciplined
- Direct, persuasive executive communicator
- Comfortable building systems from ambiguity
- Accountable for measurable results
- Experience & Education
Critical Experiences
- Built or scaled an integrated growth engine
- Owned marketing and business-development outcomes
- Commercialized new offerings with measurable adoption and revenue
- Created market-feedback loops that improved product or portfolio decisions
- Led cross-functional launches and commercial change
- Built strategic partnerships with measurable value
- Healthcare, life sciences, biopharma, medical device, or healthcare agency background
- Media-heavy agency or consulting experience
- Experience with data, analytics, AI, or productized IP
- Product launch and commercialization experience
Education
- Bachelor's degree required
- Advanced education in business, marketing, strategy, healthcare, or a related field preferred
Knowledge
Knowledge Of
- Growth strategy and operating systems
- Commercialization frameworks
- Positioning and differentiation
- Marketing and business development
- Pipeline and sales governance
- Strategic partnerships
- Healthcare commercialization landscape
- Agency economics and profitability
Skilled At
- Turning market signals into growth priorities
- Packaging and positioning complex offerings
- Building commercial business cases
- Leading pitches and executive buyer conversations
- Creating sales enablement and launch plans
- Building cross-functional alignment
- Measuring adoption and revenue performance
Deep Understanding Of
- Healthcare and media buying environments
- Client decision-making and agency procurement
- Commercial lifecycle from concept through adoption
- How product, strategy, media, delivery, and finance combine to create client value
- Growth metrics and performance management
Competencies
Strategic Vision
- Connects market shifts and business priorities to a focused growth agenda
- Balances immediate revenue needs with long-term market position
Growth Leadership
- Creates disciplined marketing, pipeline, sales, and partnership systems
- Builds accountability for demand and new-client outcomes
Commercialization Leadership
- Turns capabilities into clear offers with pricing, enablement, launch, and adoption plans
- Balances buyer value, delivery feasibility, and economics
Commercial Acumen
- Understands agency economics, buyer decisions, revenue levers, and margin implications
- Uses evidence to prioritize opportunities
Executive Influence
- Aligns leaders without relying solely on hierarchy
- Communicates complex choices simply and credibly
Cross-Functional Leadership
- Creates productive operating relationships across Product, Operations, Client Services, Strategy, Media, Analytics, and Finance
Change Leadership
- Builds adoption for new commercial systems, positioning, and offerings
Effective Communication
Creates clear market narratives and adapts communication to buyers, employees, and executives
