Senior Partnerships Director- Higher Education - UKI
•Studyportals· 1d
✨ Other⏰ Full-time👔 Executive🇬🇧 UK
1d ago
Sword Health·2 months ago
We are seeking a Head of Commercial Strategy to work with the General Manager to establish Pulse, Sword's AI care for cardiometabolic health solution, as the category leader across health plans, self-insured employers, brokers, consultants, and platform partners. This is not a quota-carrying sales role. This is a high-impact individual contributor leadership role. You will not manage a team, but you will be expected to drive outsized strategic impact through personal expertise, relationships, and influence across the organization. The role is focused on market positioning, competitive differentiation, pipeline generation, and commercial intelligence that ensures Pulse wins against every incumbent in the cardiometabolic space.
Pulse represents Sword's expansion into the highest-cost chronic condition category in the U.S., hypertension, pre-diabetes, diabetes, and GLP-1 support, powered by a three-way AI care model between the member, an AI health specialist, and a human health specialist. The Head of Commercial Strategy will be the external face of Pulse's commercial narrative and the internal voice of the market, shaping how the product is positioned, how the pipeline is built, and how the product itself evolves to win.
This role is critical to our success. You will determine how health plans, brokers, consultants, and employers perceive Pulse relative to every alternative on the market. You will ensure our sales teams walk into every room with an unfair advantage — the positioning, the proof points, the relationships, and the market intelligence to win at north of 75-80% against established cardiometabolic solutions like Hello Heart, Omada, Teladoc, Virta, and Vida. You will also close the loop from market to product, ensuring what we build reflects what the market needs to see us as the unambiguous category leader.
Category Leadership & Market Positioning
Define and own the category narrative for AI-powered cardiometabolic care, positioning Pulse as the definitive next-generation solution that makes legacy point solutions obsolete.
Build and maintain a comprehensive competitive intelligence operation against Hello Heart, Omada, Virta, Vida, Noom Med, Lark, and emerging entrants — understanding their positioning, pricing, clinical evidence, and client traction.
Develop differentiated positioning by buyer persona: health plan medical directors, employer benefits leaders, broker/consultant advisors, and platform/channel partners.
Create and evangelize the "why Pulse wins" narrative backed by clinical evidence, AI differentiation, outcomes-based pricing, and total cost of care impact.
Author thought leadership content — white papers, conference presentations, webinars, op-eds, and industry panel appearances — that establishes Pulse and Sword as the intellectual leader in cardiometabolic AI care.
Pipeline Generation & Commercial Enablement
Generate qualified pipeline for the sales team through relationship-driven business development, strategic partnerships, conference presence, and thought leadership — not through direct deal closing.
Build and leverage a deep personal network across health plans, brokers, benefits consultants, employer coalitions, and industry associations to open doors and create warm introductions at scale.
Create world-class sales enablement materials — competitive battle cards, objection handling guides, RFP response frameworks, case studies, ROI models, and pitch narratives — that give our sales teams an unfair advantage in every conversation.
Partner with the broader sales organization to support upstream deal strategy, competitive positioning in active opportunities, and win/loss analysis to continuously improve our approach.
Support strategic client conversations and finalist presentations where deep market expertise and credibility are needed to close — without carrying a personal quota.
Client Transition & Cross-Sell Strategy
Develop and execute the strategic playbook for transitioning existing Sword clients to the full Pulse cardiometabolic solution, ensuring a seamless narrative from movement health to comprehensive cardiometabolic care.
Identify and prioritize cross-sell and upsell opportunities within the existing client base, working with account management and sales to drive net new bookings from existing relationships.
Create compelling business cases and ROI narratives that make the expansion an obvious decision for current clients.
Product Strategy Influence
Serve as the voice of the market inside the Pulse product team, translating buyer needs, competitive gaps, and market trends into actionable product strategy inputs.
Inform the product roadmap by surfacing what health plans, employers, and brokers are asking for, what competitors are building, and where the market is heading.
Partner with the Head of Product to ensure clinical evidence strategy, feature prioritization, and product packaging align with what wins in the market.
Collaborate with the clinical and data teams to build the evidence base (studies, outcomes reports, case studies) that reinforces category leadership.
PBM & Pharmacy Channel Strategy
Own or heavily influence Pulse's PBM partnership strategy. This includes developing prior authorization companion programs (positioning Pulse as a required behavioral intervention before or alongside GLP-1 prescriptions), step therapy integration (embedding Pulse into PBM step therapy protocols as a first-line or concurrent intervention), and formulary-linked preferred status (partnering with PBMs so that Pulse enrollment influences formulary access or coverage tiers for GLP-1 and cardiometabolic medications).
Build relationships with major PBMs (CVS Caremark, Express Scripts, Optum Rx, Prime Therapeutics) and pharmacy benefit consultants to position Pulse as a clinical and cost management complement to high-cost cardiometabolic drug therapy.
Develop the business case and partnership models that demonstrate how Pulse reduces total pharmacy spend — particularly GLP-1 costs — by driving lifestyle-based outcomes that reduce medication dependency or enable dose optimization.
Translate early client interest in PBM integration (we have active signal from health plan and employer clients requesting this capability) into a structured partnership strategy and go-to-market approach.
Partner with the Head of Product and clinical team to ensure the product roadmap supports PBM integration requirements (outcomes reporting, clinical protocols, data sharing frameworks).
Industry Presence & Relationships
Represent Pulse at major industry conferences as a visible, credible voice.
Cultivate relationships with key industry analysts, consultants, and influencers who shape buyer perception and vendor shortlists.
Build and maintain a personal brand as a thought leader in cardiometabolic care innovation and AI-powered healthcare delivery.
Develop strategic partnerships with industry bodies, research institutions, and clinical organizations that elevate Pulse's credibility and reach.
10-15 years of experience in healthcare strategy, commercial strategy, product marketing, or business development within digital health, health plans, benefits consulting, or healthcare technology.
Deep, established relationships across the health plan, broker/consultant, and employer benefits ecosystem — a genuine network that opens doors, not just a LinkedIn network.
Proven track record of positioning a product or solution as a category leader in a competitive healthcare market, with measurable impact on pipeline generation and win rates.
Experience going head-to-head with established digital health solutions and winning — you understand the cardiometabolic competitive landscape and know how these buying decisions get made.
Strong understanding of health plan and employer purchasing processes, including RFP cycles, broker/consultant influence, medical director evaluation criteria, and benefits committee decision-making.
Exceptional storytelling and communication skills — you can command a room at HLTH, write a compelling white paper, and build a battle card that a sales rep actually uses.
Strategic thinker who can translate market intelligence into product strategy recommendations and commercial positioning.
Comfort operating at the intersection of product, marketing, and sales without owning any single function — you are the connective tissue.
Familiarity with PBM dynamics, pharmacy benefit design, and how formulary decisions, prior authorization policies, and step therapy protocols influence healthcare purchasing — or the ability to learn this quickly.
Self-starter who thrives in ambiguity and can build a function from scratch in a fast-moving environment. This is an IC role — you will drive impact through personal expertise and influence, not through managing a team.
Direct experience in the cardiometabolic, diabetes, hypertension, or GLP-1 space — either as a vendor, payer, consultant, or buyer.
Track record as a recognized thought leader or speaker in digital health or healthcare innovation.
Experience at high-growth health tech companies where you've helped establish or disrupt a product category.
Understanding of AI-native healthcare products and the ability to articulate technical differentiation to non-technical buyers.
Experience with outcomes-based or value-based pricing models and how to position them as a competitive advantage.
Background in management consulting, health plan strategy, or benefits consulting before moving to an operating role.
Direct experience working with PBMs or pharmacy benefit strategy — understanding of prior authorization programs, step therapy design, and formulary management as commercial levers.
Proficiency leveraging AI tools to accelerate research, content creation, and competitive analysis.
This is a non-quota IC role, but it is not a soft role. You will be held to clear, measurable outcomes:
Pipeline generated
Competitive win rate
Net new bookings influenced
Client expansion rate to life stages
Sales enablement adoption