Associate Scientific Strategy Consultant

About Zifo: 

Zifo is a global scientific and technical consulting partner specializing in strategy, informatics, and innovation for clients in life sciences organizations, such as pharmaceutical R&D, biotechnology, and agritech. We help organizations accelerate discovery, optimize development pipelines, and leverage data to achieve measurable impact.   

Position Overview: 

The Associate Scientific Strategy Consultant sits within the North American consulting group wherein key accountabilities include driving project elucidation, stakeholder management and defining & driving project success in partnership with internal and external stakeholders. The successful candidate will lead medium-to-high complexity consulting engagements for multiple customers. This role blends scientific expertise, industry knowledge, and informatics/data skills with leadership and collaboration to deliver high-quality solutions. You will work closely with senior consultants, client stakeholders, and cross-functional teams to ensure project success, drive operational excellence, and contribute to business development. 

Key Responsibilities: 

Consulting & Scientific Strategy 

• Engage as a leader to define and own project success, leveraging core consulting behaviours such as active listening, empathetic collaboration, strong sense of ownership and effective communication across multiple audiences 

• Own accountability for business analysis deliverables including user requirements specifications (URS), functional requirements specifications, data & process maps, workflows, gap analyses, implementation roadmaps, evaluation methodologies, and questionnaires. 

• Conduct vendor evaluations and define implementation strategies to enable effective decision-making by pharma/biotech/agritech clients. 

• Assess system landscapes and contribute to IT, informatics and data landscape roadmaps. 

Project Execution & Leadership 

• Manage one or more large projects/programs, including estimation, scheduling, risk management, and milestone tracking. 

• Facilitate project meetings, communicate status updates, and escalate risks when necessary. 

• Mentor associates across Zifo, guiding their project engagements and professional development. 

• Track and monitor key project metrics to ensure the success of client engagements as well as adherence to operational components of project delivery. 

Customer Engagement & Collaboration 

• Serve as primary point of contact for clients and internal stakeholders, managing expectations on process, quality, schedule, and delivery - all with an overall view of what qualifies as successful engagement 

• Build rapport with client managers and support and/or drive strategic customer meetings. 

• Identify opportunities for additional value creation within client organizations and internal process improvements. 

Operational Excellence & Continuous Improvement 

• Plan and track billable effort, manage utilization and productivity of themselves and teams, and support budget forecasting. 

• Manage escalations, identify & track risks to project execution, initiate corrective and preventive actions (CAPA) and drive continuous improvement initiatives. 

• Support internal training programs, and mentor team members in emerging areas. 

Business Development & Thought Leadership 

• Assist in proposals related to emerging opportunities with clients and supporting RFP responses. 

• Contribute to case studies, presentations, and white papers. 

• Attend industry conferences for learning, networking, and representing Zifo. 

Learning, Mentorship & Continuous Improvement 

• Demonstrate continuous learning in scientific domains, informatics systems and data strategies, change management and strategic consulting methodologies. 

• Identify needs and drive efforts for internal development and knowledge-sharing initiatives. 

• Mentor other analysts across business units within Zifo, fostering collaboration career development.