Job Description
Head of Strategic Marketing

About us

Animalcare Group is an international veterinary pharmaceutical business focused on developing and commercialising differentiated products that improve the health and wellbeing of animals.The Group operates across companion animal, equine, and production animal markets, combining scientific innovation, strong veterinary relationships, and agile commercial execution.

Animalcare’s strategy is centred around:

•Building a focused portfolio of differentiated veterinary brands
•Expanding through licensing partnerships and acquisitions
•Accelerating growth in key European markets
•Investing in innovation and pipeline development
 

Main purpose of the job

Animalcare's next phase of growth demands more deliberate strategic direction on which brands to prioritise, which customer segments to pursue, and how to build consistent competitive advantage across different market contexts.

The Group already has strong foundations: a focused portfolio, experienced country teams, and meaningful veterinary relationships across seven European markets. What it needs now is the commercial intelligence to translate that foundation into sustained, scalable performance.This role will:

•Define brand positioning and portfolio direction across the Animalcare Group
•Lead commercial input into pipeline and R&D asset prioritisation
•Shape how Animalcare competes, channel strategy, segmentation, and value proposition
•Build strategic marketing capability across the business
•Partner with Operational Marketing, GMs, and R&D to ensure strategy translates into execution

 It is a leadership mandate focused on building the strategic clarity that will underpin Animalcare's next decade of growth

Key Responsibilities and Accountabilities

•Significant experience in strategic marketing within animal health, pharmaceuticals, or an adjacent regulated life sciences sector
•Proven track record developing brand strategy, portfolio strategy, and positioning frameworks at the regional or global level
•Strong experience across multiple markets, balancing global strategic direction with local commercial relevance
•Demonstrated ability to translate insight into clear strategic choices — where to play and how to win
•Experience working cross-functionally across R&D, supply, commercial, and finance throughout the asset lifecycle
•Background in new product marketing and asset lifecycle management, ideally in animal health
•Experience influencing senior stakeholders and aligning diverse teams behind a single strategic direction
•Strategic mindset — sees ahead to future possibilities and translates them into clear, focused choices across brands and markets
•Strong commercial instinct — understands pricing strategy, portfolio investment cases, and the link between strategic choice and financial outcome
•Customer and clinical insight — deep understanding of the veterinary profession, decision drivers, and the role of science-led innovation
•Credible influencer at senior level — builds alignment across functions, geographies, and leadership teams without direct authority
•Degree educated; MBA or relevant postgraduate qualification advantageous
•English fluency essential. Additional European language — Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch, or German — highly desirable
•Comfortable in a PE-owned, governance-conscious environment with strong financial discipline

Key Qualifications & Experience

Strategic Clarity:

Cuts through complexity to define clear choices on where to focus and why. Builds conviction across diverse stakeholders without losing commercial pragmatism or market reality.

Customer & Clinical Insight:

Genuinely understands the veterinary profession, how practitioners think, what drives adoption, and how science-led innovation creates lasting commercial value.

Cross-Functional Influence:

Builds alignment without authority, credible with R&D, Finance, GMs, and the Board. Earns trust through insight and substance, not hierarchy or positional power.

Collaborative Partnership:

Works as a genuine partner to Operational Marketing and GMs  brings strategic direction without imposing it, and creates space for local relevance within clear guardrails.

Commercial Rigour:

Anchors strategy in market reality and commercial logic. Strong on portfolio investment cases, competitive positioning, and the link between strategic choice and financial outcome.

Value Led Culture:

Embodies Animalcare's belief that healthy animals benefit owners and society. Brings energy and authenticity to a business that cares deeply about what it builds.

Competencies

Skills

•Significant experience in strategic marketing within animal health, pharmaceuticals, or an adjacent regulated life sciences sector
•Proven track record developing brand strategy, portfolio strategy, and positioning frameworks at the regional or global level
•Strong experience across multiple markets, balancing global strategic direction with local commercial relevance
•Demonstrated ability to translate insight into clear strategic choices — where to play and how to win
•Experience working cross-functionally across R&D, supply, commercial, and finance throughout the asset lifecycle
•Background in new product marketing and asset lifecycle management, ideally in animal health
•Experience influencing senior stakeholders and aligning diverse teams behind a single strategic direction
 

Commercial & Leadership Strengths

•Strategic mindset — sees ahead to future possibilities and translates them into clear, focused choices across brands and markets
•Strong commercial instinct — understands pricing strategy, portfolio investment cases, and the link between strategic choice and financial outcome
•Customer and clinical insight — deep understanding of the veterinary profession, decision drivers, and the role of science-led innovation
•Credible influencer at senior level — builds alignment across functions, geographies, and leadership teams without direct authority
•Degree educated; MBA or relevant postgraduate qualification advantageous
•English fluency essential. Additional European language — Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch, or German — highly desirable
•Comfortable in a PE-owned, governance-conscious environment with strong financial discipline
 

A note on the recruitment process

This appointment is being managed by Omni Executive Search Solutions on an exclusive retained basis, led by Jo Lancaster-Towers, Director of Executive Solutions.

All candidates, whether internal or external, will go through the same structured assessment process with Omni. That means every application is evaluated against the same criteria, by the same independent assessor, with no parallel internal process running alongside it.

We've made this decision deliberately. This is a genuinely critical appointment, and we want to give every candidate a fair, rigorous, and professionally managed experience. It also means that whoever we appoint, the decision will be grounded in a consistent, independently governed assessment rather than familiarity or assumption.

If you're interested in being considered, please contact Jo Lancaster-Towers directly at jo.lancaster-towers@omnirms.com. All conversations will be handled in strict confidence.

Information at a Glance
Req ID:  727
Job Location (Country/Region): 
Contract Type:  Permanent
Level of Experience:  5 to 10 years