Data and AI Strategy Lead

Data and AI Strategy Lead 

About Inizio

Inizio is a global partner with over 10,500 experts operating in more than 50 countries. We support health and life science companies by turning science into strategy and executing across the product and patient journey.

About Advisory

Inizio Advisory is a trusted advisor for health and life science companies that turns science into strategy, supporting execution at every stage of the product and patient journey from early commercialization to launch and beyond.

Position Summary 

Come join a growth engine as a leader in our Data & AI Practice! Inizio Advisory & Putnam Associates continue to advance our Commercial Life Sciences Data, Analytics and AI Team and Solutions.  We are looking for an experienced innovator and senior leader to join Data Strategy, Analytics and AI Practice.   

This leadership position will focus on strategizing, designing, and delivering enterprise-grade Data and AI solutions that leverage complex healthcare datasets and AI platforms to drive business transformation.  

This Strategy role will lead a growing matrixed Data Science and AI Team to help clients identify the right healthcare datasets to meet their business strategy or answer key questions. This leader will both strategize and support client initiatives to transform fragmented data silos into AI and Analytics ready data to deliver actionable insights that drive measurable impact across the product lifecycle, from clinical to commercial. Our practice builds trusted data foundations to apply AI algorithms and machine learning for product forecasting, provider segmentation, patient identification, and customer engagement to name a few. 

The Data and AI Strategy Lead will be part of Innovation and Growth, Data/AI Practice and responsible for client business development within the practice area.  They must effectively identify potential client engagements, qualify leads, and drive the business development process.  They will write and submit project proposals, develop and deliver capability presentations, and respond to prospective client needs.  They are responsible for developing intellectual thought leadership for the company and for enhancing their practice area within the firm.  They are also responsible for building and enhancing existing client relationships and for overseeing client project teams as well as collaborating with other practice areas (commercial, medical affairs, pricing and access, Portfolio/BD&L, transformation and insights).  

With data strategies grounded in Putnam’s scientific rigor and therapeutic expertise, we bring clarity to complex data (e.g. claims, Rx, genomic, lab, customer engagement) leveraging AI proprietary tools and analytics platforms that empower faster decisions and long-term brand growth.  

Responsibilities and measurements of success include but are not limited to:  

• Leadership & Team Development: Strengthen team management, coaching, and mentoring while fostering a positive firm culture and contributing to practice area growth.  

• Project & Client Management: Lead strategic project planning and maintain strong client relationships to ensure successful delivery.  

• Business Growth & Sales: Drive revenue and sales targets by identifying and pursuing new opportunities, leveraging industry expertise and existing networks in collaboration with the Inizio wide Advisory businesses and leaders.  

• Business Development Execution: Develop impactful capability presentations, proposals, and client negotiations to expand market presence.  

• Insight Development & Strategic Impact: Translate key insights from workstreams into compelling narratives that drive client decision-making.  

• Thought Leadership & Industry Influence: Contribute to industry discussions and thought leadership initiatives.  

• Talent Strategy & Future Planning: Evolve hiring strategies to align with emerging client needs, such as claims analytics, commercial analytics, and AI/GenAI solutions.   

This leadership role will support clients in the following Data Strategy, Analytics and AI project areas:  

• Data and AI Strategy: Collaborate with TA strategy consultants to define and implement short- and long-term data strategies that address key business challenges, including identifying new datasets. Identify AI solutions to accelerate insights and/or identify actions for commercial and medical teams decision making.   

• Advanced Analytics: Analyze patient journeys and rare populations using claims data, optimizing HCP targeting and engagement strategies. Implement patient tokenization across complex datasets (claims, genomic, lab) for structured insights and strategic decision-making.  

• AI & GenAI Agentic Solutions: Lead strategic assessments of client capabilities and define AI-led transformation roadmaps, including future operating models and process designs. Develop machine learning and AI-driven strategies for Commercial, VPA, Medical, and Evidence applications, enhancing client insights and decision-making. Leverage the Inizio Navigator.ai suite for rapid analysis of large-scale customer data. Lead new Agentic solutions for Pharma Commercial and Medical use cases. 

Desired Skills & Experience  

• Extensive experience in Life Sciences data analytics consulting (min of 10 years) 

• Deep experience in healthcare datasets (e.g., Komodo, IQVIA, Symphony, Truven, Optum, Flatiron, Charge Master, Lab, Provider and Payer data) and other Pharma internal datasets such as customer relationship management (e.g. Veeva CRM).  

• Experience in data visualization tools (e.g., Tableau, PowerBI, Qlik Sense). Practical application of AI/ML/NLP use cases in the Life Sciences business (e.g, NBE, patient-finding, content generation, or other relevant cases)   

• A GenAI pioneer, with experience of LLMs in Pharma (e.g. generative writing, content, predictive models OR other) and ability to apply to daily work to promote adoption across Putnam. Experience deploying Agentic AI solutions. 

• Extensive experience in project work planning and client management.   

• A successful history of people and team management through mentorship, knowledge sharing, and leadership.    

• Development of key insights from all workstreams and translation of those insights into a compelling storyline and presentation    

• Proposal development   

• Participation in industry thought leadership  

What we offer!  

• Industry competitive and salary and bonus package tied to individual, group, and firm performance  

• Exceptional senior partner mentorship, leadership training and career development support  

• Additional benefits create for a full total rewards program including 401(k), health, dental & vision insurance, paid time off, cell phone benefits, and more.   

• Hybrid working mode – this role can be based out of Boston or NYC. Looking for office presence 1-2 days a week.