Associate Strategist, Strategic Foresight
About the position
We are seeking a dynamic, detail-oriented, highly motivated Associate Strategist with a background in Strategic Foresight to join our team. In this role you will use your foresight analytical skills and human behaviour research skills to help launch, execute, analyze and deliver insights in pharmaceutical market research and consulting projects. This role is ideal for those who are passionate about exploring emerging trends and future possibilities that will shape human behavior and the pharmaceutical landscape.
Responsibilities & Duties
- Assist Strategists/Project Leads during primary and secondary research studies, which includes, but is not limited to:
- Conducting foresight scans, meta-analysis, and academic literature reviews
- Creating presentation decks to share findings
- Back-rooming (note taking) during interviews & data coding
- Programming online activity exercises on various platforms
- Managing online activity/communities
- Conducting simple interviews with modeling
- Conducting the first draft analysis of primary research transcripts and homework analysis (e.g., identifying themes, behaviors, quotes)
- Collaborating during story emergence sessions
- Collaborating and writing early drafts of debriefs
- Accesses relevant thinking models and frameworks to help gather and frame data collection
- Creating video scripts based on interview transcripts and working with video editors to produce documentary-style research videos
- Contribute to proposal development (e.g., building out methodology slides, writing perspectives, etc.)
Experience & Qualifications
Core Competencies
- Ability to systematically scan across diverse domains—including social, technological, economic, environmental, and political trends—to identify emerging signals and drivers of change that may influence pharmaceutical markets
- Proficiency in developing multiple future scenarios to highlight business opportunities, strategic pathways, and potential market implications for pharmaceutical clients
- Excellent communication skills for presenting complex insights to both internal teams and external pharmaceutical stakeholders in accessible, actionable formats
- Strong organizational and multitasking abilities
- Flexibility and adaptability
- Great problem-solving skills
- Team player and great collaborator
- Great prioritization and time-management skills
- Detailed and action-oriented toward project goals
- Proactive risk management
- Accountable, self-motivated, independent
- Proficient in Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams)
Requirements
- Legal authorization to work in Canada, without sponsorship.
- Ability to work within Eastern Time zone business hours.
- Minimum of a Masters degree with a focus on or additional training in Foresight / Futures / Futurology / Futuring / Futuristics
- Clear background check: Criminal, US Exclusions Database, US Denied Persons List, and EU, UK, and UN Sanctions List.
We look for people who:
- Are intellectually curious about complex systems, comfortable navigating uncertainty and ambiguity, and thrive on synthesizing diverse signals into strategic insights.
- Work in a way that upholds and promotes the FSI core values: Passion, Curiosity, Empathy, Agility and Frankness.
- Contribute to and develop a culture of collaboration, care, and respect.
- Create an equitable and inclusive environment for members of the team and clients.
- Understand that Friday is flexible, not guaranteed time off (while we strive to maintain a 4-day work week, we ask that team members are flexible around client needs).
- Can attend four Quarterly Town Halls in-person per year (held on Fridays) in Toronto.
- Understand that we are consultants and, while we strive for typical business hours, sometimes work extends beyond the 9–5 workday.
- Assist colleagues outside of the current project you are working on (e.g., proposal development, brainstorms, thought leadership, etc.).
Compensation and Work-Life Balance
- This is a remote (based in Canada) full-time permanent position in the salary range of $60-$80k.
- FSi also offers health insurance and an RRSP matching program for qualified employees.
- FSi operates a 4-day work week, from Monday to Thursday, with mostly meeting-free Flexible Fridays to provide personal flexibility and support professional and personal development for team members.
- Joining our team as an Associate Strategist offers the opportunity for professional growth into the Strategist role and beyond. You will receive guidance from highly experienced professionals holding PhDs in Behavioral Science, Medical Anthropology, and other fields. You will benefit from these experts' decades of experience in healthcare market research and consulting, to expand your own capabilities and grow at FSi.
Applying
FSi celebrates diversity in both its innovative solutions and its workforce. We strongly encourage applications from Indigenous peoples, racialized people, people with disabilities, people from gender and sexually diverse communities, and/or people with intersectional identities who are eligible to work in Canada and travel to the US. We understand that experience comes in many forms. We’re dedicated to adding new perspectives to the team - so if your experience is this close to what we’re looking for, please consider applying.
If you are interested in this role and meet the criteria, we would love to hear from you!
About
For FSi to be successful, we all must remain firmly committed to our company Vision, Mission, Purpose & Values. These are what guide the everyday actions and decisions of all of us in our company; they are what create our company culture and in turn guide our behaviors, strategies and actions.
Vision
Where we want to go.
To lead the transformation of the healthcare system into a HumanCare experience.
Mission/Purpose
Why we exist today.
To instill genuine empathy for the total human experience so that the most favorable health outcomes are achieved.
Value Proposition
Insights that shift thinking for advantage.
Roadmaps that guide your teams to success.
Values
How we will behave on the journey to achieving our vision.
Passion
We want people to be excited about their work and for it to be a positive aspect of our team’s lives.
Agility
Being nimble and responding quickly to changing needs and doing so with humor and grace.
Curiosity
Not being satisfied until we have found the true insight – ‘the deeper why’
Empathy
Genuinely putting ourselves into our stakeholder’s places, so we can address their needs in the most effective way.
Frankness
Timely addressing challenges in an objective, constructive way.
Winning Aspiration
- To energize clients by co-creating resilient business strategies that integrate financial success with helping people live better lives.
- To create exceptional end to end experiences for FSi project team and client team members.
- To cultivate an organizational culture that attracts, develops and retains remarkable talent. People who are energized through continuous learning and growth, who strive to create exceptional experiences for their colleagues and their clients.
- As a company, to remain adaptable and relevant in changing times.
- To achieve sustainable and profitable growth.
Beliefs
We solve some of the toughest marketing problems in intensely undifferentiated categories by recognizing that no one person has all the answers. We internally collaborate, squeezing new ideas out of research observations by working as a team on every project. We also work in close collaboration with Agency and Client teams. We know everyone has an important role to play, and the wider tacit knowledge of the group is an asset to be put into the juicer!
Guiding Principles
Exceptional People Experiences
Our people are our most important asset. We must ensure we provide an environment where everyone is genuinely fulfilled, both intellectually & emotionally, and where we embrace our work as a positive aspect of our lives.
Exceptional Client Experiences
Ensuring an exceptional client experience must be at the heart of everything we do. We want to make sure we always make them look good in front of their peers & superiors, that we add value, that we proactively make their lives easier and that we are a partner that enhances their performance.
