As we come to the close of 2014, we thought you might be interested in hearing Executive Recruiter, Eda Zullo‘s thoughts on trends in 2014 and predictions for 2015 in the health care commercial analytic’s world.
Forecasting – This expertise has been in great demand in 2014 and she expects this demand to continue into 2015. Forecasting as part of the drug development process or for those drugs already in the pipeline is equally in demand. There is a distinction between global and domestic experience with openings available in both areas but applicable experience preferred. Smith Hanley Associates has openings right now from the Manager level at $120K base salary through Senior Manager at $140K and Associate Director as high as $175K.
Sales Force Optimization – This category encompasses specialties in incentive compensation, sales operations and sales analysis. Candidates may have finance in their background or have been in the field as a sales rep. Deep expertise in any of these areas coupled with a strength in strategic insight could lead to very senior leadership roles for those with an ability to work across functional areas including IT, brand, sales and finance. C level exposure is possible.
Vendors – Industry side companies are finding it cost-effective to hire consultants versus new staff to solve short and long-term project needs. Candidates willing to move to the vendor side should see higher base salary options. Sometimes these higher salaries are due to travel and longer hours but many times the ability to interface with clients as an analytical expert will be highly valued. You may even find that you have priced yourself out of moving back to the client side. We see base salaries of $175K at vendors and candidates wanting to move back to industry might have to consider a $140K base to make that change.
Trends
1. Movement to smaller companies can lead to higher base salaries because those firms have to offset the loss of Long Term Incentives given by bigger firms.
2. Continued mergers in the health care industry are creating opportunities for candidates willing to relocate.
3. The conversation around Big Data continues but it is still unclear how all of the disparate data sources are going to be brought together efficiently to bring the data to the field.
4. The Data Scientist title is starting to be used but we haven’t seen real progress on the utilization of machine learning to manage unstructured data.
Eda would be happy to discuss any of these trends or your needs for 2015 further. As always, Smith Hanley Associates is happy to be your recruiting resource for all things analytical in the health care industry.
