Senior Associate Strategist (Healthcare Social Scientist)

About Throughline Strategy
As a leading healthcare consultancy firm, Throughline Strategy’s sole mission is to help Life Sciences organizations improve experiences and outcomes for people living with illness and those who care for them. Our global clients come to us for our strategic counsel, behavioural and system insights, and implementation science focus — and because we have a ‘roll-up-the-sleeves’ determination to deliver great work that matters.

About the Role
Throughline Strategy is seeking experienced health researchers who are eager to grow in their consulting expertise to support our behavioural and implementation science team. In this role, you will be staffed onto high-impact quality improvement, research and strategy projects with a cross-functional and highly collaborative team, and contribute in the following ways:

• Designing and executing high impact quality improvement projects for scaling across healthcare systems in the United States
  
• Designing social science-informed project and grant proposals, recommendations, meetings and workshops leveraging an in-depth understanding of healthcare research frameworks and methods
  
• Executing qualitative and/or mixed methods primary research, co-creation and consulting projects (developing materials for IRB submission, developing interview guides, qualitative coding, analysis and synthesis, developing synthesis of meeting and workshop outputs etc.)
• Project managing the day-to-day execution of primary research and consulting projects (e.g., developing screeners, managing recruiting, document management, building and managing timelines, identifying risks, solving project-related challenges as needed etc.)
• Developing summaries and strategic communications to socialize findings from primary research and communicate complex concepts to a non-academic, business audience
  
• Facilitating meetings and workshops
• Contributing to the development of case studies and new practice tools and processes informed by social science
• Helping improve workplace culture and space
• Other duties as required

Intrigued and curious if you have what it takes?

At Throughline, we firmly believe that culture is as important as the work we do. We hire for values alignment first and foremost. Our values are centred around what it takes to be a great partner:

1. Move It Forward: Even when faced with ambiguous, never-seen-before challenges, our people:

• “Make %$ happen” in order to make meaningful change and solve challenging strategic problems. Our team take on every project and task like it’s their baby.
• Bring strong attention to detail and also have the ability to balance a detail orientation with a big picture perspective.
• Thrive working in an applied setting and relish the pace of consulting work and ability to deliver results in weeks (not years!)
• Love making presentations and facilitating group experiences that are compelling and memorable and help our client organizations pull-through the insights and strategies to action.
  

2. Know Yourself : Our team is skilled at assessing what we do well. This increases vulnerability and removes uncertainty in how we operate, creating a more dynamic and sustainable culture of trust, innovation, and teamwork. Towards this, our team:

• All bring a shared passion for improving health outcomes and experiences
• Share an insatiable curiosity. We like to know how people and things work and dig in to find out.
• Are very open to receiving feedback to enhance each of our individual and shared performance.
  
• Are highly effective working in a self-directed manner.
  

3. Kindness and Candor: We share the truth with one another in a way that leaves everyone whole and allows people to quickly act on feedback in delivering their personal best work. As part of this we all:

• Speak well, listen even better. We take the time to understand what people really care about and what motivates them.
• Love collaborating and helping. We are a team culture and roll up our sleeves to get the job done together.

We'd love for you to apply to join us if you have:

• Successful completion of a PhD degree in social science (for example: Implementation Science, Psychology, Sociology, Behavioural Science etc.)
• Strong critical thinking, qualitative analysis, writing, and presentation skills
• Demonstrated experience:
  • conducting primary research and/or quality improvement with health care providers, patients, and caregivers in a range of settings and geographies
    
  • applying theory in a practical and applied setting and ‘right-sizing’ concepts to meet the unique needs of a particular audience
  • explaining complex theoretical concepts to a lay audience in an approachable manner
  • working on short-turnaround projects and successfully meeting deadlines
  • managing competing priorities/multiple projects and commitments simultaneously
  • moderating substantial volume of interviews and/or conducting several months or more of ethnographic fieldwork
  • facilitating large meetings
  • identifying and developing strong insights
    
• Passion for working in a health-related field
• Excited to work in a fast-paced environment where projects move with urgency
• Fluent written and spoken English. Second and third language skills are a plus!
• Experience working in an office environment / corporate setting
• Technical literacy. Experience in using all G-Suite and MS-Office products and working in a cloud-based virtual environment with PowerPoint and digital collaboration tools (e.g. Zoom, Teams, Mural, Slack, Box etc.).
• Experience using at least one qualitative coding software such as MaxQDA, NVivo, Atlas.ti, or Dedoose
• Experience integrating AI tools into planning your day-to-day activities with judgment. Please note: This does not mean it is a substitute for individual critical thinking and writing. Please do not use AI for your cover letter as we need to assess your individual ability to think and write.
  
  

Applicants must be legally able to work in Canada. This is a full-time role with 10 – 15% travel to client sites, conferences and other meetings over the course of the year, which is a critical part of the role. Throughline operates with a hybrid environment work model so employees will work onsite at Yonge and St. Clair for one day a week and remotely for the remainder of the time. Please note, this role is not available as a fully remote role.

To apply:

Please submit:

• a one page resume
• a cover letter highlighting your healthcare research and/or quality improvement experience and why you are eager to grow in your consulting expertise as part of our team
  

Inclusion:

We acknowledge and honour the value and dignity of all individuals. We pledge ourselves to creating and maintaining a culture that welcomes and respects diverse traditions, heritages, and experiences.

Accommodations and Accessibility:

At any time during the interview and onboarding process, let us know if you require accommodation. Please contact us at [email protected] and we will work with you to provide the support you need.

Vacancy Status:

This is an existing position. Expected start date is December 2026 or January 2027.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Use:

We do not use AI to screen or select applicants for this position. Humans review all applications.

We thank all applicants for their interest. Only those selected for next steps will be contacted.