Head of Clinical Development, Pulse

Role

We are seeking a Head of Clinical Development to drive clinical outcomes in Pulse, Sword's AI cardiometabolic care solution spanning hypertension, pre-diabetes, and GLP-1 support. This is a strategic and tactical role working closely with Product, Go-to-Market, Clinical Ops and, Clinical Affairs & Research team, reporting directly to the General Manager and working closely with the Chief Medical Officer and SVP for Clinical & Regulatory Affairs.

You will partner crossfunctionally to make sure clinical requirements are reflected accurately in product features, AI behavior, operational workflows, member experiences, and external communications. The role covers real breadth: clinical program architecture, external clinical credibility and thought leadership for go-to-market, clinical input into product development, clinical governance of Pulse's AI-driven three-way chat experience, and clinical quality standards for Clinical Operations.

AI fluency is a core expectation at Sword Health. Every candidate is assessed against our three-level framework — be ready to share real examples of how AI is already part of how you work.

• Explorer (Level 1) — Uses AI daily to boost personal productivity

• Builder (Level 2) — Creates workflows and tools that elevate the whole team

• Integrator (Level 3) — Embeds AI into products and processes at scale

Every hire must demonstrate at least Level 1. The expected level will vary depending on the seniority of the role.

Product Development

• Set clinical validation standards for new features, workflows, interventions, and AI-supported experiences before and after launch.

• Bring the clinical lens to feature assessment alongside Product, calibrating the level of clinical rigor to the actual risk of each feature so the team can move quickly with confidence.

• Provide clinical expertise in the scoping and refinement of PRDs.

• Review and clinically interpret member and clinician feedback, maintaining a tight loop back to roadmap and program decisions.

• Monitor and interpret clinical outcomes to identify drivers of improvement, decline, or variation, and direct program, protocol, product, workflow, or training changes in response.

• Surface clinical constraints early, flagging where a solution will be clinically wrong or difficult before development begins, so the team solves the right problem instead of building the wrong thing well.

• Licensed clinician (MD, DO, NP, RD, or PharmD) with 8+ years of clinical experience, including at least 3 years in a clinical leadership role within digital health, health-tech, or value-based care.

• Deep expertise in cardiometabolic conditions: hypertension, pre-diabetes and diabetes, obesity, and GLP-1 therapeutics.

• Experience owning a clinical outcomes framework, including defining metrics, evidence standards, and how outcomes translate into commercial value.

• A track record of being the external clinical voice for a product: comfortable in front of CMOs, health plan medical directors, and clinical audiences at conferences and in due-diligence processes.

• Experience partnering directly with product and engineering teams to translate clinical requirements into features, workflows, and AI behavior, not just reviewing what others build.

• Comfort defining clinical guardrails and evaluation criteria for AI-supported or AI-driven care experiences.

• Strong writing and narrative skills. You will personally author whitepapers, talk tracks, and clinical claims language that holds up under scrutiny.

• Comfort with ambiguity and building a function's clinical infrastructure from a limited starting point.

• Third-party clinical partnerships, including protocol definition and clinical service agreements.

• Direct experience with AI-supported or AI-native care delivery, including prompt design, guardrails, or evaluation rubrics for clinical AI systems.

• Familiarity with cardiometabolic prescribing protocols, titration, and medication management in a digital health setting.

• Experience with outcomes-based or value-based contracting models and how clinical evidence supports pricing.

• Prior experience at a high-growth digital health company navigating rapid scaling and shifting priorities.