Global Medical Affairs Leader for External Scientific Engagement Respiratory and Immunology

Biopharmaceuticals Medical (BPM) ensures the best patient outcomes by providing healthcare decision-makers around the world with the evidence and confidence they need on AstraZeneca (AZ) therapies and supports our internal stakeholders with medical insight and expertise. BPM provides medical leadership with market participation and connectivity while also impacting the life cycle planning and execution of all our products. BPM aims to lead AZ in achieving scientific leadership, being a great place to work, and keeping patients at the core of everything we do.

In order to accomplish our goals and enable the best patient outcomes, we look for AZ medical network leaders to have five (5) core capabilities and act as role models to our AZ values. These capabilities include:

Track record of building and maintaining a deep and continued connection to Medical Practice/healthcare delivery Collaborative/matrix management skills with a focus on leading diverse groups (e.g., cultural, geographical, functional) to achieve excellent results in shared goals Well-developed communication and influencing skills with the ability to distil complexity down to what matters to our stakeholders Strong financial/budget and project management skills Business acumen.

Reporting directly to the Head of External Scientific Engagement for Respiratory and Immunology (R&I), the Senior Medical Affairs Leader for External Scientific Engagement (Snr, MAL ESE) will help deliver a comprehensive external scientific engagement strategy for AstraZeneca (AZ) for across all external stake holders for specific products yet to be decided. This will include managing AZ R&I engagement with Key External Experts (KEEs), medical society partnerships, sponsored research networks, representing AstraZeneca at key industrial consortia, managing new strategic advocacy initiatives to support the growing use of Respiratory and Immunology biologics, input into and deliver the strategy for AZ’s Global Respiratory Leadership Forum and all BPM congress activities for e.g. ERS, EACCI and EULAR.

Global Guideline Strategy, Leadership, and Pull-Through

• Lead and chair the cross-functional Guideline Steering Committee at TA level, setting the global strategy to inform and shape guidance with AstraZeneca-aligned evidence; escalate through TA/asset governance as needed.

• Define the long-range guideline engagement strategy and deliver clear, prioritized, evidence-backed preferred guideline scenarios; ensure alignment with the Integrated Evidence Plan and access strategy.

• Ensure the development of evidence generation priorities with Clinical Development, RWE/HEOR, and Medical Evidence teams to address guideline-relevant gaps and methodological standards; track impact to guidance updates.

• Oversee enterprise responses to newly published global guidance, ensuring rapid, coordinated internal review, risk assessment, and external communication where appropriate.

• Drive global guideline pull-through with affiliates and regions, including partnerships with scientific societies for implementation, tools for practice change, and measurable uptake of GDMT.

• Build mechanisms with global guideline committees to identify and implement interventions that increase GDMT adoption across diverse health systems.

World-Class KEE Partnership and Collaboration

• Own the multi-year, TA-level Key External Expert (KEE) strategy, balancing enterprise priorities with KEEs’ scientific interests; set segmentation, tiering, and development pathways across brands and geographies.

• Govern strategic KEE mapping and allocation (including digital influencers, rising stars, guideline contributors, centres of excellence, and policy voices) across the Biopharmaceuticals Business Unit to ensure optimal, diverse, and inclusive engagement.

• Embed global KEEs into pipeline shaping and asset development across R&D (e.g., study design input, endpoint selection, diversity plans); monitor impact to program decisions.

• Partner with Marketing Companies (MCs) to advance regional/local KEEs into global influence roles by integrating them in advisory boards, steering committees, and congress programs.

• Proactively cultivate “next-generation” KEEs aligned to future priorities (AI in medicine, GDMT implementation science, health policy, diagnostics/companion tools); establish succession and bench strength.

• Identify and connect prospective trialist KEEs and recruitment centres to Clinical Operations to accelerate site initiation, enrolment, and geographic diversity.

Strategic Partnerships and Collaborations

• Proactively manage and expand high-value strategic partnerships to advance TA priorities and maximize measurable ROI; establish clear objectives, milestones, and governance.

• Work with professional societies to align on current and emerging priorities, co-develop initiatives that enhance the Transform Care agenda, and drive scalable implementation across regions.

• Serve as executive owner for key global society relationships (including Board and executive leadership), providing oversight and coordination of all AstraZeneca interactions for consistency and coherent messaging.

• Identify and broker novel research collaborations with academia, consortia, digital health, and implementation science partners to accelerate evidence and practice change.

• Chair a cross-TA collaboration committee to prioritize, track, and optimize collaboration portfolios and returns.

Shaping the AstraZeneca External Scientific Persona

• Coordinate and elevate AstraZeneca’s scientific leadership externally across the TA; ensure a consistent, balanced, and compelling scientific persona aligned to enterprise strategy and compliance standards.

• Provide strategic guidance to BBU and cross-functional leaders on external stakeholder priorities, unmet needs, and system barriers; translate insights into strategy updates and execution plans.

• Ensure timely assimilation of direct and indirect external input into scientific/medical narratives, core claims, and data dissemination strategies.

• Act as a recognized, accessible conduit for the external community to engage with AstraZeneca on science and resources; cultivate trust through transparency and scientific rigor.

• Oversee pull-through of the external persona across core congress groups, ensuring fully aligned, strategically coherent presence, content quality, and optimized ROI from global to local.

• Identify and scale innovative external engagement models, including evidence-based medical education, digital scientific channels, and data collaboratives, with impact metrics.

Leadership, Governance, and Operational Excellence

• Serve as senior medical co-lead on asset/TA governance for external engagement, evidence prioritization, and medical launch readiness; contribute to investment decisions and risk management.

• Set annual objectives, KPIs, and quality standards for external scientific engagement; establish dashboards to monitor reach, quality, and outcomes (e.g., guideline changes, GDMT adoption, trial acceleration).

• Ensure robust medical compliance and governance across all engagements in line with global policies and local regulations (e.g., IFPMA, EFPIA, PhRMA codes); partner closely with Legal, Compliance, and PV.

• Lead vendor and budget strategy for external engagement (publications, medical education, congresses, advisory platforms), ensuring quality, value, and performance accountability.

People and Matrix Leadership

• Influence and align senior stakeholders across geographies and functions (R&D, Commercial, Market Access, Policy) to deliver enterprise outcomes; foster a science-first, patient-centric culture.

• Mentor regional and affiliate medical leaders; elevate field medical excellence through global scientific priorities, competency frameworks, and impact measurement.

Essential for the role:

• Science degree with 5-10 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry (Medical, Marketing, R&D, Market access roles), or experience working within a relevant health system setting (clinical, pharmacy, pathway design, etc.) + 3-5 years experience in the pharmaceutical sector.

• Demonstration of strategic leadership and prowess pre- and post-product launch, including the ability to define strategic needs, create compelling narratives & strategy to deliver on those.

• Strong analytical and strategic thinking skills, with the ability to translate complex data into actionable insights and compelling value propositions for patients, payers, and providers.

• Demonstrable stakeholder matrix management skills, the ability to influence across geographical, cultural, functional and hierarchical boundaries in the internal and external environment

• A drive for results – the ability to drive step changes in the performance of others and inspire commitment beyond your immediate circle of influence

Desirable for the role:

• Master’s degree (MD, PhD, PharmD) in a relevant discipline.

• Recognised expertise in the relevant or related therapeutic area.

• Experience operating successfully in complex, matrixed organisational environments.

• Successful track record of launching new products or indications.

• Established relationships with global clinical thought leaders, professional societies, and healthcare organisations.

Date Posted

06-May-2026

Closing Date

21-Jun-2026

Our mission is to build an inclusive and equitable environment. We want people to feel they belong at AstraZeneca and Alexion, starting with our recruitment process. We welcome and consider applications from all qualified candidates, regardless of characteristics. We offer reasonable adjustments/accommodations to help all candidates to perform at their best. If you have a need for any adjustments/accommodations, please complete the section in the application form.