Medical Associate Director Oncology – Gulf

JOB TITLE

Medical Associate Director Oncology – Gulf

ABOUT ASTRAZENECA

AstraZeneca is a global, science-led, patient-focused biopharmaceutical company that focuses on the discovery, development, and commercialisation of prescription medicines for some of the world’s most serious diseases. But we’re more than one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies.

ROLE SUMMARY

The Medical Associate Director is accountable for strategic therapy area direction, establishing standards of medical capability, business/resource planning, and scientific leadership within the Medical Affairs Team. An office-based role with strong external scientific leadership and partnership, the Medical TA Lead is responsible for designated therapy area medical leadership of high performing therapeutic area medical team ensuring company and business unit’s goals are achieved.

The Medical Associate Director embeds a deep healthcare system practices and gaps understanding (environment, priorities, clinical and patient pathways, etc) that can translate into actionable strategies within the local Medical Plans.  Accountable for developing and execution of the Therapy Area Medical Affairs Plans composed of confidence and evidence generation activities, as well as fundamental and sustainable clinical practice transformations that strengthen healthcare ecosystems, improve treatment outcomes, drive meaningful changes in patient care and treatment paradigms and enable access to quality care in alignment with the company’s portfolio. The role recognizes and incorporates innovation wherever appropriate into Medical Affairs strategic plans and leads in execution to drive strategic and sustainable impact internally and externally to support the adoption of evidence-based practices, guidelines, and treatment approaches.  Acts as a catalysts of sustainable healthcare ecosystem change and care transformation, enhancing access to quality care for patients and enabling the adoption of our innovative medicines.

Recognised as a medical expert within the local marketing company, the Medical Associate Director is responsible for providing medical leadership, expertise, and strategic input to ensure that the Medical Affairs plans align with the broader business objectives.  The role ensures that all local medical requirements are met for all product/ TA materials and will use strategic and medical expertise to contribute to the marketing director of the TA/ product.

As a Medical Leader, collaborates with Business Unit Director and cross-functional leadership to identify, activate and measure scalable healthcare practice shaping initiatives with integrated partnership engagement plans composed of key traditional (e.g. HCPs) and non-traditional (e.g. policy and decision makers, PAGs, government, innovative solution providers) stakeholders. The role leads with excellence significant cross functional projects including RWE, pre-launch/ launch and market access projects. 

Acts as a manager, coach, and leader to the therapy area medical team, the incumbent drives operational excellence, performance management and collaborates with compliance to ensure adherence to company standards.

What you’ll do

Medical strategy and Evidence generation

• Drive Medically led/co-led initiatives, on an identified gap in collaboration with CFTs, that contribute to an overarching plan mapped to drive positive patient outcomes.
• Leverage medical expertise to design, implement, and oversee real-world evidence (RWE) projects. Identify reliable suitable data sources and ensure the scientific rigor and integrity of real-world studies.
• Responsible for interpreting and communicating the findings from RWE projects with a strong focus on translating RWE into actionable insights that can internally inform medical and commercial strategies and externally ultimately improve patient outcomes and inform healthcare decision-making.
• Establish and maintain AstraZeneca as a scientific leader through proactive medical inputs.
• Lead educational initiatives, developing clinical support tools, and providing scientific expertise to support the integration of new medical advancements into clinical practice.
• Design and implement measures to showcase the impact of initiatives.
• Agile adoption of innovation through win-win partnerships within the healthcare ecosystem that are scalable and can enable sustainable patient outcomes.
• Work closely with the Medical Affairs Team, Business Unit Director and cross functional team to provide input to medical and brand strategies.
• Partnering with local SM&M and above market R&D organisations to ensure accelerating local clinical trial footprint and clinical trial recruitment.

Team Leader

• Enhance medical effectiveness by building a performance driven team with robust systems and processes with the right capabilities in place to meet current and future needs of the Therapeutic Area Medical team.
• Foster a collaborative and inclusive team environment, where individuals are supported in their professional development and empowered to contribute their expertise to the broader goals of the organization.
• Responsible for setting clear expectations, goals, and priorities for the team, and ensuring alignment with the overall medical and business strategies.
• Promote a culture of scientific excellence, integrity, and continuous learning within the team.
• Organise and deliver education and training to cross-functional employees to ensure scientific knowledge is kept up to date within the local organization.
• Will often guide and mentor more junior Medical Affairs colleagues providing ongoing coaching and feedback to team members, as well as support their career growth and skills development.
• Conduct double field visits with field medical team to coach and review according to the most up-to-date global field medical engagement model on proficiency and related capabilities.
• Manage and drive team’s performance and account-based working with measures and metrics put in place that reflect meaningful patient outcomes with continuous improvement approach.
• Lead and manage change initiatives as needed in the field to enable positive business outcomes.
• Oversee regular monitoring, checks and education to ensure team’s compliance with all AstraZeneca guidelines, standards, policies and local regulations.
• Manage and oversee team financial resources
• Role model the AstraZeneca values fostering personal accountability, ownership of individual and team success, operational agility and growth mindsets.

Corporate responsibility and Medical Governance Oversight

• Lead a team that ensures all product materials for the specific therapy area are kept up to date and accurate.
• Provide expert scientific support and approval on product materials involving large or more complex drugs, or documents and reports for more important conferences/symposiums.
• Has signatory authority on outgoing therapy area materials.
• Advise the marketing team as a medical healthcare expert ensuring the medical and scientific accuracy of outgoing marketing materials.
• Ensures that all branding work is carried out in accordance with AstraZeneca standards and external regulation.
• Ensure governance and compliance with AZ Code of Ethics, corporate governance, audit requirements, guidelines, industry codes, policies and procedures, conduct monitoring and disclose potential breach.
• Ensure that company confidentiality is maintained (i.e. intellectual property, product, strategic and salary information)
• Ensure that all conducted activities are done in accordance with local legislation and corporate standards. 
• Report health/ environment/ wellbeing related accidents, adverse events, and conflict of interest as per respective procedures and on a timely manner.

Essential for the role

• Bachelor’s degree in medicine or pharmacy is required
• Post-graduate master degree is an advantage
• Minimum of 6 years of experience in Medical Affairs role including minimum 1 year of people management experience
• Experience in Oncology area is preferable
• Strong understanding of medical, clinical development, and regulatory requirements
• Extensive experience in stakeholder management
• Strong project management and organizational skills
• Excellent oral and written communication
• Extensive team management experience
• Ability to work effectively in a matrix cross-functional environment.

Desirable for the role

• Doctoral degree in a scientific discipline (e.g. M.D., Ph.D., Pharm.D.)
• Extensive knowledge of the latest technical and regulatory developments
• Innovative and solution-oriented mindset
• Experience with basic research, drug discovery and development and drug lifecycle management.
• Ecosystem scaled project experience

Why AstraZeneca?

At AstraZeneca we’re dedicated to being a Great Place to Work. Where you are empowered to push the boundaries of science and unleash your entrepreneurial spirit. There’s no better place to make a difference to medicine, patients, and society. An inclusive culture that champions diversity and collaboration, and always committed to lifelong learning, growth, and development. We’re on an exciting journey to pioneer the future of healthcare.

So, what’s next?

• Are you already imagining yourself joining our team? Good, because we can’t wait to hear from you.
• Are you ready to bring new ideas and fresh thinking to the table? Brilliant! We have one seat available, and we hope it’s yours.

Where can I find out more?

Our Social Media, Follow AstraZeneca on LinkedIn

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Date Posted

Closing Date

AstraZeneca embraces diversity and equality of opportunity.  We are committed to building an inclusive and diverse team representing all backgrounds, with as wide a range of perspectives as possible, and harnessing industry-leading skills.  We believe that the more inclusive we are, the better our work will be.  We welcome and consider applications to join our team from all qualified candidates, regardless of their characteristics.  We comply with all applicable laws and regulations on non-discrimination in employment (and recruitment), as well as work authorization and employment eligibility verification requirements.