Director, Patient Centered Science

At AstraZeneca, we put patients first and strive to meet their unmet needs worldwide. Working here means being entrepreneurial, thinking big and working together to make the impossible a reality. If you are swift to action, confident to lead, willing to collaborate, and curious about what science can do, then you’re our kind of person.

At Patient Centered Science (PCS), our purpose is to generate impactful evidence about patient outcomes and experiences. We have the mission to identify, measure, understand and communicate meaningful patient outcomes and experiences of their disease and treatment, with the vision is to positively impact lives by amplifying the patient voice in healthcare decision-making. We seek to identify, understand, and measure meaningful aspects of health grounded in patient experiences including symptoms, function, and health-related quality of life. Using qualitative and quantitative methods and research, PCS supports a patient-focused drug development by identifying what is important from a patient perspective, how to best capture those patient experiences by selecting, modifying or developing Patient Reported Outcomes (PRO) and other Clinical Outcome Assessments (COA), to serve the needs of patients, as well as regulators, payers and health-care professionals.

What an extraordinary time to join AstraZeneca's BioPharmaceuticals R&D Team! A place to be at the forefront, we use our unique position as medical leaders across our enterprise and the healthcare ecosystem to shape the future of healthcare. There’s so much opportunity here as we continue to grow – no better place to improve patients’ lives and develop with AstraZeneca.

As a Patient Centered Science Director you will set and lead project-level and therapeutic area-level PRO and patient experience strategies. You will direct execution of these strategies to deliver high-quality evidence supporting products’ regulatory approval, commercialization, and reimbursement. Your contributions and accountabilities will include, but will not be limited to, the following:

• Drive patient-focused drug development so that the patient experience of disease and treatment is considered throughout drug development and generate evidence to better meet patient needs
• Develop and deliver project and therapeutic area PCS strategies (eg, understanding patient experience of disease and treatment and how to best measure with PRO/COA; contributing to target product profiles and target product claims) to meet regulatory, payer, health care provider/system, and patient needs
• Lead evidence generation to support PRO/COAs being fit-for purpose, including the selection and modification of available PROs/COAs, and the development of new PRO/COA instruments and endpoints
• Ensure PCS strategy is implemented through cross-functional collaborations in clinical trials studies through authorship and reviews of clinical study protocols, statistical analysis plans, psychometric analysis plans, and results interpretation and reports
• Lead interactions with health authorities and health agencies through development of PRO/COA evidence dossiers and briefing packages
• Disseminate PCS-related evidence in scientific publications, internal and external presentations (eg posters and presentations at congresses), and in lay summaries to patients and other stakeholders  
• Drive methodological innovations that advance patient-centered science through internal and external partnerships and collaboration

Essential for the role

• Masters degree in relevant field (outcomes research, health services research, epidemiology, health policy or related fields )
• 5 years experience in the biopharmaceutical industry
• Relevant experience of developing and implementing strategies of patient-centered science related work
• Experience of conducting background research, landscape assessments, and literature reviews, and applying qualitative and quantitative research methods
• Knowledge and experience of clinical development
• Experience of cross-functional collaboration and leading without authority

Desirable for the role

• Doctoral degree in relevant field preferred
• Participating in external partnership
• Experience of regulatory and health agency interactions
• Experience of working with respiratory and immunology therapies

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 authorisation and employment eligibility verification requirements.