Executive Group Director Physician – Cardiovascular Diseases, Early Clinical Development CVRM

Are you an experienced cardiologist with clinical expertise in the management of patients with atherosclerosis, dyslipidemia, and heart failure? Do you have well-developed clinical research skills and knowledge? Join us to be part of a versatile and high peforming team of clinical research professionals, clinical scientists, and physicians who are translating scientific discoveries into early phase clinical development plans and clinical studies across a wide range of chronic and debilitating diseases!

At AstraZeneca, we’re dedicated to being a Great Place to Work with a inclusive and diverse team of hard-working colleagues who work in a trusting, and collaborative work environment.  We are committed to improving the health care and quality of life for patients across a wide range of diseases and disorders by developing innovative therapies that address unment clinical needs and that provide clinicians with novel evidence-based treatment options that enable them to optimize the care of their patients.

Who We Are

In the Cardiovascular, Renal, and Metabolism (CVRM) Early Clinical Development team, we are investigating the drivers of CVRM disease progression through ground breaking scientific methods and data-driven drug discovery approaches. In this context, we are investigating a wide range of different drug modalities from our rich Early CVRM portfolio of componds across diverse populations with cardiovascular and cardio-metabolic diseases.

Early Clinical Development (ECD), part of the Early CVRM Department, is where science meets clinical drug development with a focus upon delivering innovative, early phase clinical studies and accelerating human target validation while collaborating closely with our late phase clinical development and regulatory colleagues who guide our pivotal phase 3 clinical studies. We are a diverse team of experienced physicians, clinical scientists, and clinical program directors who collaborate to delineate early phase clinical development strategies, design innovative phase I-IIb clinical trials, develop and validate novel surrogate endpoints, and translate novel scientific ideas to proof of concept studies in targeted patient populations.

We are recruiting an Executive Group Director, Team Leader for the Cardiovascular Disease Physicians group, to lead our work in Atherosclerosis, Dyslipidemia, and Heart Failure. In this role, you will have the opportunity to work at the forefront of early clinical and translational research within CVRM. In a multidisciplinary environment, you will play a key role in progressing a rich and diverse pipeline of both small and large molecules in numerous active clinical programs. Additionally, you will be a member of the ECD and Early CVRM leadership teams. The role can be located at any of AstraZeneca’s vibrant R&D sites in Gaithersburg, Maryland US, Cambridge UK or Gothenburg Sweden.

What you’ll do

You will be responsible for overseeing our early phase I-IIb global clinical trials and related clinical research projects for compounds that are targeting atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, dyslipidemia, and heart failure, as well as serving as an expert on the design, conduct, monitoring, data interpretation, and reporting of these studies. In this role, you will work on cross-functional teams within our ECD group and across the broader Early CVRM department that are framing our strategies and development plans for compounds that are targeting major metabolic disorders, such as Diabetes Mellitus, Obesity, and NASH, given that these disorders intersect with cardiovascular disease, dyslipidemia, and heart failure and influence disease progression. Furthermore, you’ll lead and mentor a team of cardiovascular disease physicians across our R & D sites to ensure that our scientific and clinical development strategies are implemented. We will rely on you to:

• Oversee all aspects of the design and operational implementation of early-stage clinical projects in the cardiovascular disease, dyslipidemia, and heart failure portfolio of Early CVRM.  You wil also ensure that all clinical programs under your purview are scientifically thorough, are clinically sound and valid, are operationally successful, and adhere to Good Clinical Practice and regulatory requirements
• Oversee, mentor, inspire, and manage a team of cardiovascular disease physicians across our R & D sites who will design scientifically thorough, innovative, and efficient early phase clinical study protocols that are aligned with the pre-clinical scientific findings and clinical development plans for each compound, while ensuring seamless transition of early clinical programs to late stage development clinical studies
• Collaborate closely with other groups within the Early CVRM therapeutic area to provide expert clinical input into pre-clinical scientific activities such as target selection, lead generation and optimization, in vitro studies, in vivo animal studies, pre-clinical disease models including imaging, histology, and biomarker endpoints, patient phenotyping cohort studies, clinical pharmacology, and drug formulation and manufacturing
• Lead our efforts to certify and validate the scientific evidence for novel surrogate endpoints to be used in our early phase cardiovascular clinical studies including imaging, digital, and biomarker endpoints that reflect disease progression and correlate with downstream clinical outcomes such as heart failure hospitalization, myocardial infarction, and/or cardiovascular death
• Contribute to and guide our interactions with regulatory authorities, governmental research organizations, and academic institutions/medical centers in key geographic regions related to our early phase clinical programs and studies
• Contribute to the preparation of various official and regulatory documents for Regulatory Authorities and other agencies, such as Dossiers, CTAs, INDs, Safety, and annual reports
• Serve as a internal and external scientific expert and leader with vision to communicate and disseminate the scientific accomplishments of our Early CVRM clinical development team through internal workshops and forums, presentations at scientific meetings, and scientific publications
• Lead our interactions with key external clinical and scientific experts for cardiovascular disease and lipid disorders and translate input from external advisors into our clinical development plans, scientific discovery efforts, and regulatory interactions
• Contribute to our ongoing efforts to improve, enhance, and evole the operational planning and execution of our early phase clinical studies, including developing innovative approaches for engaging and supporting clinical trial sites in key countries and geographic regions

Essential for the role

• Cardiologist with an M.D. and a minimum of 5 years of cardiovascular disease research experience; OR equivalent combination of education and research experience.
• Expertise surrounding the treatments of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, dyslipidemia, and heart failure and relevant clinical research experience in drug development either from working in the academic environment or in the pharmaceutical/biotechnology field.
• Must have well-developed interpersonal skills and experience managing clinicians.
• Highly collaborative, seasoned, and innovative approach to the work that we do, including:
• Early clinical translational research expertise, including experience in designing, monitoring, performing and interpreting early phase clinical trials and solid knowledge of cardiovascular biomarkers, cardiovascular imaging modalities and endpoints, and biostatistics
• Technical (medical and scientific) experience of evaluating targets and agents for in -licensing or internal development

So, what’s next?

Are you already imagining yourself joining our team? Good, because we can’t wait to hear from you.

Welcome to apply! The application period is open until 12 July 2023.

Where can I find out more?

CVRM at AstraZeneca: https://www.astrazeneca.com/our-therapy-areas/cardiovascular-renal-and-metabolism.html

AstraZeneca Gaithersburg: https://www.astrazeneca.com/our-company/our-locations/gaithersburg.html

Astra Zeneca Cambridge: https://www.astrazeneca.com/our-company/our-locations/cambridge.html

Astra Zeneca Gothenburg: https://www.astrazeneca.com/our-company/our-locations/gothenburg.html

Life at AstraZeneca : https://careers.astrazeneca.com/inclusion-diversity

Recent Publications: https://www.astrazeneca.com/publication.html

Why AstraZeneca?

Here, we need leadership at every level – Physicians who not only have expertise, but also the ability to build a case, engage multiple partners, and communicate effectively with different audiences. With that kind of remit comes great responsibilityWe truly believe that everyone contributes with an outstanding set of competence. Your curiosity and passion for personal development combined with support from colleagues, mentors and leaders, will ensure you improve your skills, abilities and contribution.We offer competitive salary and excellent benefits, such as extra paid Holiday, Private Medical Benefits, On-site exercise and much, much more.

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.