Director, Scientific Society & Strategic Engagement - Respiratory & Immunology

At AstraZeneca, we work together across boundaries to make an impact and find answers to challenges. We do this with the utmost integrity, even in the most difficult situations, because we are committed to doing the right thing. We continuously build partnerships that help advance world-class medicines in new ways, combining our people’s exceptional skills with those of experts and organizations across the healthcare ecosystem.

Role Summary

The Director, Scientific Society & Strategic Engagement is a strategic role responsible for developing and executing AstraZeneca’s engagement strategy with medical societies, professional organizations, guideline-shaping bodies, healthcare quality organizations, and select external strategic partners in the United States. Reporting into US Medical leadership, this role develops and executes organization-focused engagement plans that strengthen AstraZeneca’s scientific presence and support evidence-based improvements in patient care.

Lead R&I specific scientific society and strategic organization engagement to advance evidence-based practice, guideline and quality-measure readiness, and healthcare transformation across cardiovascular, renal, and metabolic priorities. This role builds high-value relationships with medical societies, clinical associations, quality-focused organizations, and select external partners while connecting internal functions to ensure coordinated, compliant engagement that strengthens AstraZeneca’s scientific presence and advances clinical practice, quality improvement, and patient care. While the core focus of the role is engagement with scientific societies and related organizations, the position also supports targeted strategic external stakeholder relationships tied to priority initiatives, including collaborations with organizations that enable innovation in care delivery and implementation.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Society Engagement Leadership

• Develop and execute a comprehensive engagement strategy for medical societies, professional associations, guideline bodies, healthcare quality organizations, and select strategic external partners aligned with US Medical priorities across therapeutic areas.
• Identify, prioritize, and manage key organization-level relationships that can shape clinical practice, quality standards, guideline evolution, disease awareness, and healthcare transformation initiatives.
• Serve as a primary AstraZeneca representative for strategic interactions with leading US medical societies, specialty associations, guideline bodies, and other priority organizations.
• Partner cross-functionally with Medical Affairs, HEOR, Market Access, Commercial, and Global teams to ensure a unified, compliant, and strategically aligned organizational engagement approach.

Medical Society, Guideline, and Quality Strategy

• Develop and execute organization-specific engagement plans to support AstraZeneca’s scientific and medical priorities with societies and entities involved in guideline development, quality measure evolution, care pathways, and clinical standards.
• Support cross-functional planning and governance for interactions with organizations that influence treatment recommendations, performance measures, and standards of care.
• Identify opportunities for AstraZeneca to contribute evidence, scientific insights, and collaborative initiatives that align with organizational priorities and improve patient outcomes.
• Support strategic planning around guideline- and quality-related activities, ensuring AstraZeneca is prepared to engage appropriately with organizations that shape evidence interpretation and implementation.

Strategic External Partnership Management

• Manage selected high-priority external stakeholder engagements that are strategically linked to Medical objectives and healthcare transformation initiatives.
• Serve as a point of contact for designated external partners supporting innovation in care delivery, digital health, implementation, or quality improvement initiatives, as appropriate.
• Ensure strategic external partnerships are integrated into broader medical and organizational engagement plans and aligned with AstraZeneca priorities and governance requirements.
• Assess the value, relevance, and impact of select external partnerships in advancing scientific, clinical, and healthcare transformation objectives.

Partnership Development and Collaboration Management

• Build and sustain relationships with executive, scientific, and program leadership within medical societies, professional organizations, healthcare quality organizations, and selected external partners.
• Identify and advance collaborative opportunities related to disease education, quality improvement, care transformation, health equity, implementation science, and patient care innovation.
• Coordinate AstraZeneca interactions across targeted societies, organizations, and strategic partners to ensure consistency, visibility, and effective relationship management.
• Assess the value and impact of partnerships and collaborations, ensuring alignment with enterprise priorities and organizational goals.

Scientific Leadership and External Presence

• Strengthen AstraZeneca’s scientific presence within key societies and organizations by coordinating engagement strategies that reinforce scientific credibility and organizational relevance.
• Provide strategic insights and recommendations to internal stakeholders on the priorities, agendas, and emerging trends within relevant societies, quality-focused organizations, and selected strategic partners.
• Translate external organizational insights into actionable recommendations for medical strategy, scientific communications, evidence generation, and engagement planning.
• Ensure that AstraZeneca’s interactions with these organizations and partners are coordinated, compliant, and reflective of the company’s scientific and medical priorities.

Practice Change and Healthcare Transformation

• Manage collaborations with medical societies, quality-focused organizations, and selected strategic partners to support initiatives that enable evidence-based practice change and improved standards of care.
• Partner with internal and external stakeholders to advance programs related to quality measurement, clinical pathway optimization, appropriate adoption of innovation, and patient-centered care models.
• Support initiatives that accelerate the integration of new evidence into real-world care, particularly through society-led education, quality frameworks, and implementation-focused activities.
• Contribute to strategies that help healthcare systems and organized medicine translate scientific advances into sustainable improvements in care delivery across therapeutic areas.

Requirements, Experience, and Qualifications

• An advanced degree is required, such as an MD, PharmD, PhD, MPH, MBA, or equivalent postgraduate qualification.
• Five to eight years of relevant experience in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical affairs, or broader healthcare sector.
• Strong expertise in Respiratory & Immunology 
• Demonstrated experience in one or more of the following areas: scientific strategy, external affairs, evidence generation, market access, health policy, healthcare systems, medical affairs, or strategic marketing.
• Deep understanding of the US healthcare landscape, including the roles and priorities of healthcare systems, professional societies, guideline bodies, quality organizations, policymakers, and other stakeholders that influence clinical practice and healthcare delivery.
• A track record of engaging and influencing external scientific and healthcare stakeholders, including key opinion leaders, professional societies, policymakers, healthcare executives, research institutions, and clinical investigators.
• Demonstrated ability to develop and execute stakeholder engagement strategies that support scientific leadership and deliver measurable impact.
• Experience building and managing strategic partnerships across the healthcare ecosystem, with clearly defined objectives and tangible outcomes.
• Strong understanding of clinical evidence generation, evidence gaps, guideline development, quality measures, and the factors influencing healthcare adoption and implementation.
• Demonstrated ability to navigate complex matrix organizations, synthesize external insights, and translate them into actionable business and medical recommendations.
• Excellent strategic thinking, communication, influencing, collaboration, and relationship-management skills.
• Ability to operate independently on defined workstreams while maintaining strong alignment with internal governance, compliance, and cross-functional processes.
• Willingness and ability to travel as needed to support external meetings, scientific congresses, organizational engagements, and internal business priorities.

Desirable Experience

• Established relationships with scientific societies and other key external bodies relevant to the applicable therapeutic area.
• Experience working directly with national or regional medical societies, professional associations, guideline organizations, healthcare quality organizations, or other bodies that influence standards of care.
• Experience translating clinical evidence and external insights into medical strategy, evidence-generation plans, healthcare policy recommendations, or implementation initiatives.
• Experience working across multiple therapeutic areas and engaging stakeholders across the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, academic, healthcare system, and policy environments.
• Experience supporting pre-launch and launch strategies, implementation science, health economics and outcomes research (HEOR), and real-world evidence (RWE) initiatives.

Pay Transparency

The annual base pay for this position could range from $200,693 – $275,000 USD Annual. Hourly and salaried non-exempt employees will also be paid overtime pay when working qualifying overtime hours. Base pay offered may vary depending on multiple individualized factors, including market location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. In addition, our positions offer a short-term incentive bonus opportunity; eligibility to participate in our equity-based long-term incentive program (salaried roles), to receive a retirement contribution (hourly roles), and commission payment eligibility (sales roles). Benefits offered include a qualified retirement program [401(k) plan]; paid vacation and holidays; paid leaves; and health benefits including medical, prescription drug, dental, and vision coverage in accordance with the terms and conditions of the applicable plans. Additional details of participation in these benefit plans will be provided if an employee receives an offer of employment. If hired, employees will be in an “at-will position” and the Company reserves the right to modify base pay (as well as any other discretionary payment or compensation program) at any time, including for reasons related to individual performance, Company or individual department/team performance, and market factors.

When we put unexpected teams in the same room, we unleash bold thinking with the power to inspire life-changing medicines. In-person working gives us the platform we need to connect, work at pace, and challenge perceptions. That's why we work, on average, a minimum of three days per week from the office. But that doesn't mean we're not flexible. We balance the expectation of being in the office while respecting individual flexibility. Join us in our unique and ambitious world.

At AstraZeneca, we are driven by our commitment to deliver accelerated growth for AstraZeneca and make people's lives better. We thrive in our often-intense environment by seeking out new challenges and working towards innovative solutions. Here you can build a long-term career with global knowledge opportunities while positively impacting local communities.

Ready to step up? Apply now to join our team!

Date Posted

Closing Date

Our mission is to build an inclusive environment where equal employment opportunities are available to all applicants and employees. In furtherance of that mission, we welcome and consider applications from all qualified candidates, regardless of their protected characteristics. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please complete the corresponding section in the application form.