Global Head of External Healthcare and Scientific leadership

AstraZeneca • Boston, MA

8d • $282,046 - $423,070 • Hybrid

About The Position

AstraZeneca’s BioPharmaceuticals Business Unit (BBU) is at the forefront of transforming patient outcomes across key therapy areas, including Cardiovascular, Renal & Metabolism (CVRM) and Respiratory & Immunology (R&I). Driven by science and innovation, we work to deliver life-changing medicines that address some of the most pressing health challenges globally, playing a meaningful role in achieving AstraZeneca’s Bold Ambition for 2030—to pioneer science, lead in our disease areas, and improve millions of lives.
Our teams combine deep scientific expertise with a patient-centric approach, ensuring that every breakthrough is meaningful and impactful, while fostering a collaborative, inclusive culture that values curiosity, agility, and lifelong learning.
The Head of External Healthcare and Scientific leadership leads AstraZeneca’s external environment-shaping agenda across priority disease areas, positioning the company as a scientific and disease-area leader within the external healthcare ecosystem. The role is responsible for moving beyond traditional stakeholder engagement to build a strategic, outcome-led capability that helps shape the scientific agenda, influences evidence and guideline evolution, mobilizes high-value external partners, and translates insight and partnerships into measurable external impact.

Requirements

• MD, PharmD, PhD, MPH, MBA, or other relevant postgraduate qualification.
• 10+ years in the pharmaceutical, biotech, healthcare, or related sector, with strong background in medical affairs, scientific strategy, external affairs, evidence, market access, policy, healthcare systems, or strategic marketing.
• Significant experience engaging, influencing, and building credibility with external scientific and healthcare partners, including key experts, societies, policymakers, healthcare leaders, centres of excellence, trialists, and emerging leaders, with a proven ability to develop strategic stakeholder plans that drive scientific leadership, partnership opportunities, and measurable external impact.
• Experience developing and managing strategic partnerships with clear objectives and measurable outcomes across healthcare sector
• Strong understanding of clinical evidence, evidence gaps, guideline development, and healthcare adoption dynamics.

Nice To Haves

• Deep expertise in CVRM, R&I, or another priority therapeutic area.
• Experience in pre-launch or launch strategy, guideline shaping, implementation science, HEOR, RWE, or healthcare transformation.
• Established relationships with scientific societies, guideline bodies, centres of excellence, or policy influencers.

Responsibilities

• Lead the external scientific engagement strategy across priority disease areas, with focus on disease leadership, environment shaping, and measurable outcomes.
• Shapes the scientific agenda in partnership with TA leadership, Medical, and R&D, identifying emerging themes, evidence gaps, and future care priorities to inform strategic decisions.
• Build and lead a deliberate strategy across key experts, societies, policymakers, healthcare leaders, centres of excellence, trialists, and emerging leaders, including early identification of future influencers across the external ecosystem.
• Influence the external scientific and healthcare environment to support evidence generation, guideline evolution, implementation progress, and future standards of care.
• Develop and oversee strategic partnerships that deliver visible scientific, implementation, and health-system impact.
• Translate external insight into internal strategic action, advising evidence plans, launch strategy, congress priorities, partnership choices, and medical priorities.
• Integrate stakeholder strategy, congress presence, society engagement, and insight flow, acting as the primary integration point between Global, US, China and Japan medical organisations to ensure aligned external engagement, stakeholder strategy and scientific positioning.
• Drive alignment, execution, and governance across a complex matrix environment, ensuring delivery against strategic priorities and measurable outcomes.
• Represent AstraZeneca externally with credibility and influence in relevant scientific and healthcare forums.
• Lead and develop the team to build a high-performing external scientific engagement capability.

Benefits

• short-term incentive bonus opportunity
• equity-based long-term incentive program
• qualified retirement program [401(k) plan]
• paid vacation and holidays
• paid leaves
• health benefits including medical, prescription drug, dental, and vision coverage

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior