The Associate Director of Scientific Communications Excellence (12-month contract)

The Associate Director (AD) of Scientific Communications Excellence is responsible for driving operational excellence and innovation across activities managed by the Global Scientific Communications team. This role sits at the intersection of scientific communications, digital innovation, and intelligent process design and includes a strong focus on governance, continuous improvement, automation, and AI-enabled capabilities.

The Excellence AD will establish strong partnerships with Sci Comms team members and internal cross-functional stakeholders to implement best publication practices, automate and harmonize processes, and ensure optimal departmental efficiency, compliance, and resource utilization. A core expectation of this role is the ability to proactively identify operational gaps, inefficiencies, and emerging opportunities, and to drive scalable, sustainable, and measurable solutions that support the evolving needs of the business.

Why this role matters

Scientific communications sit at the heart of how AstraZeneca shares critical medical evidence with the world — influencing clinical decisions, shaping medical understanding, and ultimately improving patient outcomes. The Associate Director of Scientific Communications Excellence is a critical role that sits at the intersection of technology, compliance, innovation, and operations. As the volume, complexity, and pace of scientific output continues to grow, the need for operational excellence, intelligent automation, and AI-enabled capabilities keeps increasing. This role exists to ensure that infrastructure, processes, and tools are in place and evolve with changing technologies.

Responsibilities

Processes & Governance

• Champion a culture of publication excellence by educating and mentoring Sci Comms team members, cross-functional stakeholders throughout the world, and medical writing agencies on good publication practices and AZ standards and requirements.

• Ensure audit readiness of the iEnvision publication platform and associated processes through effective controls, documentation, governance.

• Assist in the development of standards, SOPs, and guidance documents and alignment with business needs and compliance requirements (ICMJE, GPP2022, GDPR, Sunshine Act...).

Systems & Tools Oversight - Innovation and Automation

• Drive innovation in scientific communications by championing the identification, evaluation, and responsible adoption of new formats and capabilities, AI-enabled tools, and automation technologies (e.g., Power BI).

• Provide oversight and subject matter expertise for internal tools and systems used by the Scientific Communications team, with accountability for ongoing training, user guidance, and quality control.

• Serve as the primary point of contact for system-related issues, enhancements, and vendor coordination related to the publication management platforms (iEnvision). This includes working closely with the vendors to ensure issues are identified, tracked and resolved.

Performance Metrics & Reporting

• Develop, track, analyze, and report on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and operational metrics to monitor system performance, compliance, process efficiency, and continuous improvement opportunities.

• Translate data insights into actionable recommendations for leadership and cross-functional stakeholders.

Minimum Qualifications

• Education: Bachelor's degree in a scientific discipline; advanced degree preferred.

• Experience: 5–7 years of relevant experience in a pharmaceutical company or Medical Communications agency, with demonstrated experience in operations or excellence.

• Proven project management and facilitation skills. Ability to manage plan and execute timelines across complex, multi-stakeholder initiatives. Project Management Professional (PMP) certification or equivalent is a plus.

• Analytical & Reporting Skills: Proficiency with Excel/Smartsheet, Microsoft Power BI, and other reporting tools. Exceptional attention to detail.

• Automation & AI Proficiency: Experience with the development of automation tools and working knowledge of AI-enabled tools.

• Compliance Knowledge: Experience implementing publication guidelines and compliance requirements and such as ICMJE, GPP2022, GDPR, and the Sunshine Act. Certified Medical Publication Professional (CMPP) certification is a plus.

• Systems Experience: Hands-on experience with publication management and document repositories (e.g., iEnvision Datavision, SharePoint, Veeva) and related platforms.

• Problem-Solving: Strong ability to proactively identify operational challenges, define root causes, and drive structured, cross-functional solutions with measurable outcomes.

• Communication & Collaboration: Strong interpersonal and communication skills with a proven ability to influence and align diverse stakeholders across functions and seniority levels.

• Some travel may be required to represent company at professional societies (ex ISMPP, MAPS) and other internal meetings

Date Posted 14-oct-2026

Closing Date 27-oct-2026

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