US Executive Director, Early Assets

Turn Ideas Into Life-Changing Medicines

At AstraZeneca, we are committed to addressing the unmet needs of patients worldwide through scientific innovation. In this role, you will play a crucial role in leveraging our scientific capabilities to positively impact patients' lives. This is an opportunity to seize, design, and influence across a complex matrix system to ensure US needs are integrated into global development plans.

Accountabilities: This role is accountable for the overall success of each Early Asset at the US level. It integrates clinical, access, and analytics strategies, owns the US position in MC3 and other tollgates, ensures market readiness, optimizes enrolment of US patients in clinical trials and drives coherent decisions and deliverables that maximize the value and patient access of the Early Assets portfolio.

What You'll Do:

• Asset Strategy and Shaping: Define and pressure-test US-relevant target product profiles, patient segments, positioning hypotheses, and differentiation strategies; ensure US needs are reflected in global asset plans and decision gates.
• Market and Customer Insights: Lead integrated US insight generation (secondary research, qualitative/quantitative market research, advisory boards, rapid experiments) to inform clinical endpoints, device/format choices, and patient/physician usability needs.
• Access and Pricing Strategy: Shape early US payer value propositions, evidence requirements, and economic models; co-develop the early access and pricing roadmap with Market Access and HEOR to derisk future reimbursement.
• Cross-Functional Leadership: drive aligned recommendations into governance (e.g., TPP approvals, go/no-go, indication prioritization, lifecycle planning).
• Competitive Strategy: Establish and maintain a dynamic competitive landscape assessment; identify opportunities for acceleration, differentiation, indication sequencing, and combination strategies.
• Forecasting and Scenario Planning: Build and refine early forecasts and scenarios (epidemiology, market adoption curves, competitive events, policy shifts); guide sensitivity analyses for stage-gate decision making.
• Go-to-Market Foundations: Define early brand identity and messaging hypotheses, core claims framework, and scientific narrative; prepare foundational resources to enable rapid and flawless transition to late-stage/launch teams, input into initial field sizing assessment.
• BD and Alliance Support: Provide commercial diligence and market models for in-licensing, partnerships, and acquisitions; support alliance governance and joint working teams for partnered assets.
• Compliance and Ethics: Ensure all activities align with US regulations and company policies, including pre-approval communication standards and interactions with external stakeholders.
• Policy: assess policy landscape and implications for design and launch

Minimum Qualifications

• Sophisticated Scientific Degree (MBBS, PharmD, PhD, or MD) or international equivalent
• A minimum of 10 years in pharmaceutical, healthcare or biotech industries
• A minimum of 3 years in early commercial, new product planning, or pipeline marketing; US market experience required.
• Strong scientific and business acumen
• Demonstrated experience in the innovative pharmaceutical industry with a strong track record in Market Access
• Ability to understand, assimilate, and communicate scientific information and Health Economic Outcomes data
• Demonstrated success shaping early-stage assets (Phase 12) and influencing clinical design and evidence strategy to meet future US access and adoption needs.
• Proven ability to lead without authority across Clinical, Medical, HEOR, Market Access, and Finance.
• Clear, compelling communicator able to craft narratives for governance, KOLs, and internal stakeholders.
• Comfortable engaging with clinical data, endpoints, and mechanisms of action.
• Demonstrated ability to build trust and alignment across global and US stakeholders.

Preferred Qualifications

• Therapeutic area expertise in respiratory/immunology and CVRM strongly preferred (obesity/weight management experience highly preferred)
• Proficiency with market research design, forecasting, epidemiology inputs, and competitive intelligence frameworks.
• Ability to identify innovative strategies with the greatest business impact and empower their teams to implement the plan.
• Strong curiosity, growth mindset and high learning agility
• Comfort with NPV, risk-adjusted forecasting, scenarios, and sensitivity testing for investment cases.
• Availability for occasional travel.

This position is based at our Wilmington, DE campus headquarters for our US Biopharma business. 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.

Next Steps Apply Today!

Are you ready to make a difference? Apply now and join our mission to transform lives with our science!