Digital Science Director Jobs

At AstraZeneca, we pride ourselves on crafting a collaborative culture that champions knowledge-sharing, ambitious thinking and innovation – ultimately providing employees with the opportunity to work across teams, functions and even the globe.

Recognizing the importance of individualized flexibility, our ways of working allow employees to balance personal and work commitments while ensuring we continue to create a strong culture of collaboration and teamwork by engaging face-to-face in our offices 3 days a week. Our head office and BlueSky Hub in downtown Toronto are purposely designed with collaboration in mind, providing space where teams can come together to strategize, brainstorm and connect on key projects.

Our dedication to sustainability is also central to our culture and part of what makes AstraZeneca a great place to work. We know the health of people, the planet and our business are interconnected which is why we’re taking ambitious action to tackle some of the biggest challenges of our time, from climate change to access to healthcare and disease prevention.

AstraZeneca is a global, science-led, patient-focused biopharmaceutical company that focuses on the discovery, development, and commercialization of prescription medicines across Oncology, Cardiovascular & Respiratory diseases.

Advances in digitalization, data and analytics are offering unprecedented opportunities for organization to reap unexploited business value. Digital in Research & Development (R&D) is a 2025 critical strategic area of focus and the overall AstraZeneca strategy is geared to leap frog, using digital as a platform.

Our solutions strive to improve patient health outcomes and experience with our therapeutics and trials by using innovative digital technology. Aimed to support both patients and their healthcare providers, our digital solutions might be implemented in clinical research or other real world clinical settings.

The role must work in partnerships with internal collaborators (e.g. Human-Centric AI, COA Measurement, Design, Product, Implementation, IT) including Global and Clinical Study Teams, and external vendors and partners in order to uphold patient-centricity, diversity and sustainability values and scientific rigor trough all steps and phases of a solution’s lifecycle.

This role is accountable for leading and delivering strategies for decentralizing patient’s care from site to home. This includes but is not limited to redefining the experience of our customers including patients, care-partners, clinical and study teams in generating evidence to reflect experience receiving or providing health care in a constantly evolving medical science (e.g., cell therapy, pre-cancerous stages). In addition, the role is encouraged to enable use of sophisticated analytics to transform multi-modal data into clinical evidence to support decision making. For instance, opportunities could refer to use of advanced technology such as wearable sensors, or behavioral metrics to enable reliable and relevant measurement and analysis of health data. The role is responsible for enabling innovation in health practice to support the oncology portfolio from bench to bedside.

• Cultivate an agile approach to enable conceptualization in design and implementation of digital solutions
• Maintain and supply knowledge of the digital healthcare landscape by disseminating methodology and outcomes of transformational solutions through communication, including conference participation and peer-review publications
• Engage across collaborators to inform opportunity with groundbreaking solution(s) or research design to accelerate delivery of treatment-related evidence to support decision making.
• Collaborate with multi-disciplinary partners to scope and deliver strategies that leverage digital technology, use of data and advanced analytics to support better and faster decision making.
• Champion human centricity so that our digital solutions reflect health providers and customers’ diversity and are sustainable throughout the product lifecycle

Minimum Qualifications:

• Superb communication skills
• Advanced degree required with a strong quantitative and/or qualitative background (Master’s or above in Public Health, Epidemiology, Pharmaceutical, Medical or related fields),
• More than 7 years of experience in the design, implementation, analyses, and value generation of quantitative and qualitative evidence in digital health
• Ability to lead and influence strategically and persuade thoughtfully, to acquire desired outcomes while maintaining effective, positive, organizational relationships
• Understanding of the regulatory landscape governing research with human subjects
• Passion for finding innovative ways to apply research findings to complex, real-world contexts
• Strong influencing and senior stakeholder leadership skills
• Highly efficient: able to navigate ambiguity and address problems in a fast-paced environment; able to influence without authority
• Ability to challenge the status quo, take ownership and holds self and others accountable

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with Human Factors testing, behavioral and/or social science projects to advise risk assessment and solution evaluation of digital solution including software as a medical device
• Experience in pharmaceutical industry with understanding of drug development process
• Expertise in how and why people make decisions and apply this knowledge to guide teams in enhancing user’s experience in clinical settings
• Experience in driving customer adoption of digital experiences to creating ground-up innovations that use key psychologies.
• Experience with systems design: Can interpret the moving pieces in a sophisticated system and identify high-impact opportunities for intervention

Great People want to Work with us! Find out why:

• Learn about our culture
• View our YouTube channel
• GTAA Top Employer Award for 9 years
• Learn more about working with us in Canada

Are you interested in working at AZ, apply today!

AstraZeneca is committed to taking every reasonable precaution to protect employees, our customers and the healthcare systems in the communities in which we serve. In an effort to protect the wellbeing of our employees and customers, full COVID-19 vaccination is an essential requirement of all positions at AstraZeneca. As such, all offers of employment will be conditional upon either (i) proof of full COVID-19 vaccination or (ii) proof of need for accommodation under relevant human rights legislation, and AstraZeneca’s determination that the requested accommodation can be provided without undue hardship. You will be required to submit proof of full vaccination or proof of need for accommodation during our background screening process.

AstraZeneca is an equal opportunity employer that is committed to diversity and inclusion and providing a workplace that is free from discrimination. AstraZeneca is committed to accommodating persons with disabilities. Such accommodation is available on request in respect of all aspects of the recruitment, assessment and selection process and may be requested by emailing [email protected].