Director, External Scouting
AstraZeneca
Summary
AstraZeneca is building a more connected, end-to-end approach to academic collaboration across BioPharma R&D. As Director, External Scouting, you will shape how we identify, assess and advance external science and collaboration opportunities that can influence our portfolio, strengthen future capabilities and accelerate scientific innovation.
Job description
Accountabilities
- Set and prioritize external scouting strategy
- Partner with senior leaders to identify high-impact scientific opportunities, portfolio uncertainties and future capability gaps
- Anticipate external developments that could challenge AstraZeneca assumptions, priorities or competitive positioning
- Set priorities across therapeutic areas and scientific domains
- Translate scientific and external ecosystem signals into strategic options and recommendations
- Own strategic direction and delivery of the external scouting portfolio
- Personally lead selected high-stakes, ambiguous or enterprise-critical searches
- Enable colleagues to lead defined searches and opportunity assessments
- Mobilize expertise across scientific functions, strategy, Business Development, Legal, data and alliance management
- Build AI-enabled and scalable scouting capabilities
- Create, sponsor or oversee AI-enabled tools and processes supporting scientific landscape scanning, opportunity triage, expert and institution identification, evidence synthesis, pipeline visibility and decision preparation
- Establish quality standards, validation checks, decision rights and escalation pathways
- Embed tools into practical workflows and build capability across the team
- Apply appropriate human oversight, quality assurance and risk management to AI-enabled analysis
- Direct the strategic use of external innovation models including Target Innovation, preclinical molecule collaborations, CoSolve and IHI
- Create alliances and strengthen strategic ecosystems
- Serve as a senior relationship owner for priority institutions, academic leaders, ecosystem partners and influential scientific networks
What You'll Bring
You bring scientific depth together with strategic judgement and a passion for translating external innovation into meaningful opportunities. You can move comfortably between enterprise strategy and hands-on execution, building credibility with senior executives and leading scientists while mobilizing multidisciplinary teams to deliver results.
Requirements
- MS in life sciences discipline or equivalent depth of scientific, commercial and strategic experience
- 10+ years of experience with increasing scope and influence in pharmaceutical, biotechnology, academic research, technology transfer, consulting or another science-led environment
- Demonstrated experience setting external scouting, external innovation or collaboration strategy across multiple scientific, therapeutic or portfolio areas
- Track record of personally delivering complex scientific scouting and opportunity assessment while also leading delivery through others
- Evidence that externally sourced opportunities, scientific insights or ecosystem intelligence have materially influenced senior-level portfolio, investment, capability or strategic decisions
- Proven ability to determine when and how Open Innovation and collaboration mechanisms should be deployed
- Experience creating or materially shaping academic alliances, consortia, multi-party collaborations or public-private partnerships
- Experience designing, implementing or sponsoring scalable digital, data or AI-enabled tools and processes
- Ability to establish appropriate human oversight, validation, quality assurance and risk management for AI-enabled analysis
- Established credibility working with senior executives, institutional leaders and leading scientists
- Demonstrated leadership of complex cross-functional initiatives and experience developing others
- Strong strategic judgement, prioritization, synthesis, negotiation and communication skills
- PhD or MD with a minimum of 7 years (desirable)
- Experience influencing enterprise-level or multi-therapeutic-area R&D strategy (desirable)
- Experience shaping portfolios of preclinical molecule collaborations, external scientific challenges, target discovery partnerships (desirable)
- Experience integrating academic scouting with Business Development, portfolio strategy, Open Innovation and alliance management (desirable)
- Practical experience using AI-assisted research, scientific landscaping, evidence synthesis, knowledge management, workflow automation (desirable)
- Experience creating or scaling AI-enabled approaches for landscape scanning, opportunity triage, expert or institution identification (desirable)
- Experience developing selection criteria, measures of success or governance for portfolios of external collaborations (desirable)
- Experience representing an organization within prominent scientific ecosystems (desirable)
- Experience developing relationships that provide sustained access to emerging science, technologies, scientific talent (desirable)
Benefits
- Retirement Programs
- Paid Time Off
- Health Insurance
- Dental Insurance
- Vision Coverage
- Incentive Bonuses
- Equity-Based Awards
Company overview
AstraZeneca is a global, science-led, patient-focused pharmaceutical company dedicated to accelerating the delivery of life-changing medicines that create enduring value for patients, society, and shareholders. With a workforce of over 94,300 employees worldwide, the company operates across three core therapy areas: Oncology, BioPharmaceuticals (including Cardiovascular, Renal & Metabolism, Respiratory & Immunology), and Rare Disease. Headquartered in Cambridge, UK, AstraZeneca maintains strategic R&D centers in Cambridge, Gaithersburg (US), Boston (US), Gothenburg (Sweden), Shanghai, and Beijing. The company generated $54.1 billion in total revenue in 2024 and invested $13.6 billion in scientific research and development. AstraZeneca's bold aspiration is to be pioneers in science, lead in disease areas, and transform patient outcomes, with a goal to launch 20 new medicines and achieve $80 billion in total revenue by 2030. The company is recognized for its commitment to sustainability, health equity, and creating an inclusive work environment where diverse perspectives drive innovation.