Director, Implementation Science

The Role

The Director, US Policy Evidence is a strategic leadership role within the US Medical Affairs, Implementation Science and Policy team. The role is accountable for building and operationalizing a policy evidence ecosystem that strengthens AstraZeneca's position as a practice-defining innovator and thought leader across priority therapeutic areas. The role advances the generation and dissemination of policy-relevant evidence that accelerates access and drives measurable improvements in care quality and patient outcomes.

Reporting to the Senior Director, Implementation Science & Policy, and partnering closely with therapeutic area (TA)-aligned implementation science leads, real world evidence directors, and federal and state government affairs teams, the Director develops and executes a policy evidence planning framework aligned to brand and Medical strategy, ensuring cross-functional integration across US Medical, Government Affairs & Policy, Market Access, and Commercial teams.

Key Responsibilities

Policy Evidence Strategy

• Lead the development, socialization, and operationalization of a policy evidence planning framework aligned to brand and Medical strategy, ensuring consistent application and cross-functional integration across teams.
• In partnership with Real World Evidence & Implementation Science Directors, design and generate practice-defining evidence with clear clinical, economic, and policy impact.
• Drive broad dissemination of policy-relevant models to priority states with multi-stakeholder audiences including payers, employers, and policymakers, and extend approaches to additional therapeutic areas and international markets where feasible.

Government Affairs & Cross-Functional Partnership

• Partner with Government Affairs & Policy teams to identify, prioritize, and advance policy initiatives by providing data-enabled insights that strengthen AstraZeneca's policy positions and market-shaping efforts.
• Co-lead care delivery policy shaping workstreams and coordinate joint Medical-Government Affairs briefings to align internal stakeholders and inform external engagement.
• Collaborate with US Market Access, Commercial Insights, and Brand teams to translate the product value proposition into policy-enabling strategies with tangible, measurable outcomes.

Policy Education & Medical Team Capability Building

• Develop and deliver policy education content to build capability across medical teams and leadership, covering the quality and value-based care (VBC) ecosystem, payer landscape, and guideline development.
• Participate in global policy evidence workstreams and relevant steering committees, ensuring US learnings inform and align with global evidence strategy.

External Partnerships & US Healthcare Landscape

• Cultivate partnerships with health systems, ACOs/IDNs, payers, academic collaborators, patient advocacy groups, and quality-measure bodies to co-design and scale policy-relevant evidence initiatives.
• Maintain current awareness of the US payer and policy landscape, quality measures, value-based care models, reimbursement dynamics, and guideline development, translating it into evidence priorities that anticipate emerging decision-maker needs.

Scientific Rigor, Responsible AI & Governance

• Maintain deep expertise in assigned disease areas and evolving guidelines, keeping policy evidence initiatives anchored in current standards of care and quality measures.
• Apply AI tools responsibly across evidence generation workflows, including LLM-enabled narrative generation for customized payer/policy briefs, proclamations, and related materials in support of Government Affairs and Medical teams.
• Ensure adherence to AstraZeneca's research governance processes, data privacy (HIPAA), and internal SOPs, and contribute to methods development and peer review.

Preferred Qualifications

Education. Advanced degree in a relevant field is required (e.g., health policy, health services research, behavioral economics, epidemiology, or related fields); Doctoral degree preferred (PhD, PharmD, MD, JD with health policy focus).

Experience. Minimum of seven years of relevant experience (academia, consulting, government, and/or industry), including meaningful experience in health policy research, payer strategy, economic modeling, outcomes research, and/or policy shaping.

Leadership & Problem Solving. Well-developed leadership and problem-solving skills with the capability to access internal and external resources for advice and to navigate complex, multi-stakeholder environments.

Cross-Functional Collaboration. Ability to work collaboratively across multiple cross-functional teams including US Medical, Government Affairs & Policy, Market Access, and Commercial at country, regional, or global levels.

Policy & Payer Expertise. Comprehensive, current understanding of the US healthcare system, including the legislative and regulatory landscape, payer and reimbursement dynamics, quality measures, value-based care models, and guideline development processes.

RWD Application. Direct experience using Real-World Data / secondary data and its application to policy and outcomes evidence is highly desired.

External Engagement. Track record of building productive external partnerships with health systems, payers, patient advocacy organizations, quality-measure bodies, government affairs stakeholders, and/or academic collaborators.

AI Literacy. Familiarity with applying AI tools in policy evidence and communications settings; able to evaluate validity, limitations, and bias.

Health Equity. Experience integrating health equity principles into evidence generation and policy strategy, including use of geospatial or population-level data tools.

Communication. Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with demonstrated ability to translate complex evidence into compelling narratives for executive, policymaker, and external audiences.

Travel & Location

This position is US-based, located in Wilmington, DE. Periodic travel (approximately 15–20%) will be required for engagement with health systems, external partners, internal stakeholders, and medical congresses.