Director, AI & Data Partner Evaluation

We're building a connected, end-to-end Enterprise AI engine - uniting data foundations, AI technology, process reinvention, and business-facing AI to accelerate results across the whole value chain. Success depends on being exceptional connectors: you'll actively leverage existing capabilities, celebrate and promote reuse, export breakthrough ideas across geographies and functions, and obsess over scaling impact rather than building in isolation. If you thrive in high-collaboration environments where your role is to turn complex, cross-functional problems into reusable, enterprise-wide capabilities - and where the measure of success is adoption and scale, not just innovation - you'll have the platform (and sponsorship) to make it real. 

This role sits at the intersection of AstraZeneca's Clinical Intelligence and RWE teams and the rapidly evolving external ecosystem of AI/ML platform companies, foundation model developers, multimodal analytics partners, and real-world data providers. The Data & AI Partnerships Lead will ensure that therapeutic area teams across Oncology (Lung/HNSCC, Women's Cancer, GI/GU, Haematology) and Biopharmaceuticals (CVRM, Respiratory, Immunology, Infectious Disease) can access, evaluate, and mobilize the right external capabilities — whether those are foundation models, computational platforms, agentic AI tools, or datasets — to power evidence generation, multimodal analytics, and AI-enabled clinical decision-making. 

The successful candidate will be a "T-shaped" technical operator — deep in AI/ML and computational partner evaluation, with sufficient breadth in real-world data to initiate and frame data assessments before handing off to TA RWE experts for deep validation. This is not a traditional business development role. In a typical week, this person might be: 

• Evaluating a multimodal foundation model partner's approach to integrating imaging, genomic, and clinical data for patient stratification in lung cancer 

• Assessing whether an agentic AI platform's orchestration capabilities are compatible with the team's infrastructure 

• Initiating a fit-for-purpose review of a new molecular data provider — scoping the key questions, running an initial completeness check, and then handing the detailed variable-level assessment to the Lung or GI/GU RWE Strategy Lead for domain-specific validation 

• Briefing senior stakeholders on a build-vs-license recommendation for a clinical trial simulation capability 

The right candidate will build their network through hands-on technical collaboration with AI and data partners and will be as comfortable interrogating a model's training methodology and validation evidence as they are framing a data quality question for a TA expert to resolve. 

Role Scope 

• Technical Data Assessment: Hands-on evaluation of external datasets against specific evidence questions — assessing volume, completeness, representativeness, variable availability, linkage capability, latency, coding standards, and regulatory acceptability. 

• Data Partner Scouting & Network: Maintain and expand a curated network of RWD, genomic, imaging, claims, EHR, registry, and digital health data providers relevant to Oncology and Biopharmaceuticals evidence needs. 

• TA Evidence Alignment: Partner with RWE Strategy Leads, Multimodal Analytics Leads, and Data Scientists across TAs to translate evidence gaps into data sourcing requirements. 

• Partnership Lifecycle: Own end-to-end data partnership management from scouting and pilot evaluation through contracting, onboarding, performance governance, renewal, and expansion aligned to the needs of the business. 

• Cross-TA Data Strategy: Identify opportunities to leverage a single data partnership across multiple therapeutic areas, maximizing value and reducing duplication. 

• Regulatory & Compliance Alignment: Ensure all proposed data partnerships meet privacy, ethical governance, and regulatory-grade evidence standards (EMA RW-DQF, FDA RWE guidance, GDPR, HIPAA). 

Key Accountabilities 

1. Originate and Qualify Strategic Partnerships 

• Lead fit-for-purpose evaluations using a structured framework covering: volume/depth, reliability/completeness, usability/interoperability, linkage potential, and regulatory compliance. 

• Design and execute pilot analyses to stress-test data quality, variable availability, coding accuracy, and cohort feasibility before recommending full-scale agreements. 

• Assess multimodal integration potential — evaluate whether partner datasets can be linked to internal assets or other external sources (e.g., EHR + genomic + imaging) to support the multimodal classifiers and AI/ML models being developed by TA Computational Analytics teams. 

• Provide technical opinions on data suitability for specific use cases including external control arms, trial emulation, biomarker validation, patient stratification, site identification, and efficacy benchmarking. 

• Develop and maintain standardized assessment templates — including data dictionaries, completeness scorecards, representativeness benchmarks, and regulatory-readiness checklists — that can be applied consistently across partnership evaluations. 

2. Build and Maintain a Best-in-Class Data Partner Network 

• Develop a dynamic landscape map of external data providers across claims, EHR, molecular/genomic, imaging, patient-reported outcomes, digital biomarkers, and linked datasets — organized by therapeutic relevance, geography, and data modality. 

• Cultivate deep relationships with strategic partners and emerging providers in multimodal and AI-enabled data — built through hands-on technical evaluation and collaborative problem-solving, not solely through commercial channels. 

• Proactively identify new entrants — startups, academic consortia, health system data collaboratives, and government-linked datasets — that could address unmet evidence needs. 

• Maintain current knowledge of the competitive landscape, including how peer companies are sourcing and leveraging external data, and where white-space opportunities exist. 

3. Align Data Partnerships to TA Evidence Priorities 

• Partner directly with TA RWE Strategy Leads to understand prioritized evidence needs and translate them into data sourcing requirements. 

• Support the TA Multimodal and Computational Analytics pods by identifying datasets that enable advanced analytics — including molecular data for foundation models, imaging data for analytics, and longitudinal RWD for clinical trial simulation. 

• Inform platform development by ensuring data partnerships are compatible with internal tools and agentic AI workflows. 

• Participate in TA evidence planning cycles to anticipate future data needs 6–12 months ahead of delivery timelines, ensuring partnerships are in place before evidence generation begins. 

4. Drive Partnership Governance and Value Realization 

• Establish standardized evaluation and governance processes — including cross-functional scoring (with RWE, Data Science, Legal, Privacy, Procurement, and Finance), KPI frameworks, and regular performance reviews. 

• Own renewal and expansion decisions — assess whether existing partnerships continue to deliver value, identify opportunities to extend access across TAs or geographies, and recommend consolidation or termination where appropriate. 

• Track and report partnership ROI — quantify impact in terms of evidence generated, cost avoidance, trial design decisions informed, and regulatory submissions supported. 

• Manage financial oversight — budget tracking, invoicing, and contract renewals while ensuring compliance with data privacy regulations and ethical data-handling practices. 

5. Support Transaction Execution and Mobilization 

• Work with procurement, legal, compliance, and finance to support due diligence, contracting, operating model design, and governance set-up for selected partnerships. 

• Define partnership objectives, success metrics, decision rights, resourcing requirements, and implementation milestones to ensure disciplined handover from evaluation to delivery. 

• Negotiate data access terms that balance scientific utility with privacy, compliance, and commercial constraints. 

6. Contribute to Enterprise Data and AI Strategy 

• Inform the build-integrate-license framework — advise on when to license external data vs. build internal capabilities vs. integrate with existing platforms. 

• Support the cross-TA generalization agenda — identify data assets that can serve multiple therapeutic areas and enable the sequential or parallel development patterns described in the AITC operating model. 

• Stay current on the evolving landscape — regulatory expectations for RWE (EMA, FDA), emerging data modalities, privacy frameworks, tokenization, federated analytics, and AI-enabled data curation. 

• Contribute to internal capability building — share knowledge on data sourcing best practices, partner evaluation methods, and emerging data modalities with broader AITC teams. 

Essential Skills and Experience 

• Bachelor's degree or above in epidemiology, biostatistics, health informatics, data science, life sciences, or a related quantitative field. Advanced degree (MSc, MPH, PhD) preferred. 

• 7+ years of experience in RWE, health data science, epidemiology, or data strategy roles within pharma, biotech, healthtech, or a major RWD provider — with a demonstrable track record of personally conducting technical data assessments (not solely managing vendor relationships). 

• Hands-on technical ability to assess data quality, completeness, representativeness, variable availability, coding systems (ICD, SNOMED, NDC, OMOP, FHIR), linkage feasibility, and fitness-for-purpose against specific research questions. 

• Understanding of multimodal data — including structured clinical data, molecular/genomic data, imaging, digital biomarkers, and patient-reported outcomes — and how these can be integrated for advanced analytics and AI/ML applications. 

• Existing relationships with data providers that have been built through hands-on technical evaluation and collaborative problem-solving — across EHR vendors, claims databases, genomic/molecular data providers, registries, academic data custodians, and digital health platforms. 

• Experience with regulatory-grade RWE — familiarity with EMA and FDA expectations for real-world evidence submissions, external control arms, and post-marketing evidence generation. 

• Proven ability to manage complex partnerships — including due diligence, contracting, pilot design, governance, performance management, and renewal. 

• Strong cross-functional collaboration skills — ability to work across data science, epidemiology, clinical development, legal, privacy, procurement, and compliance in a large matrixed organization. 

• Excellent communication skills — able to translate technical data assessments into clear recommendations for senior stakeholders and non-technical audiences, including concise decision narratives with options, trade-offs, and proposed next steps. 

Preferred Skills and Experience 

• Direct experience with key data platforms relevant to AZ's portfolio in Oncology, Rare Disease. Familiarity with oncology and/or cardiometabolic/respiratory disease areas and their specific evidence generation needs. 

• Experience evaluating AI-enabled data partners — including companies offering NLP-curated endpoints, foundation models trained on clinical data, or agentic data analysis capabilities. 

• Knowledge of data tokenization, federated analytics, and privacy-preserving computation as emerging partnership models. 

• Exposure to clinical trial design support — understanding how RWD informs feasibility, site identification, external control arms, and trial emulation. 

• Experience with health economics and outcomes research (HEOR) data needs for market access and HTA submissions. 

• Familiarity with causal inference methods (e.g., propensity score matching, instrumental variables, target trial emulation) and how data structure and quality impact methodological choices. 

• Exposure to venture/startup ecosystems — understanding of how early-stage health data companies operate, their maturity trajectories, and how to evaluate pre-scale partners. 

Leadership Behaviours 

• Technically credible and commercially astute — equally comfortable in a data quality deep-dive and a commercial negotiation but leads with technical rigour. 

• Connector mindset — actively bridges external innovation with internal evidence needs across multiple therapeutic areas. 

• Rigorous but pragmatic — applies structured evaluation frameworks while recognizing that "perfect" data rarely exists and fit-for-purpose is context-dependent. 

• Proactive and networked — continuously scanning the landscape and bringing opportunities to the table before teams know they need them. 

• Compassionate leader — listens to understand, not to respond. Builds trust quickly with senior leaders, technical experts, and external partners. 

• Entrepreneurial and outcomes-focused — comfortable operating with ambiguity while maintaining high standards of integrity, governance, and compliance. 

Office Working Requirements   

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.    

The annual base pay (or hourly rate of compensation) for this position ranges from $ 164.521,60 - $ 246.782,40 USD Annual, either as annual base pay or as the hourly rate (annual base pay divided by 2080 hours)]. Hourly and salaried non-exempt employees will also be paid overtime pay when working qualifying overtime hours. Base pay offered may vary depending on multiple individualized factors, including market location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. In addition, our positions offer a short-term incentive bonus opportunity; eligibility to participate in our equity-based long-term incentive program (salaried roles), to receive a retirement contribution (hourly roles), and commission payment eligibility (sales roles). Benefits offered included a qualified retirement program [401(k) plan]; paid vacation and holidays; paid leaves; and, health benefits including medical, prescription drug, dental, and vision coverage in accordance with the terms and conditions of the applicable plans. Additional details of participation in these benefit plans will be provided if an employee receives an offer of employment. If hired, employee will be in an “at-will position” and the Company reserves the right to modify base pay (as well as any other