Associate Director, Implementation Science

About AstraZeneca 

AstraZeneca is a global, innovation-driven BioPharmaceuticals business that focuses on the discovery, development, and commercialization of prescription medicines for some of the world’s most serious diseases. But we’re more than one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies. At AstraZeneca we’re dedicated to being a Great Place to Work, where you are empowered to push the boundaries of science and unleash your entrepreneurial spirit. There’s no better place to make a difference to medicine, patients, and society. An inclusive culture that champions diversity and collaboration. Always committed to lifelong learning, growth, and development. 

The Role 

The Associate Director, Implementation Science is a strategic role within the US Evidence function, accountable for supporting the design and deployment of practice-change interventions that advance a data-enabled mindset shift, address clinical inertia, and accelerate adoption of evidence-based medicine (EBM) and Guideline-Directed Medication Therapy (GDMT) within assigned therapeutic areas. Reporting to Senior Director within the US Evidence Implementation Science team, the Associate Director is deployed flexibly across therapeutic areas based on portfolio priorities, working under the direction of senior team members to drive transforming-care initiatives that strengthen the clinical and economic value proposition of AstraZeneca’s products in alignment with US brand strategy. 

The Associate Director partners with US cross-functional stakeholders (Medical, Field Medical, Market Access, Commercial Insights, and Brand teams) to support practice-change initiatives, applying localized (regional-level) data and personalized insights for precision HCP engagement. The Associate Director maintains current awareness of the evolving US healthcare system — payer environments, policy shifts, quality measures, and value-based care models — and grows in their ability to translate landscape insight into intervention design and tangible patient outcomes. 

This role is designed as a development pathway for emerging Implementation Science leaders, with explicit growth toward Director-level scope over time, including a growing voice as a credible internal partner on care transformation. The Associate Director also contributes to the team’s responsible adoption of AI-enabled tools across barrier identification, intervention personalization, and measurement workflows. 

Key Responsibilities 

Mindset Transformation & Clinical Inertia 

• Contribute to the data-enabled mindset transformation within Medical in assigned disease areas, supporting team efforts to accelerate adoption of EBM and GDMT to improve patient outcomes. 

• Support clinical-inertia diagnosis and intervention deployment in assigned disease areas, ensuring interventions reach the patient populations most affected. 

Driving Practice Change 

• Support the design and deployment of IS interventions — including EHR alerts, disease management tools, population health tools, learning collaboratives, and quality improvement programs — to accelerate adoption of EBM and GDMT and address clinical inertia in priority disease areas. 

• Apply IS frameworks (e.g., CFIR, RE-AIM, ERIC) and behavior change theory to plan, deploy, and measure intervention impact. 

• Champion representativeness and health equity in intervention design, ensuring interventions reach the patient populations most affected by clinical inertia. 

US Healthcare Landscape Awareness 

• Maintain current awareness of the US healthcare system, including the evolving payer and policy landscape, quality measure environments, value-based care models, and guideline development processes. 

• Apply landscape awareness to assigned intervention deliverables and grow in capability to inform priorities and partnership choices. 

Field Medical Enablement 

• Partner with Field Medical and Clinical Account Directors (CADs) to translate localized data and personalized insights into actionable plays for MSL and CAD engagement with health systems, IDNs, payers, and population health stakeholders, enabling targeted and tailored HCP interaction. 

Evidence-to-Practice Translation 

• Partner with RWE counterparts to ensure RWE outputs translate seamlessly into IS-led interventions; support the evidence-to-practice handoff for assigned initiatives under senior direction. 

Value Demonstration of Care Transformation 

• Contribute to measuring and articulating the clinical impact of IS interventions on GDMT adoption, patient outcomes, and value-based care metrics 

External Partnerships in Practice Change 

• Contribute to external partnerships with health systems, ACOs/IDNs, patient advocacy organizations, academic collaborators, and quality-measure bodies (e.g., NCQA, PQA, AMA, IHI) to co-design and scale IS interventions; grow in capability to lead these relationships over time. 

Therapeutic Area Expertise 

• Maintain a working knowledge of assigned US Biopharmaceuticals disease areas and adequate awareness of guideline evolution within those areas; deepen TA expertise over time. 

Responsible AI Adoption 

• Apply AI/ML tools under team guidance to assigned IS workflows (e.g., barrier identification, intervention personalization, measurement); contribute to digital literacy and use-case evaluation. 

Compliance, Methods & Research Governance 

• Ensure adherence to AstraZeneca’s research governance process for all assigned initiatives, including protocol review, scientific committee submissions, and approvals. 

• Ensure adherence to data privacy (HIPAA) and internal SOPs; contribute to internal methods development and peer review. 

Preferred Qualifications 

• Education. Advanced degree required in a relevant field (e.g., health economics, outcomes research, health services research, epidemiology, health policy, public health); Doctoral degree preferred (PhD, PharmD, MD). 

• Experience. 3+ years of relevant experience (academia, consulting, and/or industry), including meaningful experience in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, or medical device industry. 

• Methodological Foundation. Foundational expertise in IS frameworks (CFIR, RE-AIM, ERIC), quality improvement methods, and behavior change principles. 

• RWD Application. Familiarity with Real-World Data / secondary data and its application to practice-change initiatives is highly desired. 

• US Healthcare Knowledge. Solid understanding of the US healthcare system, payer and policy landscape, quality measure environments, and value-based care models; willingness to deepen. 

• External Engagement. Comfort engaging with external partners (health systems, ACOs/IDNs, patient advocacy organizations, quality-measure bodies, academic collaborators); track record of contribution is a plus. 

• Problem Solving. Strong problem-solving skills, with the capability to access internal and external resources for advice. 

• Autonomy. Able to execute assigned initiatives with growing autonomy and appropriate oversight. 

• Cross-Functional Collaboration. Ability to work collaboratively across multiple cross-functional teams at the brand or disease-area level. 

• AI Literacy. Familiarity with applying AI/ML tools in practice-change settings; able to evaluate validity and limitations under team guidance. 

• Communication. Strong written and verbal communication skills; ability to translate complex methods for non-technical US stakeholders. 

• Therapeutic Area. Experience in CVRM, R&I, or another AstraZeneca priority disease area is desirable but not required. 

Travel & Location 

This position is US-based, located in Wilmington, DE. Periodic travel (approximately 10–15%) will be required for internal meetings, external partner collaboration, and medical congresses. 

What you can expect: great working atmosphere empowering you to reach your full potential, endless development opportunities and benefits like: medical & life insurance, annual bonus, education cost reimbursement, occasional allowances (Christmas, holiday), anniversary awards, additional time off, pension plan, business travel insurance, recognition program, flexible working hours.

Why AstraZeneca?
At AstraZeneca you will be valued. Not only for your unique contribution, skills and background, but because we recognize people are our greatest asset. Here we are dedicated to being a Great Place to Work. Thrive in an energizing environment where challenging work goes hand in hand with development. With opportunities, recognition and bright minds, there’s no better place to unlock learning and build a long-term career. Most importantly, we do meaningful work that changes lives. It’s our purpose that drives us, every day. Interested? Come and join our journey.

The annual base pay for this position ranges from $150,098.40 - 225,147.60 USD Annual .  Our positions offer eligibility for various incentives—an opportunity to receive short-term incentive bonuses, equity-based awards for salaried roles and commissions for sales roles. Benefits offered include qualified retirement programs, paid time off (i.e., vacation, holiday, and leaves), as well as health, dental, and vision coverage in accordance with the terms of the applicable plans.