Director, Data Sciences & AI - BBU

Make a greater impact on lives through a digitally-enabled enterprise

We are working towards our aspiration of shaping the future of Pharma. Backed by investment at every step, we harness the latest technology, data, and innovative ways of working to introduce new approaches that put Digital at AstraZeneca’s heart.

Be part of a chapter that’s still being written. Trusted and empowered to change the way things are done, with the tools and support to get you there. Here we are free to unleash our curiosity and turn thinking into reality where smart risks and quick decisions come together to power disruption and innovation.

Office Locations:  This is an on-site - office-based role.  Please consider the following AZ US HUB locations – Gaithersburg, MD/ Wilmington, DE/South San Francisco, CA

The Role:

The US - Director, BBU Commercial Data Sciences & AI is a key leader in the Commercial Data Science & AI team whose mission is to take a patient-centric, data-driven approach to personalize and transform healthcare delivery to the millions of patients along with a multi-disciplinary team of physicians who care for them. This responsibility involves working closely with cross-functional Science, Medical, and Business leaders to identify, prioritize, and develop Data Science, AI, and Advanced Analytics Platforms & Products across AZ Oncology and Bio-pharma businesses.  The scope of this role is Global with a focus on US Biopharmaceutical markets where AstraZeneca’s life-changing medicines are approved to help patients live longer and realize AZ’s bold ambition of eliminating Cancer as a cause of death.

The team is responsible for value creation through innovation at a global scale. In addition to impeccable technical skills, the ability to communicate and influence a diverse stakeholder set is crucial. Not infrequently, the problems we solve are first identified by its senior members – introducing and gaining traction for these concepts requires tact and subtlety.

Key Responsibilities:

• Develop a deep understanding of the business and its core markets.
• Leverage AI/ML, mathematical programming, and statistical modeling to develop solutions that create a competitive advantage for our commercial organization.
• Be responsible for the full solution architecture cycle: identification & definition of business questions/opportunities, data acquisition & preparation, model implementation & optimization, and method of deployment to the consuming system or team.
• Collaborate with ML Ops to prepare and document Skunkworks solutions for the transition to maturity/industrialization team.
• Collaborate with matrix teams (sales, marketing, IT, external vendors, etc.) to ensure effective and efficient deployment of capabilities.
• Actively seek out, develop, and share best practices.
• Stay abreast of the evolving technical landscape, and remain current on the major data science libraries/stack
• Incentivize and pursue continuous improvement of existing capabilities and skills.
• Manage onshore and offshore external consultants.

Competencies

Minimum Requirements

• Bachelor’s Degree plus 5-7  years of progressive professional work experience in mathematics, computer science, engineering, physics, statistics, economics, computational sciences, or a quantitative discipline. * 7 years of qualified professional experience can be substituted for Bachelor’s degree
• Track record of Developing Data Science and AI products that have generated business value, and impact across multiple Industries.
• In-depth experience with modern data science approaches, including unsupervised and supervised classification and regression algorithms such as k-means clustering, support vector machines, random forests, neural networks, and deep
• 8 years of hands-on experience in the application of data science methods on large and disparate datasets, specifically:
• Statistical Analysis and Modelling: (e.g. Design of Experiments, Time Series Analysis, Regression Analysis, Bayesian methods, etc),
• Hands-on experience and theoretical expertise in modern deep learning (e.g. transformers).
• Advanced software development skills in at least two of the standard data science languages (such as R, Julia, or Python) and familiarity with database systems (e.g. SQL, NoSQL, graph)
• Understanding of algorithm design, development, optimization, scaling, and applications
• Excellent written and verbal communication, business analysis, and consultancy skills
• Proficiency in manipulating and utilizing large, longitudinal data sources, such as Claims, EMR, and other patient-level data sets.
• Experience using complex, non-tabular data structures

Desirable Requirements

• Quantitative Master’s or Ph.D. degree from an accredited college or university is required in one of the following or related fields: Engineering, Economics, Statistics, Applied Mathematics, Physics, Computer Science, Data Science, or Operations Research.
• Comfortable working in high-performance computing or cloud environment
• Proven track record of publishing relevant predictive modeling results and tools in peer-reviewed journals, conferences, and other scientific proceedings.
• Experience in understanding biomedical data sets and real-world data sets relevant to life sciences and healthcare
• Experience in novel methods development and application, complex global organization, and people management
• Experience in influencing and controlling budgets
• Pharmaceutical domain knowledge.
• Strong entrepreneurial drive to identify/pursue opportunities and take ownership of outcomes.
• Mature leadership and interpersonal skills. Track record of working collaboratively with a significant number of leaders and building ambitious solutions in a matrix environment.
• Strong organizational skills and time management

Are you already imagining yourself joining our team? Good, because we can’t wait to hear from you.

To be considered for this exciting opportunity, please complete the full application on our website at your earliest convenience -- it is the only way that our Recruiter and Hiring Manager can know that you feel well qualified for this opportunity.

Where can I find out more?

•              Our Social Media, Follow AstraZeneca on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/1603/

•              Follow AstraZeneca on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/astrazenecacareers/

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AstraZeneca embraces diversity and equality of opportunity. We are committed to building an inclusive and diverse team representing all backgrounds, with as wide a range of perspectives as possible, and harnessing industry-leading skills. We believe that the more inclusive we are, the better our work will be. We welcome and consider applications to join our team from all qualified candidates, regardless of their characteristics. We comply with all applicable laws and regulations on non-discrimination in employment (and recruitment), as well as work authorization and employment eligibility verification requirements.

AstraZeneca requires all US employees to be fully vaccinated for COVID-19 but will consider requests for reasonable accommodations as required by applicable law.