Associate Director, Pharma Sales Force - Incentives and Awards

Associate Director, Incentives and Awards

Location: Wilmington, DE – remote option is not available for this role.

Reports to: Director, Incentives and Awards

At AstraZeneca we play a critical role in making our pipeline accessible to patients.

What sets us apart here is being a research-driven enterprise, it means there’s always something new to be working on; new indications and securing access for new medicines to reach even more patients in need.

It’s our knowledge of patients, fused with our forward-looking mindset and innovations, that helps us to spot opportunities, get involved earlier and approach access sustainably.

As partners across the enterprise, our advice helps to inform and shape strategies across varied functions and levels. It’s through our strong negotiation and storytelling abilities that we connect the entire enterprise and beyond, reaching payer and government.

A unique blend of autonomy and collaboration – the complex nature of what we do means we have to be willing to run independently and without hesitation, whilst combining expertise from across the business.

If you enjoy challenging the way things are done, this is the place for you – we are always finding new ways to explore and innovate, to assess and steer the role we play in the healthcare ecosystem.

About the role

The Associate Director, Incentives and Awards will support the strategy, execution, governance, and continuous improvement of field incentive compensation and commercial awards across the BBU portfolio. Reporting to the Director, Incentives and Awards, this role will help translate commercial priorities into clear, compliant, motivating incentive and recognition programs that strengthen field focus, improve payout transparency, and support better business decision-making.

This is an opportunity for a growing commercial operations or incentive compensation professional to build depth in a high-impact function while gaining exposure to senior stakeholders, governance forums, analytics, awards, vendor management, and transformation work. The role is designed for someone early in their incentives career with strong potential, as well as a more tenured professional who is close to Director readiness and wants broader enterprise experience under the oversight of the Director.

LOCATION: This position is an onsite position in our Wilmington, DE offices. AstraZeneca follows a hybrid working model, with employees expected to be onsite at least three days per week in their assigned location. Candidates must possess the legal right to work in the relevant country. Remote work is not offered.

Key objectives

• Support the execution and continuous improvement of field incentive compensation programs, including annual plans, special incentive plans, performance tracking, payout analysis, communications, and awards processes.
• Work under the oversight of the Director to translate commercial strategy into incentive and recognition programs that support compliant field focus, launch and lifecycle priorities, territory dynamics, and account-based selling complexity.
• Develop clear analytics and recommendations by assessing sales performance, payout trends, plan effectiveness, data quality, and budget implications.
• Partner with Sales, Commercial Excellence, Finance, HR, Legal, Compliance, Analytics, vendors, and field leaders to resolve questions, support governance decisions, and improve stakeholder experience.
• Support Incentive Compensation Governance Committee preparation, including issue documentation, exception tracking, decision support, action follow-up, and audit-ready records.
• Contribute to Circle of Excellence and related awards programs by supporting eligibility review, stakeholder alignment, communications, vendor coordination, and compliant execution.
• Help modernize the function by simplifying processes, improving manager and field communications, strengthening reporting, identifying automation opportunities, and building scalable ways of working.

Essential qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field.
• 3+ years of experience in pharmaceutical, biotechnology, healthcare, consulting, or a related commercial environment, including exposure to at least one of the following areas: Sales Operations, Commercial Excellence, Field Operations, Incentive Compensation, Finance, Analytics, or a comparable commercial function.
• Experience supporting incentive compensation, sales operations, commercial analytics, finance, or field operations workstreams, including planning, implementation, performance tracking, payout analysis, reporting, or field-facing processes.
• Ability to analyze performance data, identify trends, as