Cell Therapy Strategy and Commercial Executive Director

Within the AstraZeneca Cell Therapy Enterprise, our ambition is to realize the full potential of cell therapy for people living with cancer, immune-mediated and rare diseases around the world. This unit has responsibility for the value chain from discovery through to late-stage development and commercialization. We are rapidly progressing a broad pipeline of cell therapies in collaboration with AstraZeneca’s Therapeutic Area Units. 

The Strategy and Commercial Executive Director, Cell Therapy Strategy and Commercial (CTSC), is a high-impact leadership role accountable for shaping and driving the end-to-end strategy for a defined indication or disease area within Cell Therapy. You will lead global commercial and strategic initiatives within the Cell Therapy Enterprise CTU)—including business development and competitive intelligence—partnering with Therapeutic Areas on clinical strategy, collaborating with in-market commercial and medical affairs on launch readiness, and aligning with global pricing and brand teams. Working cross-functionally with senior leaders, you will define early asset, disease, and portfolio strategies through PH3IDs. Reporting to the VP, Cell Therapy Strategy and Commercial, you will be a key architect of the company’s Cell Therapy strategy and lead cross-functional execution.

Key Accountabilities:

Deliver end-to-end Strategy, including:  

• Clear understanding and prioritization of current and future unmet needs  

• Indication-level strategic vision for both near-term and long-term  

• Integrated clinical strategy across all cell therapy platforms within the same indication

• Work with global Clinical and ClinOps within respective TAs to develop comprehensive development strategy

• Competitive early pipeline / long-term portfolio  and life cycle management

• Above-asset initiatives (e.g., Translational Medicine, Precision Medicine, Data Sciences)  

Own insights generation for R&D and commercial activities

• Oversees and guides development and integration of industry-leading competitive intelligence,  customer insight, market intelligence and analytics helping the organization to frame business problems and opportunities
• Shape future-proofed strategies and deliver sustainably differentiated brands/early assets, business development opportunities and TA strategies 

• Responsible for the robustness and transparency of the forecasts for PH3IDs
• Bring an intelligence-driven perspective to strategic recommendations by synthesizing insights from diverse sources and publicly available information at the brand and Therapeutic Area level for internal and external communication

• Responsible for creating and curating evidence bank from real world data sources to support the PH3ID forecasts created within the team

Lead global commercial cell therapy within indication

• Build the referral capabilities between specific disease areas and the Cell Therapy delivery centers

• Partners closely across different areas of Cell Therapy, Global Commercial, in-market commercial and medical affairs teams to ensure execution of global strategy 

• Lead and collaborate with cross-functional teams (e.g., GPTs, Clinical Development, Discovery, BD, Lifecycle and Pipeline, Competitive Intelligence) to develop disease area strategy content

• Provide strategic counselling to Global Clinical Strategy Head (GCSH), Global Commercial and Medical Affairs leadership, and other senior leaders  

Basic Qualifications: 

• BA/BS and 10 years of experience in life sciences or consulting firm with focus in life science programs 

• OR MS/MBA and 8+ years of experience in life sciences or consulting firm with focus in life science programs 

• OR PhD or MD and 5+ of experience in life sciences or consulting firm with focus in life science programs 

• Ability to interact and communicate effectively with senior executive teams. 

• Demonstrated ability to lead and influence experienced professionals. 

• Ability to think critically, creatively and to anticipate and solve problems. 

• Ability to navigate and be successful in a fast-paced, highly-matrixed work environment 

Preferred Qualifications: 

• Strong analytical and communication skills 

• Strong business acumen and strategic thinking skill