Medical Director, Early Clinical Development, Rheumatology/Clinical Immunology

Are you ready to shape and deliver the AstraZeneca Immunology pipeline?

If you are a motivated drug developer, this is an excellent time to join!

Who We Are

In the Respiratory and Immunology Early Clinical Development team, we are investigating the drivers of key respiratory and immunology diseases, with access to pioneering science, innovative drug discovery approaches and key collaborations with academic centers around the world. We are investigating a wide range of drug modalities – small molecules, biologics, oligonucleotides and cell therapies – across multiple diseases with high unmet medical need.

Early Clinical Development in R&I is where science meets clinical drug development with a focus upon delivering innovative, early phase clinical studies (Phase 1 – Phase 2b), while collaborating closely with our late phase clinical development colleagues who guide our phase 3 clinical studies. We are a diverse team of physicians and clinical scientists who collaborate with scientists and translational medicine colleagues to define our early phase clinical development strategies, design innovative phase 1-2b clinical trials, develop and validate new clinical endpoints and translate scientific ideas to proof-of-concept studies in targeted patient populations.

What You Will Do

As the Medical Director, you will provide medical and scientific input to preclinical and clinical stage assets focused on Rheumatology/Clinical Immunology. You will take responsibility for clinical development in cross-functional teams to support early phase clinical development activities. These include the creation of overall clinical development plans and clinical study design as well writing protocols, key study and health authority documentation, medical monitoring and ensuring timely delivery of studies, all in close collaboration with internal and external partners and clinical research organizations.

Rheumatology experience is a must and will ideally include clinical development experience in  relevant indications, eg systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), Sjogrens or Systemic Sclerosis. . The successful candidate will thrive in a fast-paced, proactive can-do culture, be a strong communicator and collaborator.

• Responsible for the design, delivery and interpretation of clinical studies ensuring the ethical and scientific integrity of the plans, studies and product in compliance with GCP.
• Provide guidance in the medical strategy and clinical/disease expertise to Research, Translational Medicine, Early and Late-stage Clinical Development and Commercial colleagues as part of a cross functional teams.
• Closely follow medical developments within the autoimmune / inflammatory diseases and disseminate new information within Clinical Development and the wider organisation to transform trends and emerging data into agile and innovative clinical plans.
• Work closely and collaborate across early and late R&I clinical development, partner functions and wider AZ organization to ensure design and delivery of clinical development plans with high quality and speed.
• Represent Early R&I Clinical Development to external partners, including Investigators, key external experts and patient advocacy groups.
• Medical Lead for regulatory communication and preparation of higher level documents
• Ensures internal and external peer review of potential study/programme design.
• Support qualification of pharmacodynamic/disease markers for early assessment of efficacy.
• Provide clinical strategic input to in-licensing opportunities.

Basic Qualifications:

• Advanced degree (MD) with experience in Rheumatology/Clinical Immunology
• Minimum of 3 years of experience in early phase clinical development, including hands-on experience in the design, delivery and interpretation of multiple Ph1 / Ph2 studies in relevant non-oncology indications
• Experience in Rheumatology/Immunology, either in a pharmaceutical or biotechnology company or within an academic setting, including significant knowledge and experience in the design and execution of clinical trials in relevant diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus or rheumatoid arthritis. 
• Understanding of the entire drug development process, including clinical and non-clinical study design and execution.
• Thorough understanding of clinical research methodology and biostatistics principles, to facilitate innovative and efficient clinical trial design, and clinical development plans with clea