Senior Director - US Digital Precision Healthcare

Senior Director - US Digital Precision Healthcare
Location: Gaithersburg

At AstraZeneca, we established the Commercial Digital Care Pathway Optimization as part of our commercial Digital Health (cDH) team to accelerate our ability to develop and partner on solutions that elevate the quality of care provided by healthcare professionals, patients, and healthcare systems. Through these efforts, we aim to improve patient outcomes, optimize the value of healthcare experiences, and position the company as a leader in healthcare innovation. By fostering strategic partnerships across markets, institutes, and healthcare providers, we enable richer data collation and use, delivering improved patient care across the world. Our digital health efforts are focused on Oncology, Biopharma, and rare diseases at the global level, allowing us to orchestrate advancements that transform the patient pathway and lead in digital health innovation.

We are seeking a highly experienced and visionary leader to own and drive the U.S. Digital Precision Healthcare strategy with a strong focus on the integration of AI-driven insights and data innovation.

As the Senior Director - US Digital Precision Healthcare, you will own and advance the AI- and data-enabled programfor optimizing digital care pathways across the US. You will be accountable for maintaining and evolving the US digital care pathway optimizationprogram, driving the design, development, and execution of AI-powered precision healthcare initiatives that enhance early patient identification, consistent diagnosis, optimal treatment selection, and continuous disease monitoring. 

This role serves as the key bridge between internal sponsors (Commercial, Medical, R&D, Market Access, and Diagnostics) and external innovation partners, enabling the delivery of data-driven, technology-enabled solutions that address unmet needs across the care continuum. You will work closely with the Value-Based Partnership team to identify and engage key U.S. partners that can help close care gaps through AI, advanced analytics, and digital innovation. 

Key Responsibilities:

• Provide strategic direction and indirectly oversee a leading Digital and Precision Health organization, ensuring strong alignment between U.S. Therapy Areas (TAs) and Brand teams. 

• Collaborate with the U.S. Projects Director – Digital Precision Healthcare to deliver and evolve the US innovation strategy, incorporating AI and data insights in response to emerging needs and shifting therapeutic priorities. 

• Act as a trusted advisor to the U.S. Leadership Team, providing data-informed guidance on digital and AI solutions that address priority care gaps, and ensuring leadership can effectively articulate project value and patient impact. 

• Identify, evaluate, and partner with external AI and digital health innovators offering unique solutions to address business-critical unmet needs from U.S. Commercial and Medical teams. 

• Lead the problem statement framing and ideation stages of project delivery, ensuring that AI and digital innovation are leveraged to reimagine traditional care pathways in areas of true unmet need. 

• Oversee the planning, prioritization, and execution of strategically aligned projects aimed at enhancing care pathways and improving patient outcomes through responsible use of AI and data science. 

• Partner cross-functionally (Commercial, Medical, Market Access, Diagnostics, R&D) to ensure seamless alignment and successful implementation of initiatives. 

• Ensure every project has clear, measurable KPIs that demonstrate the impact of AI and digital health investments across therapeutic areas. 

• Manage project timelines, budgets, and resources to ensure delivery excellence and scalability. 

• Proactively identify and mitigate risks, ensuring responsible and ethical use of data and AI technologies. 

• Monitor and report progress, providing regular updates to senior leadership and during Quarterly Project Reviews. 

• In collaboration with the Value-Based Partnership team, develop strategic alliances with technology and data partners driving next-generation digital precision healthcare. 

In this role, you will also: 

• Mentor and support the professional growth of the Digital Care Pathway Optimization team, fostering AI literacy and innovation culture. 

• Provide expert guidance on precision medicine, companion diagnostics, and AI-embedded clinical decision support tools, ensuring regional consistency and knowledge transfer. 

• Build and maintain strong collaborations across Commercial, R&D, key markets, thought leaders, and patient groups—ensuring that all initiatives address prioritized patient and healthcare system needs. 

• Partner with the EUCAN Lead – Digital Precision Healthcare to ensure strategic and narrative alignment across regions, demonstrating the collective impact of digital and AI innovation.  
  

Essential requirements

• Advanced degree (Master’s or PhD) in a relevant field such as Biomedical Engineering, Data Science, Computational Biology, Bioinformatics, Digital Health, or Artificial Intelligence. 

• Proven experience leading or contributing to AI-enabled medical or biological projects, such as biomarker discovery, digital pathology, patient stratification, clinical decision support, or disease modeling. 

• Hands-on understanding of AI and data science principles (e.g., machine learning, natural language processing, computer vision, multimodal data integration) and their application in healthcare and life sciences. 

• Track record of translating biological or clinical data into actionable insights that improve diagnosis, treatment selection, or patient outcomes. 

• Experience partnering with AI startups, technology platforms, or academic consortia to co-develop innovative digital health or precision medicine solutions. 

• Strong understanding of data governance, privacy, and ethical AI principles, particularly within regulated healthcare environments. 

• Experience in real-world data (RWD) and real-world evidence (RWE) generation, and how AI can enhance clinical and operational decision-making. 

• Demonstrated ability to scale AI-driven initiatives from pilot to implementation, ensuring measurable impact on patient care and organizational goals. 

• Comfort with data-driven storytelling, synthesizing scientific, technical, and commercial insights to influence executive decision-making. 

• Commitment to responsible innovation, ensuring that AI and digital technologies are deployed ethically, transparently, and with measurable value for patients and healthcare systems. 
  

When we put unexpected teams in the same room, we foster bold thinking with the power to inspire life-changing medicines. In-person working gives us the platform we need to connect, work at pace and challenge perceptions. That's why we work, on average, a minimum of three days per week from the office. But that doesn't mean we're not flexible. We balance the expectation of being in the office while respecting individual flexibility.