Director Field Medical Capabilities

The Director of Global Field Medical Capabilities is an important role responsible for establishing, implementing, and continuously improving Alexion’s field-based Medical Affairs excellence programs across the global organization. This critical role partners with Global, Regional, and Local colleagues to ensure the vision and strategy of the Global Medical leadership team are translated into consistent, high-quality field execution, while enabling appropriate local adaptation.

Field medical employees, including Medical Science Liaisons (MSLs), are an important team and serve as the direct medical and scientific interface with healthcare professionals worldwide. The Director will strengthen the field-medical value proposition by setting global standards, building a community of practice, and enabling fit-for-purpose tools, training, and performance insights. This role requires strong matrix leadership, influencing skills, and close collaboration with the US, International, EUCAN and Japan teams to share best practices and harmonize global approaches where appropriate. The Director will act as a strategic consultant to the regional teams who own and operate the CRM capability—supporting requirements, adoption, and field usability—while partnering closely with Field Execution Leads who are accountable for pull-through of priority activities (e.g., FMSP) across regions and affiliates.

Job Duties and Responsibilities

• Builds a culture of Global Field Medical Excellence by developing a ‘community of practice’ that clearly highlights the value of the MSL role while defining global best practice and enabling regional/affiliate adaptation.

• Leads the creation and governance of global standards for field medical execution (e.g., SOPs, playbooks, ways of working, core capabilities, and toolkits) in partnership with Global and regional Medical Affairs, Medical Operations, and Compliance.

• Partners closely with the US, International, EUCAN and Japan teams to share learnings, co-develop scalable approaches, and ensure alignment on priority field medical excellence initiatives across the enterprise.

• Acts as a consultant to the regional teams responsible for the CRM capability (e.g., AlexCRM) by supporting field requirements, usability, reporting needs, and adoption—without day-to-day system ownership—while promoting consistent global metrics, data quality expectations, and user best practices.

• Defines and establishes appropriate alignment of MSL activities, skill development, and performance tracking at a global level

  • Supports implementation of globally consistent KPIs/scorecards and high-quality activity/insight capture in coordination with Medical Operations and regional/affiliate stakeholders.

  • In collaboration with Global, Regional, and Local medical operations, drives delivery of insights (monthly/quarterly/annual as appropriate) for Global Medical leadership to guide decisions and continuous improvement.

  • Advances an ‘insights-driven mindset’ by shaping global insight standards, feedback loops, and processes to ensure field insights are actionable and inform medical strategy.

  • Advises regional and country teams to balance quantitative and qualitative metrics to demonstrate the field medical value proposition in a way that truly reflects scientific exchange, impact, and quality.

• Partners with Field Execution Leads to drive pull-through of priority field activities and programs (e.g., FMSP), ensuring that enablement, tools, and measurement support consistent execution across regions and affiliates.

• Builds strong partnerships with the training team to define a global field medical capability framework and deliver curricula for onboarding, scientific/medical competencies, and excellence skills (e.g., insights, stakeholder planning, compliant engagement, and use of digital tools).

• Leverages AstraZeneca enterprise partnerships through networks such as One MedEx initiative—sharing/learning from enterprise best practices, co-developing common approaches, and enabling consistent standards and toolkits across functions where relevant.

• Champions responsible use of AI and digital enablement to improve field effectiveness, including AI-supported coaching, in-call effectiveness, and scalable feedback mechanisms for MSL skill development.

• Operationalises and continuously improves the MSL Hub and SharePoint as the ‘one stop shop’ for field medical excellence assets—governance, information architecture, content lifecycle, and findability—supporting global consistency and local relevance.

• Collaborates with HR and Field Medical leadership to evolve tools supporting hiring, onboarding, development, and retention of field medical teams, including role profiles, competency models, and career pathways.

• Manages the matrix by building a network of Field Medical Excellence advocates across regions/affiliates to accelerate adoption, capture feedback, and continuously raise standards.

• Collaborates with Commercial and R&D functions across AstraZeneca as appropriate to leverage enterprise tools, systems, and ways of working in support of compliant, efficient field medical execution.

• Remains aware of changes to the regulatory environment likely to impact field medical activities; builds global guidance that enables compliant execution while allowing appropriate regional/local tailoring.

• Monitors and keeps abreast of industry best practices and emerging trends (including AI-enabled field excellence) to ensure Alexion’s global field teams remain current and high-performing.

• Embodies Alexion’s culture—leads by example and works with the highest degree of professionalism and in accordance with the company’s policies and Code of Ethics and Business Conduct.

Qualifications, Competencies, and Capabilities

• Minimum 10 years’ experience in the Pharmaceutical / Biotechnology industry with proven success in Medical Affairs, field medical leadership, medical operations, or a closely related commercial/strategy role.

• Demonstrated experience leading field medical excellence, capabilities, and/or above-country field teams/MSLs in a highly matrixed global organization; rare disease experience preferred.

• Strong strategic thinking and execution discipline with the ability to translate global strategy into scalable processes, tools, and measurable field outcomes.

• Proven ability to influence without authority and build trusted partnerships across Global, regions, affiliates (including the US), Medical Operations, Training, HR, Compliance, and cross-functional stakeholders.

• Experience working with CRM and digital platforms in a consultative/enablement capacity (requirements, adoption, reporting, usability) and comfort partnering with system owners.

• Demonstrated capability in data-driven performance enablement (KPI design, dashboards/scorecards, insight quality, and continuous improvement).

• Working knowledge of responsible AI applications in field effectiveness (e.g., coaching, in-call effectiveness, knowledge management) and ability to partner with enterprise teams to implement compliant solutions.

• Excellent oral and written communication and presentation skills; exceptional business aptitude, creative problem-solving, and change leadership.

• Fluent in English (written and spoken).

• Ability to travel globally as needed to support regions/affiliates and attend field visits (subject to applicable restrictions).

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in a scientific (preferred) or business field.

Preferred Qualifications

• Previous MSL, MSL Manager, Field Medical Excellence, or Medical Operations experience in a rare disease organization.

• Prior people and/or matrix management experience, including leading communities of practice and change programs across regions/affiliates.

• Demonstration of coaching, mentoring, and developing high performance teams within a large, complex, highly matrixed business.

• Experience partnering with enterprise initiatives (e.g., One MedEx) and operationalising knowledge hubs (e.g., SharePoint/MSL Hub) with strong governance and content lifecycle management.

Date Posted

Closing Date

Alexion is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action employer. We are committed to fostering a culture of belonging where every single person can belong because of their uniqueness. The Company will not make decisions about employment, training, compensation, promotion, and other terms and conditions of employment based on race, color, religion, creed or lack thereof, sex, sexual orientation, age, ancestry, national origin, ethnicity, citizenship status, marital status, pregnancy, (including childbirth, breastfeeding, or related medical conditions), parental status (including adoption or surrogacy), military status, protected veteran status, disability, medical condition, gender identity or expression, genetic information, mental illness or other characteristics protected by law. Alexion provides reasonable accommodations to meet the needs of candidates and employees. To begin an interactive dialogue with Alexion regarding an accommodation, please contact accommodations@Alexion.com. Alexion participates in E-Verify.