Associate Director - Advanced Drug Delivery

At AstraZeneca we turn ideas into life changing medicines and strive to continuously meet the unmet needs of patients worldwide. Working here means being entrepreneurial, thinking big, and working together to make the impossible a reality. If you are swift to action, confident to lead, willing to collaborate, and curious about what science can do, then you're our kind of person.



Pharmaceutical Sciences at AstraZeneca delivers the therapies of the future through scientific leadership in drug delivery, design of synthetic routes, and manufacturing of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) and drug products. Our portfolio of projects spans small molecules, peptides, oligonucleotides to RNA-based therapeutics across AstraZeneca's therapy areas. Advanced Drug Delivery (ADD) resides within Pharmaceutical Sciences with a mission to transform diverse modalities into investigational medicines

We now seek a talented, motivated Associate Director to lead a preformulation team in Gothenburg, Sweden.



What You will do

This is an exciting role aimed at leading proof-of-concept testing of new drug delivery technologies and help us drive the delivery of amino-acid and nucleotide based therapeutics, drug targeting, and local delivery for the Biopharmaceutical R&D portfolio. As ADD Preformulation Associate Director you will provide discovery support, input to compound and excipient design/selection as well as lead development and scale-up of formulations for our peptide, oligonucleotide, and mRNA portfolio. This will include contributing to formulation scale-up and analytical methods for clinical development, when the activities are conducted via partnering.



Your broad understanding of the discovery to launch drug development process, and excellent stakeholder management skills will ensure your ADD team provides first class scientific input and enabling insight to key functions across Pharmaceutical Sciences, Biopharmaceutical R&D as a whole, and beyond. You will be reporting to the Head of Advanced Drug Delivery and collaborate closely with other ADD teams located in Waltham/US, Cambridge/UK and Gothenburg/Sweden.



Essential Requirements

* Ph.D degree in a relevant scientific discipline.
* Industrial or academic experience with new modality drug delivery, formulation and/or analytical method research or development
* Experience with outsourcing/partnering in formulation and analytical development
* Track record as a scientific leader in a formulation or drug delivery discipline, providing scientific challenge and direction to team members.
* Ability and proven track record in influencing drug substance and product design
* Knowledge of the overall drug research and development process from Discovery through to Launch, and an appreciation of how Pharmaceutical Sciences disciplines contribute to R&D and the broader business
* Understanding of the Astra Zeneca's disease areas to enable influencing of drug and drug product design.
* A leader of a product development scientific skill discipline including external visibility through publications, presentations and networking activities. Capable of and desire for continuing to develop self in this arena.
* Exposure to multiple disciplines in Pharmaceutical Development or Chemistry Manufacturing or Controls, and related functions
* Prior experience of leading, coaching and developing a team of scientists and experience of leading and managing change processes
* Innovative, with a passion for driving scientific excellence and a continuous improvement mind-set.
* Strong project management skills, with experience of managing external collaborations.
* Innovative, with a passion driving scientific excellence and a continuous improvement mind-set
* Ability to effectively communicate, network and build strong collaborative relationships with stakeholders across disciplines and cultures, internally and externally.
* Thorough understanding of principles, applications and management of Safety Health and Environment (SHE) and Good Manufacturing and Laboratory Practices (GMP/GLP).



Apply now to join us and help turn ideas into life changing medicines!

For more information about the position please contact Annette Bak, Head Advanced Drug Delivery at annette.bak@astrazeneca.com

We encourage you to send your application as soon as possible, but no later than October 20th