Director, Generative AI – Chemical Development

Director, Generative AI – Chemical Development

Introduction to Role

Are you ready to shape the future of pharmaceutical development through the power of Generative AI? At AstraZeneca, we are pushing the boundaries of science to deliver life-changing medicines.

We are seeking a Director, Generative AI – Chemical Development to drive the strategy, prioritisation, and adoption of Generative AI and agentic workflows across Chemical Development. In this pivotal role, you will transform how our scientists make decisions, accelerate CMC delivery, and embed intelligent automation into everyday ways of working.

Accountabilities

As the Director, Generative AI – Chemical Development, you will define and deliver the GenAI and agent strategy for Chemical Development, ensuring alignment with business processes, CMC milestones, quality, compliance, and AstraZeneca's enterprise digital strategy.

You will lead a team of five and provide direction, support, and development opportunities that enable the team to deliver against this strategy. You will identify and drive high-value opportunities across areas such as technical report generation, knowledge mining, experiment planning support, documentation workflows, risk assessment, and regulatory content support.

Working closely with the Chem Dev Business Process Network, data and process modelling experts, Enterprise AI, and Lab of the Future teams, you will establish a robust prioritisation framework for use cases grounded in value, feasibility, risk, data readiness, and change impact. Partnering with scientific, quality, regulatory, data, IT, and compliance stakeholders, you will ensure that solutions are usable, governed, and scalable.

You will build organisational confidence in GenAI by setting clear expectations for responsible use, human oversight, validation, and risk management, and by creating a roadmap to embed AI into routine scientific workflows and laboratory and development activities.

Typical responsibilities include owning the Chemical Development GenAI portfolio and defining a multi-year roadmap that positions AI as a core capability underpinning future scientific excellence. You will chair or contribute to governance forums for AI use case approval and value realisation, define success metrics such as cycle time reduction, document quality improvement, knowledge retrieval efficiency, and scientist adoption, and communicate vision and progress to senior stakeholders.

What You’ll Bring

You will combine experience in Generative AI, scientific informatics, automation, or related digital technologies with the ability to lead multidisciplinary teams and influence senior stakeholders.

You will understand how to translate scientific workflows into practical AI use cases and will have experience with technologies such as LLMs, RAG, AI agents, and prompt engineering. An understanding of chemical development workflows, GxP, data integrity, compliance, and governance will be important, alongside experience leading digital or AI initiatives and organisational change.

Clear communication, effective stakeholder management, and the ability to work across scientific, quality, regulatory, data, IT, and compliance functions are essential. Experience with scientific documentation, knowledge management, and regulated data will also be valuable.

We encourage applications from candidates who meet most, rather than necessarily all, of the criteria.

It Would Be Advantageous If You Also Have

Experience in pharmaceutical CMC would be advantageous, although it is not essential.

Why AstraZeneca?

At AstraZeneca, we are driven by our purpose to push the boundaries of science to deliver life-changing medicines. Here, you'll be part of a team that thrives on innovation, where digital and AI are transforming every stage of drug development. We foster an inclusive culture that champions diverse perspectives, empowers bold thinking, and rewards those who challenge the status quo.

Recognising the importance of individualised flexibility, our ways of working allow employees to balance personal and work commitments while ensuring we continue to create a strong culture of collaboration and teamwork by engaging face-to-face in our offices minimum of 3 days a week.

So, What's Next?

Are you ready to bring new insights and fresh thinking to the table? Brilliant! We have one seat available, and we hope it's yours. Apply now to join us on this exciting journey.

Date Posted

20-Aug-2026

Closing Date

30-Aug-2026

Our mission is to build an inclusive and equitable environment. We want people to feel they belong at AstraZeneca and Alexion, starting with our recruitment process. We welcome and consider applications from all qualified candidates, regardless of characteristics. We offer reasonable adjustments/accommodations to help all candidates to perform at their best. If you have a need for any adjustments/accommodations, please complete the section in the application form.