AstraZeneca Posted October 1, 2026

Medical Affairs Lead - Neurology

London, United Kingdom Full time
Medical Affairs Neuroscience
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AstraZeneca is the source of truth for this posting and owns the application process. We surface normalized context and market comparison you won't find on the original listing.

About this opportunity

Medical Affairs Lead - Neurology

London

Competitive Salary & Benefits

Closing Date: 16th October 2026

Introduction to role:

Are you ready to influence the neurology medical strategy for the UK and Ireland and translate evidence into better patient pathways?

Purpose:

Provide medical leadership for a disease area and, in partnership with the Commercial Franchise Lead, jointly own the development and delivery of the country Disease Strategic Plan. Translate scientific evidence and insights from healthcare professionals, clinical opinion leaders, patients and healthcare systems into clear disease-area priorities. Lead a high-performing Medical Affairs team to deliver connected, relevant and personalised experiences that provide value to clients and promote scientific advocacy. Use approved data, analytics and artificial intelligence tools to identify insights, set priorities and improve delivery, while remaining accountable for scientific judgement, medical review, ethics and compliance.

Accountabilities:

Disease Strategy, Medical Insight and Evidence , jointly own the Disease Strategic Plan with the Commercial Franchise Lead and lead the development, implementation and evaluation of the associated medical tactical plan.

Customer Experience, Clinical Opinion Leader Engagement and Partnerships, translate the enterprise customer-experience vision into disease-area priorities. Develop medical content plans and coordinated scientific engagement that deliver value for customers and advance scientific advocacy.

Medical Team and Change Leadership , lead inclusively, build capability and accountability, and develop an agile and resilient team that embraces data-, digital- and AI-enabled ways of working.

Disease-Area Leadership, Governance and Responsible AI, deliver medical mentorship to support disease-area decisions, prioritisation, OPEX planning, risk management, and medical review. Maintain scientific integrity and ensure AI is used safely, transparently, and compliantly.

Essential Skills/Experience:

Medical degree or bachelor’s degree in medicine, pharmacy, life sciences or another relevant scientific discipline.

Experience in Medical in the Neurology Therapy Area with strong understanding of guidelines and experience launching medicines in this TA.

Significant relevant pharmaceutical-industry experience, including substantial Medical Affairs experience and leadership of sophisticated strategies or workstreams.

Track record of contributing to disease strategy and developing and delivering medical strategy and tactics across the stages of a product lifecycle.

Inclusive people leadership, coaching and capability building in a matrix environment.

Demonstrated ability to advance healthcare professional and clinical opinion leader advocacy through scientific engagement and medical partnerships.

Evidence of translating complex scientific, customer and healthcare-system insights into prioritised decisions and measurable action.

Strong cross-functional collaboration across Medical, Commercial, Market Access, Corporate Affairs and Regulatory Affairs.

Strong working knowledge of the ABPI Code, medical review and pharmaceutical medical-governance requirements.

Demonstrated understanding of customer experience, data, AI, privacy and information security.

Key Capabilities Required to excel in the role:

Customer-experience leadership: starts with the desired customer-experience outcome when designing disease-area priorities and medical tactics

Disease strategy and medical planning: works jointly with the Commercial Franchise Lead to shape the Disease Strategic Plan and translates it into a prioritised, measurable and deliverable medical tactical plan.

Cross-functional engagement: ensures alignment across Medical, Commercial, including Marketing and Sales, Market Access and Corporate Affairs plans and customer engagement, while maintaining appropriate medical independence and accountability.

Clinical opinion leader engagement: owns strategic engagement planning for clinical opinion leaders and builds trusted scientific relationships that deliver customer value and advance scientific advocacy.

Data, AI and responsible judgement: interprets customer and medical data, frames effective questions and selects approved tools

Strategic people and change leadership: sets clear direction and priorities, effectively handles ambiguity, establishes team agility and resilience, coaches and develops capability, and encourages a test-and-learn approach within appropriate governance requirements.

Desirable Skills, Experience & Capabilities:

Postgraduate scientific, medical, public-health, health-economics, digital health, data or AI qualification.

Registered physician, pharmacist or other relevant healthcare professional.

Nominated Signatory or Appropriately Qualified Person status, or willingness and eligibility to attain it.

Experience in rare disease, specialised care or complex healthcare pathways.

Experience of launch readiness, evidence generation, market access or healthcare-system improvement.

Experience implementing customer-experience, omnichannel, advanced analytics or AI-enabled Medical Affairs workflows.

Experience working across healthcare environments in the United Kingdom and Ireland, as well as with regional and global teams. Skills & Capabilities

Solid understanding of audience segmentation, coordinated customer engagement, approved channels and medical content planning.

Ability to use AI instructions, workflow mapping, scenario testing and advanced analytics to improve productivity and decision quality in Medical Affairs.

Service design, pathway mapping or implementation-science capability to support healthcare-system improvement.

When we put unexpected teams in the same room, we ignite 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. Join us in our unique and ambitious world.

Business Area:

Here you will help translate cutting-edge science into meaningful change for people living with disease, working at the intersection of science, medicine and technology. We bring unexpected teams together to spark bold ideas, pairing the energy of a nimble biotech approach with the resources and reach of a global leader. You will work with advanced analytics and ethical AI, collaborate closely with clinicians and health systems, and see your insights turn into better pathways and access. We value kindness alongside ambition, and we support growth with mentoring, autonomy and the opportunity to lead work that matters from day one.

Lead the next chapter of neurology care, take the step today to shape strategy, elevate scientific advocacy and improve patient outcomes!

Apply now and join us on this exciting journey!

Date Posted

01-Oct-2026

Closing Date

16-Oct-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.

Job details

Seniority
Not listed
Function
Medical Affairs
Therapeutic area
Neuroscience
Location
London, United Kingdom
Employment type
Full time

How this role compares

Computed from every other active Medical Affairs role in our database, not just this employer's listings.

We currently track 1172 comparable Medical Affairs roles across 165 biopharma companies.

1172Comparable roles tracked
1037Currently active
165Companies hiring similar roles
57Countries represented

Salary context

294 of 1172 peers report a salary range (USD, annualized)

Peers share this role's job function. This posting doesn't list a seniority level, so peers aren't narrowed by seniority either -- the range below may span more levels than usual.

This roleSubject Not listed on this posting
Highest disclosed · Sr Medical Director (Heme Oncology) (Boston, US) · Servier $298/hr – $350/hr (≈ $619,840–$728,000/yr)
Peer group range $0 – $673,920 (median $231,700)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 1172 comparable roles

United States551
Japan76
Germany53
China53
China's Mainland52
United Kingdom46

+ 51 more countries

Seniority mix

719 of 1172 peers have a known seniority level

Director209
Senior156
Manager138
Associate Director64
Associate63
Executive/VP32
Senior Director25
Intern/Fellow/Postdoc24
Principal8

Therapeutic area mix

397 of 1172 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden

Oncology159
Neuroscience53
Rare Disease36
Immunology33
Cardiovascular / CVRM33
Dermatology & Aesthetics31
Vaccines & Infectious Disease22
Respiratory19
Gastroenterology8
Ophthalmology3

Similar opportunities

The closest matches from our peer group, ranked by how similar they are, not how well you'd qualify for them -- treat this as market context, not a guaranteed shortlist; a weak match is labeled as one below.

80%similar
Ipsen Ltd London (UK), United Kingdom
Same function Same therapeutic area Same country
80%similar
Ipsen Biopharm Ltd London (UK), United Kingdom Director
Same function Same therapeutic area Same country
80%similar
BMS Pharmaceuticals Ltd Uxbridge, United Kingdom
Same function Same therapeutic area Same country
65%similar
AbbVie Taipei, tw Senior
Same function Same therapeutic area
65%similar
Novartis Shanghai (Shanghai), China Associate
Same function Same therapeutic area
65%similar
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc (USA) Remote, United States Associate Director
Same function Same therapeutic area

Notify me about similar jobs

Get an email when we spot other openings like this one – same job function, comparable seniority, roles you'd actually want to see.

How we calculate "similar"

No black box, no LLM guesswork: a deterministic score built from four normalized attributes. Here's this role's own peer group at different match levels, so you can see the mechanism, not just the result.

Every comparison starts from the same 100-point budget: 25 for working in the same function, 40 for the same therapeutic area, 20 for the same or adjacent seniority, 15 for the same country. A dimension we can't confirm on both sides contributes nothing, never a guess, never a free pass.

80%
Medical Science Liaison - Neuroscience
Ipsen Ltd · London (UK), United Kingdom · Seniority not listed
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
65%
(Sr.) Medical Science Liaison, Neuroscience
AbbVie · Taipei, tw · Senior
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
65%
US Senior Medical Director Neurology
Genzyme Corporation · Cambridge, United States · Director
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
65%
Medical Science Liaison, Neurology, Great Lakes
UCB · Detroit, Michigan, United States · Seniority not listed
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
Unmatched or unknown dimensions score exactly the same: 0 points, never a partial guess. A role we know almost nothing about beyond its function bottoms out at 25%; it never inflates to 100% just because there's little to compare against. Seniority uses a defined ladder (Associate → Manager → Associate Director → Senior → Principal → Director → Senior Director → Executive/VP) so "Director" and "Senior Director" count as adjacent, but "Director" and "Executive/VP" do not.