AstraZeneca Posted September 23, 2026

Medical Science Liaison - Alexion

Cambridge, United Kingdom Full time
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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

Job Title: Medical Science Liaison

Location: Field - Birmingham, Manchester, Sheffield

Competitive salary and benefits 

Introduction to role:

Are you ready to turn science into meaningful change for people living with rare disease? In this field-based role, you will connect cutting-edge evidence to real-world practice, shaping how Rare Bone & Endocrinology diseases and Rare Tumours are understood and treated across the UK.

Your strong scientific, clinical and therapeutic area expertise will deliver high-quality scientific exchange, generate actionable insights, and contribute to personalised healthcare professional (HCP) engagement journeys. You will implement field medical tactics aligned to the medical strategic plan, connecting scientific priorities, customer needs, healthcare system opportunities and customer-experience objectives into focused engagement plans.

You will join a high-performing medical team that thrives on cross-functional collaboration and thoughtful challenge. You need to apply a customer experience mindset, maintain live competitive and scientific awareness, collaborate across Medical Affairs, Commercial, Market Access, Digital/Ops and field colleagues, and use approved data, insight and AI-enabled tools to personalise compliant HCP engagement, while safeguarding scientific integrity and ethical judgement.

Accountabilities:

Scientific Engagement, Account Progression & Customer Impact: Develop and execute scientific stakeholder engagement plans for priority HCPs, centres and networks, aligned to medical strategy and local healthcare system needs; Prioritise scientific activity using customer need, pathway opportunity, strategic importance and stakeholder medical advocacy potential; Use structured account planning to support customer and centre progression, identifying barriers, opportunities, scientific maturity and appropriate next best medical actions; Implement focused field medical tactics, applying scientific judgement to ensure plans are feasible, relevant and customer-centred; Use approved data, analytics and AI-enabled tools to tailor compliant HCP engagement, while retaining accountability for scientific accuracy, integrity and judgement; Contribute to high-quality scientific exchange that improves customer understanding, supports appropriate decision-making and strengthens the overall HCP experience.

 

Insight Generation, Evidence Development & Strategic Contribution: Generate, curate and interpret high-quality scientific, clinical, customer and healthcare-system insights from scientific exchange, congresses, publications and field activities; Identify insight patterns across accounts and networks to highlight emerging trends, evidence gaps, pathway barriers and customer needs; Translate insights into clear recommendations that inform medical strategy, evidence priorities, segmentation, customer progression plans and field medical tactics; Contribute to evidence-generation, scientific partnership, pathway-mapping, service-optimisation and medical-impact initiatives; Build trusted scientific partnerships across healthcare ecosystems to support evidence generation, service innovation, clinical pathway optimisation and improved patient outcomes; Ensure insights are captured promptly through approved systems and used to inform evolving customer experience journeys and tactical refinement.

Customer Journey Participation & Scientific Content Excellence: Deliver scientific engagement aligned to customer challenges, scientific maturity, medical strategy and defined customer-experience priorities; Select and use appropriate scientific content, educational resources and evidence to support meaningful progression of customer understanding and decision-making; Participate in coordinated customer journeys, ensuring medical engagement complements broader engagement plans while maintaining scientific independence and governance; Use customer analytics, segmentation and engagement data where approved to refine HCP journeys and improve customer and healthcare system outcomes; Ensure all scientific exchange, content use, insight capture and AI-assisted outputs remain compliant, scientifically robust and aligned with the ABPI Code.

Cross-functional Collaboration, Capability Building & Medical Leadership: Partner with Medical Affairs, Market Access, Commercial, Digital/Ops, Country Operations and other cross-functional stakeholders to translate external insight into practical action; Convert scientific, customer and healthcare-system intelligence into clear recommendations that support medical value, access priorities and field medical execution; Support alignment across internal stakeholders to maintain one connected, compliant HCP experience; Contribute to field medical workstreams, including insight curation, scientific partnerships, medical education and cross-functional delivery planning; Share field learnings, best practice and practical feedback with MSLs and field medical peers to build consistency and quality of insight generation; Contribute to field medical metrics and reporting so outputs reflect quality, progression and impact as well as activity.

Compliance and Governance: Remain up to date on ABPI Code changes and integrate updates into ways of working; consistently deliver high-quality, compliant scientific exchange and field medical activities.

Field Presence and Travel: Operate as a field medical expert across the UK, with considerable national travel and some international travel to scientific congresses to maintain strong external engagement and continuous learning.

Essential Skills/Experience:

- Bachelor’s degree in a scientific discipline (e.g. Medicine, Pharmacy or disease-related science) and/or experience within Medical (i.e. MSL, MAA)

-Relevant experience within Medical Affairs, with established field medical or MSL experience preferred.

-Training or equivalent capability in scientific engagement excellence, insight generation and interpretation, stakeholder engagement, account planning, cross-functional collaboration and customer-centred engagement approaches.

-Ability to work independently, exercise judgement in ambiguous situations and make sound prioritisation decisions.

-Ability to navigate a matrixed cross-functional environment and align multiple internal stakeholders to support connected field medical priorities.

-Sound application of ABPI Code requirements, compliance principles and scientific integrity in all field medical activities.

- Ability to work independently, manage multiple priorities and deliver field medical tactics within agreed timeframes

- Valid driving license for the UK

- Understanding of ABPI Code of Practice and its practical application (or willingness to train)

Desirable Skills/Experience:

- Higher degree in science or business subject

- Project management accreditation or equivalent

-Experience contributing to scientific partnerships, evidence-generation programmes, pathway-improvement initiatives or service-optimisation work.

-Experience using structured account-planning approaches.

-Experience contributing to customer experience or journey-based engagement models.

-Experience leveraging data, advanced analytics or AI-enabled platforms to personalise engagement, interpret insights and improve customer or healthcare system outcomes.

-Experience operating across multiple stakeholder groups within complex healthcare systems.

-Working knowledge of AI-enabled Medical Affairs, including approved AI tools, advanced analytics, predictive insights and digital engagement platforms.

-Innovation, problem-solving and opportunity-spotting to identify evidence gaps, emerging needs and improvement opportunities.

Why AstraZeneca:

Join a rare disease-focused medical team inside a global organisation where entrepreneurial pace meets robust investment. You will work close to patients and the clinicians who care for them, using science and insight to shape pathways and prepare for launches that change lives. Expect unexpected teams in the same room unleashing bold thinking, access to leading-edge data and platforms, and support to stretch beyond your lane as you grow your impact. We value kindness alongside ambition, encourage ownership, and back your development so you can define a career of uncommon purpose and scope.

Date Posted

23-Sept-2026

Closing Date

06-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
Not listed
Location
Cambridge, 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 1126 comparable Medical Affairs roles across 161 biopharma companies.

1126Comparable roles tracked
1072Currently active
161Companies hiring similar roles
57Countries represented

Salary context

301 of 1126 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 $223,450)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 1126 comparable roles

United States534
Japan70
China55
China's Mainland50
Germany49
United Kingdom45

+ 51 more countries

Seniority mix

695 of 1126 peers have a known seniority level

Director203
Senior171
Manager125
Associate Director68
Associate56
Executive/VP26
Intern/Fellow/Postdoc21
Senior Director19
Principal6

Therapeutic area mix

390 of 1126 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden

Oncology156
Neuroscience46
Rare Disease37
Immunology34
Cardiovascular / CVRM32
Dermatology & Aesthetics31
Vaccines & Infectious Disease21
Respiratory20
Gastroenterology9
Ophthalmology4

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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.

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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.