Associate Director Patient Centricity - R&D External Partnership Enablement

The Associate Director, Patient Centricity enables patient-centred practices across R&D by supporting the delivery of strategy, processes, tools and governance across Patient-Centred Development (PCD), Representation in Clinical Trials, Health Equity in Science and Bioethics. 

Working globally in a matrix environment, the role partners with therapy areas (TAs) and enterprise functions to embed patient voice, generate and apply patient experience data, representativeness, health equity and ethical guardrails into development strategy, design and delivery. 

The role helps scale consistent ways of working across the TAs by developing and evolving frameworks, Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), templates, training and resources that support compliant, inspection-ready patient centered development.  

The role will support with portfolio planning, milestone tracking, risk and issue management, metrics, tracking and reporting to demonstrate adoption, business value and continuous improvement.  This will be achieved though coordination of cross-functional workstreams, vendors and external partners. 

Role-specific accountabilities: R&D External Partnership Enablement (Patient Advocacy Groups)   

• Improve and scale R&D capabilities to compliantly engage with global Patient Advocacy Groups, in line with external codes, internal guidance, modern best practices, and Global Corporate Affairs policies and standards. 

• Partner with PCD directors, Global Corporate Affairs, therapy area teams, Legal, Compliance, Procurement, Finance and other cross-functional stakeholders to establish and maintain robust PAG engagement processes and capabilities meeting current needs, enable robust future practice, and support aligned enterprise understanding and activation. 

• Orchestrate cross-functional R&D deliverables within CMO to build, implement and continuously improve PAG engagement capabilities, including work guidance, SOPs, tools, training and resources. 

• Establish and maintain Patient Expert Councils in line with internal guidance, processes and best practices, in collaboration with Global Corporate Affairs, PCD directors and/or established vendors. 

Education, qualifications, skills and experience 

Essential 

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience in life sciences, health sciences, patient engagement, public health, or a related discipline 

• Experience working with Patient Advocacy Groups, patient organisations, patient communities, patient experts and/or caregivers in a pharmaceutical, biotech, academic, non-profit or healthcare setting. 

• Knowledge of patient engagement regulations, industry guidance, patient compensation principles, transparency expectations and/or standards governing patient interactions. 

• Experience building infrastructure or managing processes, operating models, guidance, templates, training, governance forums or capability programmes in a global matrix organisation.  

• Demonstrated ability to work with cross-functional stakeholders including Clinical Development, Clinical Operations, Regulatory, Patient Safety, Global Corporate Affairs, Commercial, Legal, Compliance, Procurement and external partners.  

• Strong understanding of drug development, clinical trial design and delivery, and the role of patient voice, patient experience data, representativeness, health equity and ethical considerations in R&D decision-making. 

• Strong project management skills, including planning,  stakeholder management and delivery to time, quality and cost. 

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to translate complex requirements into practical, user-friendly guidance and executive-ready materials. 

• High degree of judgement, integrity and comfort operating in new areas requiring compliance, ethics, external engagement and reputational sensitivity. 

Desirable 

• Experience with SPOL/SharePoint sites, digital intake tools, dashboards, metrics reporting, process simplification or AI-enabled workflow improvements. 

• Experience across multiple therapy areas and/or global, regional and local operating models. 

• Vendor, partnership or supplier management experience, including contracting, service-level management and continuous improvement. 

Core capabilities / behaviours 

• Patient-first and enterprise-minded: connects patient benefit, science, ethics and business value. 

• Structured and pragmatic: turns ambiguity into clear processes and decisions. 

• Collaborative: builds trust across functions and geographies. 

• Compliance-aware: scales ways of working with appropriate guardrails. 

• Data-driven communicator: uses evidence and insight to prioritise and improve. 

• Change enabler: drives adoption through engagement, training and improvement.