Senior Director, Head of US Training, Rare Diseases

AstraZeneca • Boston, MA

7d • $206,309 - $309,463 • Hybrid

About The Position

The Head of US Training, Rare Disease Unit (RDU) is the senior leader responsible for shaping and executing the training strategy that supports US Rare Disease commercial, access, clinical, and patient facing teams. You will define the vision for how training elevates capability, drives competitive performance, and enhances the overall rare disease customer and patient experience.
You will oversee training across three core pillars:
1. Clinical Training (Disease Awareness & Pathophysiology)
2. Healthcare System / Market Access / Soft Skills
3. Patient Services Training
As a Senior Director, you will lead a ~15 person team, collaborate across US Commercial and Medical, and work in close partnership with Global Training to ensure alignment, leverage global assets, and shape next generation capability frameworks.
You will be responsible for:
Strategic Training Leadership
• Develop and execute a unified US RDU training strategy aligned to brand, medical, global, and field priorities.
• Elevate training as a strategic differentiator — building the clinical fluency, marketplace understanding, and behavioral excellence necessary to succeed in rare disease.
• Partner deeply with Global Training to harmonize training frameworks, adapt global content for US needs, and contribute US insights into global learning strategy.
• Champion the adoption of digital capabilities and AI enabled learning tools to design next generation, bespoke training solutions that elevate engagement, personalize learning pathways, and drive measurable performance impact.
________________________________________
People Leadership
• Lead, inspire, and develop a team of ~15 across clinical, access/soft skills, and patient services training verticals.
• Foster a culture of innovation, continuous improvement, and excellence in adult learning.
• Manage internal resources and external vendors to ensure agile, high quality delivery.
________________________________________
Clinical Training (Disease Awareness & Pathophysiology)
• Oversee creation and delivery of clinical training covering disease awareness, diagnostic pathways, burden of disease, and competitive landscapes.
• Ensure all training is medically aligned, compliant, and designed for real world application.
• Partner with Medical Affairs, Compliance, and Legal to ensure rigor and appropriate review.
________________________________________
Healthcare System / Market Access / Soft Skills Training
• Lead training that strengthens understanding of US healthcare system dynamics, reimbursement pathways, policy environment, and access drivers.
• Develop and evolve soft skills capabilities, including:
o Competitive selling
o Situational leadership
o Communication excellence
o Effective customer engagement
o Objection handling
• Partner with Market Access, Field Leadership, and L&D to ensure consistent capability expectations across the organization.
________________________________________
Patient Services Training
• Lead the training strategy for Patient Services teams, ensuring strong alignment to service model, systems, workflows, and compliance/privacy expectations.
• Support onboarding, change management, systems adoption, and continuous learning.
• Work closely with Patient Services leadership to ensure teams are fully prepared to deliver exceptional support across the patient journey.
________________________________________
Operational Excellence
• Oversee the end to end training calendar including onboarding, POA, skill building programs, and continuous capability development.
• Standardize training processes, documentation, and curriculum frameworks in alignment with Alexion RDU standards.
• Establish KPIs to measure training effectiveness and leverage insights to optimize learning pathways.
• Integrate digital platforms and AI driven learning design to personalize content, streamline development, and scale high impact training.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in scientific, healthcare, business, education, or related field.
• 10+ years of experience in biopharma training, commercial operations, medical education, or field leadership; rare disease experience strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated success leading multi disciplinary teams and managing large scale training programs.
• Strong understanding of clinical concepts, healthcare system dynamics, and patient support operations.
• Exceptional communication, facilitation, and change leadership skills.
• Proven ability to design training that integrates clinical, system, and behavioral capability-building.

Nice To Haves

• Advanced degree (MBA, MS, PharmD, MPH, etc.).
• Experience partnering with Global Training/Global Commercial functions.
• Hands on experience with AI enabled learning technologies, digital L&D platforms, and adaptive learning models.
• Experience supporting product launches or capability transformation in rare disease.

Responsibilities

• Develop and execute a unified US RDU training strategy aligned to brand, medical, global, and field priorities.
• Elevate training as a strategic differentiator — building the clinical fluency, marketplace understanding, and behavioral excellence necessary to succeed in rare disease.
• Partner deeply with Global Training to harmonize training frameworks, adapt global content for US needs, and contribute US insights into global learning strategy.
• Champion the adoption of digital capabilities and AI enabled learning tools to design next generation, bespoke training solutions that elevate engagement, personalize learning pathways, and drive measurable performance impact.
• Lead, inspire, and develop a team of ~15 across clinical, access/soft skills, and patient services training verticals.
• Foster a culture of innovation, continuous improvement, and excellence in adult learning.
• Manage internal resources and external vendors to ensure agile, high quality delivery.
• Oversee creation and delivery of clinical training covering disease awareness, diagnostic pathways, burden of disease, and competitive landscapes.
• Ensure all training is medically aligned, compliant, and designed for real world application.
• Partner with Medical Affairs, Compliance, and Legal to ensure rigor and appropriate review.
• Lead training that strengthens understanding of US healthcare system dynamics, reimbursement pathways, policy environment, and access drivers.
• Develop and evolve soft skills capabilities, including: Competitive selling, Situational leadership, Communication excellence, Effective customer engagement, Objection handling
• Partner with Market Access, Field Leadership, and L&D to ensure consistent capability expectations across the organization.
• Lead the training strategy for Patient Services teams, ensuring strong alignment to service model, systems, workflows, and compliance/privacy expectations.
• Support onboarding, change management, systems adoption, and continuous learning.
• Work closely with Patient Services leadership to ensure teams are fully prepared to deliver exceptional support across the patient journey.
• Oversee the end to end training calendar including onboarding, POA, skill building programs, and continuous capability development.
• Standardize training processes, documentation, and curriculum frameworks in alignment with Alexion RDU standards.
• Establish KPIs to measure training effectiveness and leverage insights to optimize learning pathways.
• Integrate digital platforms and AI driven learning design to personalize content, streamline development, and scale high impact training.

Benefits

• Annual base salary for this position ranges from $206,308.80 - 309,463.20 USD Annual AstraZeneca is committed to providing fair and equitable compensation opportunities to all colleagues. Our compensation policies and practices have been designed to allow colleagues to progress through the salary range over time as they progress in their role. The range provided in this posting represents an offer pay range used in a majority of situations. The base pay offered will vary depending on multiple individualized factors, including the candidate's skills and experience, job-related knowledge, and other specific business and organizational needs. In some cases, offers outside the range may also be considered to address unique circumstances.
• In addition, our permanent positions offer an annual Variable Pay Bonus/Short Term Incentive opportunity as well as eligibility to participate in our equity-based long-term incentive program (if applicable to role). Benefits offered for permanent roles include a competitive Flex Benefits & Retirement Savings Program, 4 weeks’ paid vacation, and annual Personal Days. Fixed Term Contract/Temporary positions (excluding students) are offered a Contract Benefits Program.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director