Associate Director, Media Excellence

Introduction to role

As part of the Channel Excellence Team within AstraZeneca’s Omnichannel function, the Media Excellence lead is accountable for championing innovative approaches to paid media that connect with patients and healthcare professionals as a mechanism to achieve brand marketing goals in the US. This role will be responsible for leading and driving our organization’s approach to media planning as well as making specific recommendations for how individual brands use media to achieve marketing goals. As key strategy lead, the Media Strategist will set the strategic visions across paid media channels, inclusive of media mix, audience strategy, and media measurement. The ideal candidate is a self-starter, media expert, and a modern Marketer who demonstrates strong collaboration skills across multiple partners to create and implement media strategies. The pull-through of these strategies requires this person to remain objective while supporting brands and the broader organization in the oversight and performance management of the media agency.

Accountabilities/Responsibilities:

Media Strategy, Planning, and Execution

• Act as the primary internal media contact for the therapeutic area portfolio, brand leads, NPP leads, US engagement leads, and cross-functional teams.
• Partner with Brand Teams and Media Agencies to align business objectives with strategic, actionable media plans.
• Lead the management and performance of Media Agencies, ensuring effective planning, buying, campaign execution, and optimization of integrated paid media strategies.
• Oversee and continuously improve the execution of paid, owned, and earned media campaigns across key platforms, including programmatic, social, search, video, and emerging channels.
• Optimize media mix and budget allocation using data-driven insights, industry benchmarks, and market dynamics.
• Participate in annual brand planning by providing strategic media insights based on market conditions, competitive positioning, and audience analysis.
• Advance AstraZeneca’s Oncology Business Unit (OBU) media planning capabilities by proactively integrating best practices across brands.
• Develop and foster strategic partnerships with key media vendors to enhance efficiency, drive innovation, and future-proof the organization.
• Drive cross-platform media strategies informed by in-depth audience insights and business objectives.

Collaboration and Stakeholder Management

• Develop a Media Sourcing Playbook that standardizes current processes and provides speed to market while driving efficiencies.
• Establish a Center of Excellence (CoE) capability to capture leading practices, lessons learned across brands, and external industry insights, making them available to assist marketers.
• Build a one-stop shop within Media Excellence to address all media-related questions, including agency and publisher inquiries.
• Serve as a trusted subject matter expert in media excellence, training and advising cross-functional teams on best practices, opportunities, and emerging trends.
• Collaborate with internal teams, including Marketing, Omnichannel Strategy, Analytics, Reporting, Regulatory, and Channel Excellence, to ensure media efforts are well-coordinated and aligned.
• Work closely with Omnichannel Strategy team to integrate media plans into broader omnichannel strategies.
• Recommend creative formats and collaborate with analytics teams to improve campaign effectiveness and performance measurement.
• Leverage deep relationships with media agencies to support strategic sourcing and foster long-term partnerships.

Measurement, Reporting, and Optimization

• Collaborate with media agencies, brand teams, and analytics teams to design a robust media measurement framework with clear critical metrics.
• Use advanced analytics and data visualization tools to monitor campaign performance, detect trends, and inform future decisions.
• Regularly review in-flight campaign performance to ensure optimization toward important metrics and recommend strategic pivots as needed.
• Optimize media spend across the organization, enabling return on investment recognition and promo mix modeling to inform future budget allocation.
• Advocate for continuous improvement by driving accountability and ensuring media performance insights translate into future optimizations.

Innovation and Thought Leadership

• Stay ahead of emerging trends in media technology, consumer behavior, and innovations within and beyond the pharmaceutical industry.
• Identify, evaluate, and deploy innovative tools, platforms, and approaches to maintain competitive advantage and enhance campaign effectiveness.
• Drive experimentation with new media channels and strategies, sharing lessons learned to improve future brand success.
• Contribute thought leadership to internal and external teams by proactively sharing insights and recommendations for media excellence.
• Bring a deep understanding of effective media types, data, and regulatory considerations within pharma and oncology, ensuring campaigns adhere to compliance requirements.
• Act as a subject matter expert on media and reporting needs, helping teams assess effectiveness and drive future improvements.

Essential Skills/Experience:

• Bachelor’s Degree
• 6 years of paid media experience across online (display, online video, paid search) and offline (TV, Print, Out of Home) channels
• Experience in client relationship/Internal management
• Demonstrated and measurable experience planning, developing, and implementing media plans, ideally cross-channel
• Knowledge of digital media trends and technologies including programmatic platforms; display, video, social media and mobile advertising; native ad units and content marketing, etc. strongly preferred
• Demonstrated experience leveraging 1st and 3rd party data for targeting, segmentation
• Experience working in collaborative team settings and liaising between agencies and media naive teams
• Experience working with campaigns targeting multiple customer groups
• Exceptional communication skills, including listening as well as explaining complex ideas and technologies
• Independent self-starter with a “plug-and-play” attitude for collaboration
• An excellent presenter and facilitator, adept at creating effective workshops for high-level colleagues and internal partners

Desirable Skills/Experience:

• Experience working in a regulated industry and/or media agency considered an asset
• Comfortable working in a multinational corporate environment

The annual base pay for this position ranges from $180,875.20 to $271,312.80. Hourly and salaried non-exempt employees will also be paid overtime pay when working qualifying overtime hours. Base pay offered may vary depending on multiple individualized factors, including market location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. In addition, our positions offer a short-term incentive bonus opportunity; eligibility to participate in our equity-based long-term incentive program (salaried roles), to receive a retirement contribution (hourly roles), and commission payment eligibility (sales roles). Benefits offered included a qualified retirement program [401(k) plan]; paid vacation and holidays; paid leaves; and, health benefits including medical, prescription drug, dental, and vision coverage in accordance with the terms and conditions of the applicable plans. Additional details of participation in these benefit plans will be provided if an employee receives an offer of employment. If hired, employee will be in an “at-will position” and the Company reserves the right to modify base pay (as well as any other discretionary payment or compensation program) at any time, including for reasons related to individual performance, Company or individual department/team performance, and market factors.

When we put unexpected teams in the same room, we unleash 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.

AstraZeneca offers an environment where you can take ownership, step up and innovate in a company that’s growing at pace. Fast-paced and ever-changing, it takes agility and responsiveness to stay committed in our pursuit of excellence. We work together with a sense of urgency to tackle the unanswered questions – innovating, challenging accepted norms, quick decision-making and taking smart risks. We’ve created a culture where everybody can be themselves and bring their true self to work. Our business is part of AstraZeneca’s journey to cultivate a culture of inclusion by building diverse teams internally while advancing societal change on a wider scale. It's an opportunity to take accountability, be brave, speak up, step up and disrupt to change the game for Oncology now and in the future.

Ready to make a difference? Apply now!