Associate Director, AI Discovery — Target Discovery

Associate Director, AI for Discovery
- New Target Discovery

Location:
Cambridge, MA US (Kendall Square)

Salary:
Competitive + Excellent Benefits

At AstraZeneca, we put patients first and strive to meet their unmet needs worldwide. Working here means being entrepreneurial, thinking big and working together to make the impossible a reality. If you are swift to action, confident to lead, willing to collaborate, and curious about what science can do, then you're our kind of person.

We are a global, science-driven biopharmaceutical company dedicated to discovering, developing, and delivering innovative medicines that enrich the lives of patients. Our R&D engine combines deep biology expertise with cutting‑edge artificial intelligence to accelerate how we find and validate new drug targets - ultimately bringing life‑changing therapies to patients faster.

Our Cambridge, MA site at 290 Binney Street in Kendall Square is a 570,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility that consolidates approximately 1,500 R&D, commercial, and corporate employees. Positioned within the world’s leading life sciences and biotech innovation cluster, the site is designed to foster deep collaboration with neighboring academic institutions, healthcare networks, and biotech partners. The facility features advanced laboratory infrastructure, a dedicated conferencing center, and a high-performance workplace designed to balance natural daylight, collaboration, and employee comfort.

The AI for Discovery
- New Target Discovery team exists to surface novel drug targets that Oncology and Bio Pharmaceuticals R&D can act on. We accelerate discovery by building and deploying two core AI capabilities: agentic AI and predictive models of biology to accelerate new target decision making across AZ R&D.

Our team supports both Oncology and Bio Pharmaceuticals therapeutic areas, sharing learnings across target discovery approaches and connecting new target strategy across AstraZeneca disease areas. We partner closely with therapeutic area scientists in Oncology, CVRM, Respiratory, Immunology, and Infectious Disease - as well as AI engineering and AI research teams.

This is an expert, hands‑on role at the intersection of artificial intelligence and drug discovery biology. You will bring deep technical expertise in AI and biology to drive the adoption and application of agentic AI and predictive modeling tools across AstraZeneca’s therapeutic areas to accelerate new target discovery.

Key Responsibilities

• Partner with therapeutic area scientists to identify high-impact use cases where agentic AI and predictive models can accelerate target identification and validation.
• Apply technical expertise to deploy multi-agent AI systems into therapeutic area workflows, translating cutting‑edge AI capabilities into actionable scientific insights.
• Advise cross‑functional matrix project teams on leveraging AI-driven approaches for target prioritization and investment decisions.
• Contribute to the development and benchmarking of predictive foundation models for in silico biology - including perturbation prediction, virtual cell models, and preclinical efficacy forecasting.
• Contribute to the team’s scientific strategy and roadmap in close partnership with the Senior Director and team members.
• Build AstraZeneca’s external visibility through publications, conference presentations, and scientific collaborations.
• Act autonomously as a subject matter expert, influence through technical credibility, and drive outcomes across organizational boundaries.

• PhD in computational biology, bioinformatics, AI/ML, systems biology, or a related quantitative discipline, with 5+ years of post-doctoral…