AstraZeneca

Global Director, Forecasting – Infectious Disease

AstraZeneca$194K — $291K *
Pharmaceuticals & Biotech
Less than 5 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Bachelor's degree in a quantitative, scientific, health, or business-related field.
  • 4+ years of global pharmaceutical commercial forecasting experience.
  • Experience in business development evaluations, commercial due diligence, or investment case development.
  • Hands-on experience with model ownership and performance tracking.
  • Expertise in scenario-based forecasting and sensitivity analysis.
  • Strong understanding of global market access and pricing dynamics.
  • Ability to translate complex forecasts into executive-ready insights.

Responsibilities

  • Lead and develop global demand forecasts for infectious disease assets.
  • Own forecast methodology and ensure compliance with enterprise standards.
  • Refine forecasts to aid in investment and resource allocation decisions.
  • Utilize diverse data sources to inform forecast assumptions and models.
  • Proactively identify key risks and opportunities through analysis.
  • Partner with cross-functional teams to align on forecasting implications.
  • Support business planning and governance with clear narratives.

Benefits

  • Health, dental, and vision coverage.
  • Paid time off including vacation, holidays, and leaves.
  • Qualified retirement programs.
  • Flexibility in hybrid work arrangements.
Full Job Description

Global Director, Forecasting – Infectious Disease (ID)
Gaithersburg, MD
Global Insights, Analytics & Forecasting, BBU
Hybrid Work - on average 3 days a week from office

The Director is a senior global forecasting leader responsible for demand forecasting across the Infectious Disease portfolio, spanning early-stage, late-stage, and in-market assets, as well as business development and investment case building. The role serves as the global forecasting lead and strategic thought partnertoEarly Commercial, Finance, Market Access & Pricing, Marketing, Medical, Research & Development, and Business Development teams. The position also includes vendor and resource management to ensure rigorous use of data and analytics within forecasting, continuous improvement of forecasting approaches, and delivery of decision-grade commercial assessments. Time allocation may vary by business cycle and portfolio priorities.

You’llplay a critical role in shaping global commercial expectations, portfolio choices, risk and opportunity framing, and executive decision-making for early-stage, late-stage, in-market, and external business development opportunities.

Whatyou’lldo

Global Forecasting Leadership (Core Accountability)

  • Lead global short- and long-term demandforecasts—including patients, volume, treatment starts, and revenue—for ID assets using robust patient-based and market-based models.

  • Own forecastmethodology, assumptions, and governance, ensuring objectivity, transparency, and consistency with enterprise standards.

  • Develop and refine forecasts for early-stage, late-stageassets to support stage-gate decisions, portfolio prioritization, investment choices, and resource allocation.

  • Use primary market research, epidemiology, competitive intelligence, access and pricing dynamics, real-world evidence, and other relevant data and analytics to inform forecast assumptions and models.

  • Proactivelyidentifyand quantify key risks and opportunities through scenario and sensitivity analyses.

  • Partner closely with Early Commercial, Finance, Market Access & Pricing, Marketing, Medical, Research &Development, Business Development, and regional or market teams to ensure alignment on assumptions and implications.

  • Support global business planning, governance reviews, portfolio decisions, and opportunity assessments with clear, executive-ready narratives.

  • Serve as a trusted advisor to senior global leaders, clearly articulating forecast drivers, changes, uncertainties, and strategic implications.

Business Development and Investment Case Building

  • Lead forecasting and commercial case development for business development opportunities, including in-licensing, partnerships, acquisitions, and other external innovation opportunities.

  • Build patient-based market models, revenue forecasts, risk-adjusted scenarios, and commercial inputs to valuation and investment cases.

  • Conduct commercial due diligence by assessing unmet need, patient pathways, market evolution, competitive dynamics, access and pricing considerations, and strategic fit.

  • Translate incomplete or uncertain evidence into transparent assumptions, scenarios, trade-offs, and recommendations for governance and executive decision-making.

  • Ensure alignment between business development forecasts, internal pipeline forecasts, therapeutic area strategy, and portfolio planning.

Forecasting Capability and Resource Leadership

  • Ensure relevant data, analytics, and insights are applied appropriately to forecasting, scenario development, and business case building.

  • Manage and prioritize internal forecasters, contractors, and external vendors supporting forecasting and business development deliverables.

  • Partner with data and analytics specialists, Global IA&F, and GIBEX capability teams to evaluate and deploy data sources, tools, and modeling approaches that strengthen forecasts.

  • Identifyopportunities to embed AI and automation into forecasting workflows to improve efficiency, scalability, transparency, and decision quality.

  • Champion continuous improvement in forecasting processes, AI-enabled modeling, and automation.

  • Contribute to the development and sharing of global best practices across the ID forecasting community.

Essential for the role

  • Bachelor’s degree ina quantitative, scientific, health, or business-relatedfield, such as Statistics, Economics, Mathematics, Engineering, Life Sciences, or Decision Science.

  • 4+ years’ experience in global pharmaceutical commercial forecasting, including early-stage, late-stage, launch, and/or in-market assets.

  • Experience supporting business development evaluations, commercial due diligence, opportunity assessments, or investment case development.

  • Hands-on model ownership experience, including build, refresh, and performance tracking across short- and long-term horizons.

  • Expertise inscenario-based forecasting, sensitivity analysis, and driver-based narratives to support senior decision-making.

  • Strong capability using multiple data and evidence sources—such as epidemiology, claims, real-world evidence, syndicated data, competitive intelligence, and primary research—to build coherent, decision-grade forecasts.

  • Demonstrated forecast governance and model risk discipline, including traceable assumptions, documentation, and clear explanations.

  • Strong understanding of global market access, pricing, reimbursement, policy, and regional market dynamics and how they affect demand.

  • Ability to translate complex forecasts andsupportingevidence into clear, executive-ready insights, options, and recommendations.

  • Strong commercial and financial acumen across key demand and valuation levers, including positioning, adoption, competition, lifecycle events, probability of technical and regulatory success, and risk adjustment.

Desirable for the role

  • Advanceddegree, such as an MBA, MS, MPH, or PhD in Economics, Statistics, Decision Sciences, Life Sciences, or a related field.

  • Infectious Disease and/or Rare Disease experience, including familiarity with immunization dynamics, patient-based forecasting, and lifecycle management in preventive or infectious disease therapies.

  • Experience forecasting across multiple geographies and working with global, regional, and market stakeholders.

  • Demonstrated ability to work effectively with ambiguity and limited evidence in early-asset and business development settings.

  • Changeleadership:builds adoption for new tools, processes, and ways of working across cross-functional stakeholders.

  • Product perspective forforecasting:defines user needs, success measures, and a roadmap for global portfolio forecasting capabilities.

Office Working Requirements

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.

The annual base pay for this position ranges from $194,571.20 - 291,856.80 USD. Our positions offer eligibility for various incentives—an opportunity to receive short-term incentive bonuses, equity-based awards for salaried roles and commissions for sales roles. Benefits offered include qualified retirement programs, paid time off (i.e., vacation, holiday, and leaves), as well as health, dental, and vision coverage in accordance with the terms of the applicable plans. ​

#LI-Hybrid

Date Posted

01-Sept-2026

Closing Date

07-Sept-2026

About AstraZeneca

AstraZeneca is a British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical company that specializes in the research, development, and manufacturing of prescription drugs. The company was formed in 1999 through the merger of Astra AB and Zeneca Group plc. AstraZeneca's products are used to treat a wide range of medical conditions, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, and diabetes. The company has operations in over 100 countries and employs more than 76,000 people worldwide. AstraZeneca is committed to developing innovative medicines that improve the health and well-being of people around the world.
Learn more about AstraZeneca
Size
83,100 employees
Market Cap
$211.5 billion
Industry
Net Income
$3.1 billion
Founded
1999
5 Year Trend
+10.2%
Revenue
$26.6 billion
NASDAQ

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