Creative Lead, GCS Creative Services

Job description

Are you ready to turn complex science into clear, human experiences that inspire understanding and action? Do you thrive at the intersection of medical rigor and bold design, where creative excellence directly influences how patients, clinicians, and partners engage with our medicines? As Creative Lead at AstraZeneca, you will set the creative vision for a high-impact portfolio spanning patient, HCP, medical/scientific, and market access communications. You will partner closely with Medical Writers and the Experience Lead to translate strategic briefs into compelling concepts and digital experiences that meet the highest standards of quality, brand integrity, regulatory compliance, and channel effectiveness. Your leadership will help align creative execution with our medical and commercial objectives—accelerating content readiness, improving first-pass approval rates, and elevating how our science shows up in the real world. **Accountabilities:** **Creative Direction and Concept Development:** Lead the translation of strategic briefs into multiple creative options, visual directions, and design solutions that meet brand objectives, audience needs, and channel requirements—driving clarity, relevance, and engagement from day one. **Design Excellence and Brand Stewardship**: Serve as guardian of visual quality and brand consistency across all outputs. Elevate typography, layout, and visual systems while upholding accessibility and channel-specific specifications to protect brand equity and accelerate approvals. **Partnership with Medical Writing:** Co-create from intake through delivery with Medical Writers, shaping content hierarchy, narrative flow, and visual storytelling so scientific accuracy and creative impact reinforce each other. **UX and Digital Experience Design:** Apply UX principles to websites, emails, interactive tools, patient portals, and HCP resources. Ensure intuitive navigation, WCAG accessibility, and optimized user journeys that boost comprehension and action. **Agile Delivery and Studio Coordination:** Operate within an agile model, managing iterative creative workstreams. Provide clear direction, specifications, and quality oversight to near-shore copy, design, and layout specialists to deliver at scale and speed. **Creative Standards and Governance:** Establish and maintain design systems, templates, and component libraries aligned to enterprise content standards. Drive consistency, reusability, and efficiency through modular frameworks. **Multi-Audience and Multi-Channel Expertise:** Tailor creative solutions for DTC/patient, DTP, HCP, medical/scientific, and market access audiences—meeting the unique requirements of each channel to maximize impact and compliance. **AI-Assisted Design and Innovation:** Leverage AI-assisted tools to explore new creative possibilities, enhance efficiency, and accelerate production. Evaluate and recommend emerging technologies that advance our capabilities. **Quality Assurance and Compliance Readiness:** Ensure all deliverables meet design quality, file integrity, and production readiness. Align visuals and layouts with MLR submission requirements and regulatory standards to reduce rework and cycle time. **Creative Briefing and Presentation:** Develop and present creative concepts and rationale to stakeholders and brand teams, connecting decisions to strategy, data, and audience insight with clarity and confidence. **Production Oversight and File Management:** Oversee production-ready file preparation, asset management, and version control. Maintain DAM organization, taxonomy, and naming conventions for efficient reuse and localization. **Process Improvement and Workflow Optimization:** Identify and implement improvements that streamline workflows and increase first-pass approvals. Strengthen intake, routing, and quality checkpoints to boost operational performance. **Mentorship and Team Development:** Coach designers and production specialists. Foster a culture of curiosity, craft excellence, and collaborative problem-solving that raises the bar across the team. **Essential Skills/Experience:** - 8 years in a creative, healthcare, or pharmaceutical agency environment, or in-house creative operations, with a demonstrated blend of creative design, art direction, UX design, and concept development. - Proven experience delivering creative solutions for large-scale pharmaceutical brands across multiple audiences and channels is required. - Healthcare and Regulated Industry Experience: Extensive experience in pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, or other regulated industries is required. Deep familiarity with DTC, DTP, HCP, medical content, and market access creative requirements is essential. - Working knowledge of MLR review processes and the impact of regulatory requirements on creative execution is expected. - Creative and Design Expertise: Demonstrated excellence in visual design, layout, typography, color theory, and brand identity application. Strong portfolio demonstrating creative concept development, multi-channel design execution, and the ability to translate complex scientific content into visually engaging materials. - UX and Digital Design: Proven experience in user experience design, information architecture, and digital interface design for healthcare audiences. Familiarity with responsive design principles, accessibility standards (WCAG), and interactive content development. - Agile Delivery Experience: Demonstrated ability to operate within agile or iterative delivery models, managing creative workstreams through sprint-based or rapid-cycle production environments. Experience coordinating with distributed or near-shore production teams is strongly preferred. - Tools and Technology: Expert proficiency in Adobe Creative Cloud (InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, XD or Figma). - Working knowledge of AI-assisted design tools (e.g., Adobe Firefly, Midjourney, DALL-E, or equivalent). - Familiarity with prototyping tools, DAM systems, and project management platforms (e.g., Workfront, JIRA). - Collaboration and Communication: Strong interpersonal skills with demonstrated ability to partner effectively with medical writers, Experience Leads, brand marketers, and production teams. Ability to present creative concepts and rationale with clarity and confidence to diverse stakeholder audiences. - Operational Excellence: Proven ability to manage multiple concurrent creative workstreams, meet deadlines within fast-paced environments, and maintain quality standards under shifting priorities and resource constraints. - Production Knowledge: Strong understanding of print and digital production processes, file preparation, pre-press requirements, and channel-specific technical specifications across email, web, social, print, and interactive formats. - Standards and Governance: Experience establishing and maintaining design systems, component libraries, templates, and creative governance frameworks within a large organization or agency environment - Education: Bachelor’s degree in Graphic Design, Visual Communication, Digital Media, UX Design, Fine Arts, or related field. **Desirable Skills/Experience:** - Advanced degree or relevant certifications in UX design, digital strategy, or creative leadership. Experience leading enterprise-scale design systems and governance. - Demonstrated strength in scientific data visualization and storytelling for medical and market access audiences. - Experience driving global-to-local adaptation and localization frameworks across regions and markets. - Deeper experience coordinating with near-shore or distributed production teams across multiple time zones. Why AstraZeneca: Here, your craft meets purpose at scale. You will sit at the crossroads of science and business, shaping how evidence and innovation are understood across the healthcare ecosystem—from early development through launch and beyond. We bring unexpected teams into the same room to unleash bold thinking, pairing cutting-edge design and AI-enabled tools with rigorous medical insight. Collaboration is our default, pace is our norm, and the patient is our North Star. We value kindness alongside ambition, and we back big ideas with the support and partnerships needed to make them real. Your work will help turn breakthroughs into experiences that change clinical practice and improve lives. Call to Action: If you’re ready to set the creative standard for how our science shows up in the world, share your portfolio and join us to transform bold ideas into experiences that accelerate impact! **Date Posted** 09-Sep-2026 **Closing Date** 22-Sep-2026 Our mission is to build an inclusive environment where equal employment opportunities are available to all applicants and employees. In furtherance of that mission, we welcome and consider applications from all qualified candidates, regardless of their protected characteristics. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please complete the corresponding section in the application form.