Communications & Engagement Lead

In 2025, the Clinical Trial Cost Management (CTCM) project will launch ABACUS, a new system developed to replace ACCORD. ABACUS will be used across AstraZeneca for long-term external project cost management of R&D and GMA investment. This role owns the communication and engagement project workstream, with responsibilities ranging from customer mapping and engagement to managing and delivering the communication plan. You will work across all other workstreams and impacted business units, including R&D Finance and business functions managing clinical trials, at all levels. The role reports to the project director, who reports into the R2R Finance GPO. Additionally, you will support the R2R GPO team across its portfolio of other projects. Accountabilities

• Deliver the communications plan to impacted employees to improve employee engagement.
• Support business change by offering communications expertise across projects and workstreams.
• Lead on execution of communication and engagement tasks in change action plans and facilitate the successful delivery of these plans.
• Collate and summarise key change landmarks and liaise with Change Management Leads to ensure robust and timely in-programme communication.
• Prepare engaging presentations to support communicating change and transition.
• Prepare affected business areas for transition to new ways of working.
• Build and maintain customer registers and advise project teams on partner engagement.
• Optimise the timing of the release of communications into the business.
• Create and implement the necessary communications, training, and policy/documentation plans.
• Ensure change lands well and is sustained through a structured engagement approach.
• Track, monitor, and provide metrics for all change interventions to assess how messaging is landing and provide recommendations on adjusting change and engagement plans.
• Develop creative ideas to land messaging using push/pull techniques, various modalities of delivery, and a multi-channel approach when required.
• Proactively identify, highlight, and report risks to project workstream leads, and provide recommendations to mitigate the risk.
• Collaborate with the team to build and implement communications to create awareness around the change and support training plans.
• Provide experience of delivering change in Transformation/Finance Transformation programs to build a scalable and robust engagement approach impacting partner engagement at all levels for relevant programmes.
• Convene the monthly R2R Community calls and prepare GFS&GC LT updates.
• Work with R2R project workstream leads (particularly Change, Training, and Deployment) on projects to develop and implement engagement and comms plans tailored for the audience.
• Assist the R2R programme team to remove barriers/issues in the delivery of their plans.
  
  Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Experience of change and engagement in a project environment
• Strong collaboration, planning, and multi-channel delivery experience
• Experience of leading different collaborator relationships, developing cross-cultural networks, and tactfully challenging opinions to achieve desired outcomes
• Strong creative design and execution of digital communications assets
• Excellent eye for detail and upholding visual and verbal identity
• High levels of self-motivation and personal accountability, bringing passion and energy to the team and peer group
• Willingness and ability to travel between UK sites where necessary
• Tools such as Mentimeter/Slido/Page Tiger/video editing tools, infographics, graphics, MS Excel, MS PowerPoint, Teams, SharePoint, OrchestraCMS, other Comms tools to enhance engagement including metric monitoring for these
• Willingness to understand clinical trials/Abacus to help deliver more targeted communications
Desirable Skills/Experience
• Prior experience in R&D, clinical trials etc. is useful but not essential, 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.
  
  Feel rewarded and appreciated for your commitment. In our science and research-driven business, it's easy to see how our role contributes to AstraZeneca's journey. We have a strong approach to recognition, celebrating our successes collectively across the business. And our generous benefits package showcases the business's appreciation of our long-term commitment.