Frontier Industry Advisory Director - Pharma & Life Sciences

Overview

Microsoft has launched Microsoft Frontier Company, a new business unit dedicated to helping large enterprises design, deploy, and scale customized artificial intelligence (AI) solutions. As part of Frontier, The Healthcare and Life Sciences (HLS) industry team mission is to lead healthcare transformation with bold innovation and agility to empower providers, patients, scientists, and partners to improve the human experience in healthcare. Our mission comes to life in helping life sciences and research organizations accelerate scientific discovery, bring new therapies and innovations to patients faster, and drive more efficient, productive, and sustainable research and development (R&D). Customers today face unprecedented challenges, including rising R&D costs, long development timelines, low success rates, fragmented scientific data, regulatory complexity, and talent pressures. Microsoft partners with leading customers to address these challenges at scale with agentic AI platform for R&D that brings together specialized AI agents, a graph-based knowledge foundation, and high-performance computing, leveraging forward deployed engineering to help customers move from pilot to production.

As a Frontier Industry Advisor Director - Pharma & Life Science, you will serve as an industry authority who engages with some of Microsoft's most strategic life sciences and healthcare research customers to help them navigate industry disruption, accelerate AI-powered R&D transformation and unlock new opportunities for growth. You will engage senior R&D, scientific, business and technology leaders to understand their priorities, shape strategic conversations and identify opportunities where Microsoft AI can deliver meaningful scientific, business and health outcomes. Leveraging deep industry and scientific expertise, you will help leading strategic customers reimagine how they generate and test hypotheses, connect proprietary and public scientific knowledge, accelerate simulation and experimentation, bridge computational and wet-lab workflows, and advance discovery in areas such as drug target identification, molecular design and protein research, all within the security, compliance and governance frameworks that regulated R&D environments require. Working closely with account teams, solution specialists, forward deployed engineers and partners, you will help customers achieve transformational outcomes while contributing to Microsoft's commercial growth and long-term customer success.

This role is 100% work from home.

Microsoft’s mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. As employees we come together with a growth mindset, innovate to empower others, and collaborate to realize our shared goals. Each day we build on our values of respect, integrity, and accountability to create a culture of inclusion where everyone can thrive at work and beyond.

Responsibilities

• Leverage deep industry and scientific expertise and market insight to help strategic customers accelerate AI-powered R&D transformation with Microsoft Discovery, identify new sources of scientific and business value, and create opportunities that drive customer and Microsoft growth.
• Shape opportunities of AI transformation by Microsoft Forward Deployed Engineers in co-innovation with customers.
• Originate and develop industry-led Microsoft Discovery opportunities across assigned customers, connecting R&D challenges to Microsoft's agentic AI, high-performance computing and Azure solutions through differentiated industry narratives and scientific use cases.
• Build trusted relationships with C-suite, Chief Scientific Officers, R&D leaders and senior business decision-makers to shape strategic agendas, influence investment priorities and accelerate demand generation across short- and long-term growth opportunities.
• Act as an industry thought leader, bringing external market perspectives, emerging trends in AI-driven science and customer insights that help create scalable and repeatable Microsoft Discovery solutions for customers and Microsoft.
• Partner closely with account teams, solution specialists, forward deployed engineers and strategic partners to orchestrate customer engagements, accelerate opportunity progression from pilot to production, and deliver measurable scientific and business outcomes.
• Drive operational and commercial excellence through disciplined opportunity management, effective prioritization and a relentless focus on customer impact and value creation.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications (RQs)

• Bachelor's OR Master's Degree Degree in Chemistry, Pharmacology, Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, Health Sciences, Business or related field AND significant years customer-facing experience in management consulting and consultative selling, technology or industry-relevant pharma equivalent management or technical work experience OR equivalent experience

Preferred Qualifications (PQs)

• Demonstrated expertise in Healthcare & Life Sciences R&D, such as pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical technology or academic medical research, including knowledge of the scientific discovery lifecycle, industry trends, regulatory environments, and customer challenges.
• Experience leading large-scale digital, AI, or R&D transformation initiatives that drive meaningful scientific, organizational and customer outcomes.
• Proven ability to collaborate across diverse, cross-functional teams and influence stakeholders at all levels, including senior executives.
• Communication, presentation, and storytelling skills, with the ability to engage audiences ranging from small leadership discussions to large industry events.
• Customer-focused problem solver with analytical skills and the ability to translate complex challenges into actionable strategies and solutions.
• Adaptable and innovative leader who thrives in dynamic environments, drives change, builds engagement, and fosters inclusive and high-performing teams.
• Experience working with technology organizations, consulting firms, system integrators, scientific software providers, research institutions, or organizations serving the Healthcare & Life Sciences sector.
• Experience leveraging data and insights to support strategic decision-making and value-based discussions with R&D and scientific leaders.
• Familiarity with AI and computational methods used in scientific research, such as high-performance computing, simulation, molecular modeling, bioinformatics, or lab automation. An advanced degree (MS, PhD, PharmD or MD) in a life sciences or related scientific field is a plus.

Industry Advisory IC6 - The typical base pay range for this role across United Kingdom is £ 120,100.00 - £ 202,000.00 per year. Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation.

Find additional benefits and pay information here:
https://careers.microsoft.com/v2/global/en/corporate-pay/united-kingdom-corporate-pay.html

This position will be open for a minimum of 5 days, with applications accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled.

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Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, citizenship, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, immigration status, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran or military status, race, ethnicity, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable local laws, regulations and ordinances. If you need assistance with religious accommodations and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations.