Associate Director, Real-World Evidence & Epidemiology

Join our Mission to Protect Humankind!

Summary:

Vaxcyte is seeking an Associate Director, Real-World Evidence & Epidemiology to play a foundational role in executing, expanding, and maturing our epidemiology and real-world evidence (RWE) capabilities across the vaccine lifecycle. You will join a purpose-driven team advancing the science of prevention across the life course. This role offers a rare opportunity to help build an epidemiology and real-world evidence function from the ground up, with meaningful ownership, mentorship, and room to grow.

This is a hands-on, high-impact role well-suited for an early-to-mid career epidemiologist who enjoys both doing the work and building the function. The role combines operational leadership (study start-up, vendor oversight, IRB submissions) with scientific execution, including study design, analysis, evidence synthesis, and interpretation.

Over time, this individual will grow into a scientific epidemiology lead, taking on increasing ownership of study design, analytic strategy, and external scientific engagement.

Essential Functions:

Study Execution & Operations

• Lead end-to-end execution of epidemiology and RWE studies, including retrospective database studies, prospective observational studies, and hybrid designs, supporting both pediatric and adult vaccine programs.
• Manage study start-up activities including contracting, budgets, timelines, and SOWs with CROs, academic partners, and data vendors.
• Oversee IRB and ethics submissions and ensure compliance with regulatory, privacy, and data governance requirements.
• Partner closely with Legal, Procurement, and Compliance to ensure timely and compliant study execution.

Epidemiologic & Analytic Contributions

• Contribute to study design, protocol development, and statistical analysis plans in collaboration with internal scientific partners.
• Conduct or oversee hands-on analyses using real-world data sources (e.g., claims, EHR, surveillance systems), including data quality checks and exploratory analyses.
• Support and/or lead retrospective analyses, prospective cohort studies, systematic literature reviews, and meta-analyses relevant to pneumococcal disease and vaccine effectiveness across age groups.
• Work with large datasets and analytic tools (e.g., SAS, R, STATA) to support internal analyses and to critically review and interpret CRO-generated outputs.

Evidence Synthesis & Scientific Communication

• Lead or contribute to abstracts, manuscripts, white papers, and conference presentations.
• Translate complex scientific and epidemiologic findings into clear, actionable insights for diverse internal audiences, including commercial partners, medical science liaisons, HEOR, legal, and regulatory teams.
• Support consistent, high-quality interpretation of evidence across Vaxcyte’s epidemiology and RWE portfolio.

Capability Building & Growth

• Help establish best practices, templates, and SOPs for epidemiology and RWE study conduct.
• Build strong working relationships with academic collaborators, public health partners, and external vendors.
• Gradually assume greater scientific leadership and ownership of the epidemiology portfolio as the function grows.

Requirements: 

Master’s degree in Epidemiology, Public Health, Biostatistics, or a closely related field, with 8 years of experience in epidemiology, real-world evidence, or observational research within biotech, pharma, academia, public health, or a CRO required. PhD or DrPH in Epidemiology or a related discipline with 6 years experience preferred.  Other combinations of education and/or experience may be considered.

• Demonstrated experience planning and executing observational studies, including retrospective and/or prospective designs.
• Experience working with real-world data and analytic tools (e.g., SAS, R, STATA), including data management, analysis, or close oversight of analyses.
• Ability to clearly present complex scientific and epidemiologic data to non-technical audiences, both verbally and in writing.
• Strong scientific judgment, organizational skills, and ability to independently manage multiple workstreams in a fast-paced environment.

Highly desired experience:

• Prior experience at the CDC, including Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) or similar applied epidemiology training programs.
• Experience conducting or contributing to systematic literature reviews and meta-analyses.
• Experience working with large healthcare databases (e.g., claims, EHR, surveillance systems).
• Prior experience in vaccine research, infectious disease epidemiology, or respiratory disease.
• Track record of contributing to peer-reviewed publications and major scientific meetings.
• Prior experience with health economic modeling
• Interest in growing into a scientific leadership role within industry.

We are an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or veteran status.