Associate Director, Real-World Evidence & Epidemiology

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.