Why choose AstraZeneca Spain?
AstraZeneca Spain is a rising force in our global business. With headquarters in Madrid and our global hub in Barcelona, we’ve become an important international centre of excellence in the fight against critical disease. Boasting vibrant universities and business schools, the Barcelona ecosystem is a place where scientists can thrive. We attract a diverse workforce from across the globe, shining a beacon for innovation in a country that’s committed to clinical development.
We invite you to bring your talents to Barcelona where our respiratory medicine R&D and Global Marketing centre offers opportunities in R&D, IT, Commercial and HR. Or join us in Madrid and shape our growth in our BUs (Respiratory, Oncology & CVRM ), and a range of Corporate functions. Additionally, you can find sales roles throughout the country. Together, we’re contributing to a world-leading pipeline of therapeutics and delivering life-changing medicines to patients.
Who do we look for?
Calling all tech innovators, ownership takers, challenge seekers and proactive collaborators. At AstraZeneca Spain, breakthroughs born in the lab become transformative medicine for the world's most complex diseases. Alongside technical expertise, colleagues have the resilience, energy and collaborative mindset to change lanes, work with different teams and start projects from scratch.
Here, diverse minds and bold disruptors can meaningfully impact the future of healthcare using cutting-edge technology. Whether you join us in Madrid or Barcelona, you can make a tangible impact within a global biopharmaceutical company that invests in your future. Join a talented global team that's powering AstraZeneca to better serve patients every day.
Success Profile
Ready to make an impact in your career? If you're passionate, growth-orientated and a true team player, we'll help you succeed. Here are some of the skills and capabilities we look for.
Diverse collaborators
This is a speak-up culture that values collaboration. You’ll proactively bring your unique perspectives, experiences and skills to the table and seek the same from others. With our international team composition and the need for fast-paced collaboration, you’ll always be building new connections with colleagues.
Cutting-edge innovators
When you join us, you’ll be part of a team that embraces digital technology and data to transform the way we work and the work we do. Every day, you’ll help make history, empowered to ignite your creativity and build something enduring.
Resilient trailblazers
Here, the answers aren’t always available. So, you’ll need to bring a fearless, self-starter mindset to navigate uncharted territories. You’ll harness your ceaseless energy to discover and make the necessary connections with colleagues to shape the future and achieve maximum impact.
Agile movers
Seize ownership and excel with autonomy to enjoy the constant rush of ground-breaking discovery. Your ability to anticipate sudden shifts and adapt swiftly will prove critical as you make your mark in an environment that rewards initiative and resilience.
Responsibilities
Introduction to the Role
The Associate Director, R&D Data Transformation is a recognised expert practitioner who plans, directs, and delivers transformation initiatives that improve the readiness, interoperability, and reuse of data across AstraZeneca's R&D data estate. This role brings strong technical expertise, project ownership, and coaching capability to ensure R&D data is AI-ready and "available by default," directly supporting the AI30 ambition and Ambition 2030. The Associate Director leads defined workstreams and acts as a first point of contact for specialist queries — partnering with R&D functions, AI for Science Innovation, Enterprise AI Technology, and IT to design and deliver solutions that enable seamless data flow across the R&D lifecycle.
Scope of Accountability
You will operate as an expert practitioner within the R&D Data Transformation team, with accountability across the following areas:
R&D Data Readiness: Plan and deliver transformation activities that bring priority R&D data assets to the quality, structure, and completeness standards required to power AI, machine learning, and advanced analytics, managing defined workstreams from assessment through implementation.
Interoperability and Standards: Provide expert guidance on enterprise and industry data standards (ontologies, vocabularies, schemas, FAIR principles) within assigned transformation workstreams, identifying and resolving interoperability challenges across R&D systems and platforms.
Data Reuse and Discoverability: Develop and implement cataloguing approaches and metadata enrichment strategies within assigned domains that increase findability and unlock value from historical and emerging R&D datasets.
Transformation Delivery: Own and deliver defined transformation workstreams — applying established methodology, managing dependencies, and ensuring quality outcomes that contribute to the broader transformation portfolio.
Coaching and Expertise: Coach and support junior team members, share specialist knowledge across the team, and serve as a recognised expert and first point of contact for data transformation queries within the R&D Data Office.
Key Accountabilities
Strategic Contribution and Expert Guidance
Contribute to the development and refinement of the R&D Data Transformation roadmap, providing evidence-based analysis and recommendations informed by domain expertise and cross-functional insight.
Identify transformation opportunities through analysis of R&D data domains, emerging AI/ML requirements, and stakeholder pain points; present findings and proposals to senior stakeholders with clarity and credibility.
Translate strategic priorities into detailed transformation designs and delivery plans for assigned workstreams, balancing pace, quality, and sustainability.
Act as a recognised expert within the team and broader R&D Data Office, providing specialist advice and serving as a first point of contact for complex data transformation queries.
Transformation Design and Execution
Own and deliver end-to-end transformation workstreams — from current-state assessment and gap analysis through solution design, implementation, adoption, and sustainment.
Apply the transformation methodology (maturity models, prioritisation criteria, delivery playbooks) within assigned workstreams, contributing to its continuous improvement based on practical experience and lessons learned.
Conduct assessments of R&D data domains to evaluate readiness, interoperability, and reuse maturity; produce actionable recommendations with clear sequencing and dependencies.
Partner with data domain owners, scientists, and R&D functional teams to co-design solutions that address specific readiness, interoperability, and reuse gaps within assigned scope.
Monitor and manage risks, issues, and dependencies within assigned workstreams; contribute to stage-gate reviews and deliver post-implementation evaluations.
Interoperability and Standards Adoption
Provide expert guidance on FAIR principles, data standards, and ontology application within R&D contexts; work directly with domain teams to implement standards in practice within assigned workstreams.
Analyse and resolve interoperability barriers between R&D systems, platforms, and data stores within assigned domains; design modular, reusable solutions that can scale beyond individual workstreams.
Stay current with industry standards evolution (e.g., CDISC, OMOP, biomedical ontologies) and advise on their applicability within the AstraZeneca R&D context.
Data Reuse and Value Maximisation
Develop and implement practices that increase discoverability and contextual richness of R&D data assets within assigned domains, enabling secondary use and cross-functional insight generation.
Track and report reuse metrics (e.g., asset utilisation, time-to-access, duplication reduction) for assigned domains; use evidence to inform prioritisation and demonstrate value.
Develop reusable frameworks, templates, and guidance materials that enable scalable adoption of data reuse practices across the portfolio.
Coaching and Team Development
Coach and mentor junior team members (Manager level), providing technical guidance, quality assurance on deliverables, and support for professional development.
Share knowledge and specialist expertise across the R&D Data Transformation team, contributing to methodological consistency and collective capability development.
Support workload planning and prioritisation within assigned workstreams, escalating capacity or capability gaps to the Team Lead as needed.
Partnerships and Collaboration
Partner with Data Programmes (project leadership, change management, data automation) to align workstream milestones with delivery stage gates and change plans.
Build effective working relationships with R&D functional teams, data domain owners, and technology teams to enable co-design and effective delivery within assigned scope.
Contribute to Enterprise Data governance forums; ensure transformation artefacts and decisions within assigned workstreams are transparent, auditable, and aligned to enterprise standards.
Essential Skills and Experience
Degree in life sciences, informatics, data science, or a related discipline, or equivalent professional experience.
Significant experience delivering data transformation, data strategy, or data management initiatives within complex, global organisations; ideally within pharmaceutical R&D or a highly regulated scientific environment.
Demonstrated success designing and executing transformation initiatives with measurable improvements in data quality, interoperability, or reuse.
Strong knowledge of data management principles, FAIR standards, metadata management, and ontology frameworks, with the ability to apply these practically in scientific data environments.
Proven ability to influence stakeholders across technical and scientific functions; skilled in translating complex data concepts into clear recommendations and actionable plans.
Experience coaching or mentoring junior colleagues, with a track record of supporting capability development and maintaining quality standards across team deliverables.
Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with the ability to manage competing priorities and drive outcomes with limited supervision.
Desirable
Knowledge of pharmaceutical drug discovery and development processes, including data flows across preclinical, clinical, regulatory, and manufacturing domains.
Familiarity with AI/ML data requirements and experience enabling data readiness for advanced analytics and machine learning use cases.
Experience with enterprise data platforms or cloud-based data ecosystems (e.g., Databricks, Snowflake, AWS/Azure data services).
Experience with data cataloguing tools, metadata management platforms, or knowledge graph technologies.
Experience applying change management principles or behavioural science approaches to drive adoption of new data practices and standards.
Date Posted
10-jun-2026Closing Date
21-jun-2026AstraZeneca embraces diversity and equality of opportunity. We are committed to building an inclusive and diverse team representing all backgrounds, with as wide a range of perspectives as possible, and harnessing industry-leading skills. We believe that the more inclusive we are, the better our work will be. We welcome and consider applications to join our team from all qualified candidates, regardless of their characteristics. We comply with all applicable laws and regulations on non-discrimination in employment (and recruitment), as well as work authorization and employment eligibility verification requirements.
Reasons to Join
Thomas Mathisen
There are many things I enjoy when working at AstraZeneca, mainly the Speak up culture, the great colleagues that are in my teams, the great products that AstraZeneca provides to our patients and the challenging conversations I have around our medicines.
Christine Recchio
Working at AstraZeneca has impacted my life in such a positive way. I now have an improved work-life balance through creating my own schedule and time management, I feel a balance that I didn’t have before.
Stephanie Ling
There are a lot of reasons why I enjoy working in AstraZeneca, my colleagues being one of them. My team members and the managers have provided a great deal of guidance in helping me to be more confident in my daily work.
What we offer
We're driven by our shared values of serving people, society and the planet. Our people make this possible, which is why we prioritise diversity, inclusivity, balance and sustainability. Discover what a career at AstraZeneca could mean for you.
An award-winning company
We're passionate about being a great place to work, and 84% of our employees would recommend us as an employer. We've been recognised as a Top Employer in Spain, an EFR Family Responsible Business, and we achieved third place in Forbes Spain's Top 50 Best Places to Work list.
Inclusive environment
Diversity and inclusion are embedded in everything we do, and our different views, experiences and strengths enrich our culture. There's no salary gap at AstraZeneca, and the number of female employees has increased by four per cent over the last three years. We've also made all positions fully accessible.
Work-life balance
Your wellbeing means a lot to us, and we're here to support you through all of life's ups and downs. That's why we offer an unpaid leave policy, annual leave, reduced-hours timetables and a host of benefits, including a retirement plan, long service award, and health and travel insurance.
Sustainability initiatives
We're committed to harnessing the power of science to become a more sustainable business. We've reduced our carbon footprint by over 9,000 kg of CO2 over the last two years, and we lead the European GoGreen Project, which aims to introduce environmentally friendly options in our fleet of corporate vehicles.
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