Lead Consultant - Information Architect – Axial Technology Data Design - Finance & Operations

Role Title: Lead Consultant - Information Architect – Axial Technology Data Design - Finance & Operations

Location: Chennai

We are one purpose-led global organisation. The enablers and innovators, ensuring that we can fulfil our mission to push the boundaries of science and discover and develop life-changing medicines. We take pride in working close to the cause, opening the locks to save lives, ultimately making a massive difference to the outside world.

AstraZeneca (AZ) is in a period of strong growth and our employees have a united purpose to make a difference to patients around the world who need both our medicines and the ongoing developments from our science. In this journey AZ must continue to work across borders and with partners and new colleagues in a fast and seamless way. The ambition, size and complexity of the organisation, coupled with the opportunities afforded by new technology, has led the Board to approve a large-scale transformation programme – Axial.

The Axial Programme will be powered by S/4HANA a new ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system which will be implemented right across the organisation and will provide our business with standardised processes, enhanced financial management, common data and real time reporting, transforming the way we work through our entire supply chain - from bench to patient.

The new system will be used by more than 20,000 employees daily, is foundational to all AZ entities and is central to most core business processes. This is a once in a generation programme for AstraZeneca and will shape our ways of working (WoW) globally for many years to come!

The Axial programme needs the best talent to work in it. Whether it’s the technical skills, business understanding or change leadership, we want to ensure we have the strongest team deployed throughout. We are aiming to deliver a world class change programme that leaves all employees with a fuller understanding of their role in the end-to-end nature of our global company. This programme will provide AZ with a competitive edge, to the benefit of our employees, customers and patients.

The role supports the design and implementation of information models and data architectures for both operational/transactional and analytical solutions within and beyond the Axial programme. It also contributes to consistent data design by minimizing unnecessary transformations and applying AstraZeneca standards and guidelines across metadata, lineage, and master/reference data.

What you’ll do

• Information model design: Contribute to logical, physical, and semantic models for team-owned solutions, ensuring alignment to AZ reference architectures, data design patterns, and glossary/taxonomy guidance.

• Data design risk mitigation: Consult & advise on how S4HANA Harmonization affects BAU data platforms, Global Finance & Operations reports, and related data assets, and reduce any impact by creating necessary mappings or rules during the interim state management.

• Data flow definition: Document and maintain data flows from systems of record through integration layers to analytics/consumption layers within your product/team scope.

• Layered data design: Implement raw, conform, and consumption data layers appropriate to team use cases; apply normalized, 3NF, and dimensional modelling patterns as required.

• Metadata and lineage: Define and catalogue metadata for team data assets; capture and maintain lineage to support auditability and impact analysis.

• Master/reference data: Support the design and integration of master and reference data across systems; ensure conformance with enterprise domains and naming standards.

• Transformation rules: Specify and maintain business transformation rules between source and target models; collaborate with data engineers to implement and test rules.

• Standards compliance: Apply AZ Information Governance policies, naming conventions, data domains, and quality checkpoints within the team’s delivery lifecycle.

• Design reviews: Participate in project-level reviews of data models, taxonomies, ontologies, metadata, and lineage artifacts; provide feedback and remediate findings.

• Collaboration: Work closely with SET & Enterprise Data Office & Enterprise Information Architecture and the Data Design team to adopt WoW, reuse assets, and ensure coordinated architecture decisions.

• Documentation and reuse: Author and maintain design artifacts, data dictionaries, and model documentation to enable reuse and support downstream analytics and reporting.

• Continuous improvement: Contribute to team-level adoption of leading practices; share lessons learned and support lightweight education within the squad (e.g., brown bags, design clinics).

• Pattern selection: Recommend and apply appropriate data architecture patterns for reporting/analytics, data science, digital, and operational use cases within the team scope.

• Interim State: Ensure the required mappings or mapping rule specifications are managed for every legal market release. Collaborate with BAU partners to transition on S4HANA End state design.

• Planning and execution: Provide data architecture input to sprint and release plans; translate business requirements into practical models and integration designs.

• Integration design: Support development of data integration designs (APIs, CDC, ETL/ELT, event streams) in collaboration with data engineers and platform teams.

• Quality and assurance: Validate data structures, data mappings, element definitions, and business rules; ensure artifacts meet enterprise standards and pass phase-end QA checkpoints.

• Stakeholder trust: Act as a reliable information architecture specialist for product owners, business SMEs, engineers, and analytics teams.

Essential for the role

• Bachelor’s degree (or equivalent experience) in Computer Science, Information Management, or Data Technology-related field.

• Hands-on experience in information/data architecture and analysis within product or project teams.

• Ability to deliver data models and design artifacts to meet project objectives and timelines.

• Familiarity with industry architectural patterns and modern data architecture practices.

• Solid understanding of data lifecycles, appropriate structures/technologies by use case, and data modelling techniques.

• Experience with data modelling tools and agile data definition (e.g., participating in data-focused scrums).

• Experience using metadata cataloguing tools.

Desirable for the role

• Post-graduate degree in MIS/Data Management.

• Evidence of designing data architecture and blueprints that have been implemented in production.

• Exposure to Information/Data Governance frameworks and practical application.

• Experience with Snowflake and/or SAP S/4HANA data models.

Why AstraZeneca?

At Astrazeneca we’re dedicated to being a Great Place to Work. Where you are empowered to push the boundaries of science and unleash your entrepreneurial spirit. There’s no better place to make a difference to medicine, patients and society. An inclusive culture that champions diversity and collaboration, and always committed to lifelong learning, growth and development. We’re on an exciting journey to pioneer the future of healthcare.

So, what’s next?

• Are you already imaging yourself joining our team? Good, because we can’t wait to hear from you.

• Are you ready to bring new ideas and fresh thinking to the table? Brilliant! We have one seat available and hope its yours

• If you’re curious to know more then we welcome your application no later than

Where can I find out more?

Our Social Media, Follow AstraZeneca on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/1603/

Follow AstraZeneca on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/astrazenecacareers/

Follow AstraZeneca on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/astrazeneca_careers/?hl=en

Date Posted

Closing Date

AstraZeneca 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.