Senior Director, R&D IT - Operational Excellence

Introduction to role:

Are you ready to set the direction for how technology, data and operations accelerate our science to patients faster? Can you turn complex portfolios and metrics into clear, actionable focus that lifts productivity and quality across an entire R&D landscape? As Senior Director, R&D IT, you will lead the strategy execution and performance engine that underpins our research and development, ensuring our teams deliver at pace and with impact.

This role sits at the intersection of strategy, operations, and transformation. You will align enterprise objectives with R&D priorities, build the scorecards and governance that make progress visible, and embed a culture of continuous improvement across a global organization. You will empower leaders with insights, cultivate the right capabilities for the future, and hardwire sustainability and access to healthcare into how we work every day.

Accountabilities:

• R&D IT Performance: Drive alignment, governance and delivery to time and quality for enterprise-wide initiatives and processes, operating to a clear RACI. Establish, oversee and track OKRs and KPIs, including development and ownership of the R&D IT scorecard, ensuring alignment with enterprise and R&D business scorecards and priorities. Use analytics and selective cross- and in-industry benchmarking to identify and deliver continuous improvement opportunities, optimizing capabilities and meeting agreed optimization targets.
• R&D IT Strategy: Partner with the R&D IT leadership team to evolve strategy aligned to long-term technology ambitions and the company’s Bold Ambition. Identify workforce gaps and develop a strategic people plan to ensure the right employees, skills, knowledge and outsourced service providers are in place for current and future needs. Define and track strategic priorities and milestones, ensure alignment to R&D business strategies, and facilitate medium-term planning and reporting through robust data gathering, analysis and narrative. Maintain and share capability roadmaps and develop and own an R&D IT sustainability agenda that delivers against environmental targets and advances access to healthcare through education and engagement.
• R&D IT Operations: Embed operational governance, standards and processes across the function and ensure they are understood and adopted. Support accurate, maintained, and useful operational data, including the Configuration Management Database and project portfolio information. Orchestrate leadership communications and stakeholder engagement, deliver effective monthly Town Halls, and celebrate and socialize key achievements. Coordinate with the leadership team to ensure flawless execution of initiatives with clearly measured and realized outcomes.
• R&D IT Transformation: Build and lead an effective network with strategy/performance leaders, HR, and Finance partners to manage change initiatives and operational effectiveness, including headcount and outsourced service providers. Through organization design and recruitment, ensure we harness the right skills for the future of our technology, services, and customer experience. Serve as Pulse Champion, socializing results and agreeing areas of focus to improve engagement and performance.
• R&D IT Portfolio: Establish and run end to end portfolio governance to drive alignment, prioritization, and delivery to scope, time, and quality.  Maintain a single source of truth for portfolio health, actively managing risks, dependencies, and change, and producing consistent progress narratives and dashboards for leadership and key stakeholders. Partner with Finance to set budgets, forecast and track spend, optimize investment allocation and benefits realization, and ensure adherence to financial controls and funding guardrails, using analytics and benchmarking to identify portfolio optimization opportunities.

Essential Skills/Experience:

• Bachelor's degree with minimum 10 years of industry experience
• Demonstrated experience driving strategy alignment, governance, and on-time, high-quality delivery for enterprise initiatives, operating to a defined RACI
• Proven ability to define, agree and track OKRs and KPIs, and to develop and own scorecards aligned to enterprise and R&D business priorities
• Advanced use of analytics to identify and deliver continuous improvement opportunities; experience conducting and applying cross- and in-industry benchmarking
• Track record of optimizing capabilities across a complex function with clear optimization targets and outcomes
• Experience partnering with senior leadership to evolve strategy aligned to long-term technology ambitions and broader company objectives
• Workforce planning expertise, including identifying skills gaps, organization design, and managing outsourced service providers to meet current and future needs
• Ability to define, track and report on strategic priorities and milestones; experience facilitating medium-term planning and business unit reporting with strong data gathering, analysis and narrative
• Experience creating, maintaining, and communicating capability roadmaps
• Leadership of sustainability agendas, including delivering against sustainability targets and increasing employee engagement in areas such as access to healthcare
• Strong operational governance background, with evidence of driving adoption of standards and processes across a function
• Proficiency ensuring accuracy and usefulness of operational data sets including CMDB and project portfolio data
• Executive communications and stakeholder engagement experience, including designing, delivering Town Halls, and celebrating organizational achievements
• Program leadership skills to coordinate flawless execution and measure realized outcomes across multiple initiatives
• Change leadership experience working closely with HR and Finance to deliver organization design, headcount, and vendor changes
• Experience leading employee engagement cycles as a Pulse Champion or equivalent, using insights to define and implement improvements

Desirable Skills/Experience:

• Senior leadership experience within R&D technology environments in life sciences or similarly complex, regulated industries
• Familiarity with long-range digital technology strategies and OKR frameworks across large global enterprises
• Expertise with enterprise portfolio management, OKR and data visualization tools to build transparent, decision-ready scorecards
• Experience scaling sustainability programs and access to healthcare initiatives through education and engagement
• Track record leading large-scale operating model changes and capability builds across distributed teams
• Comfort working with advanced analytics and AI-enabled insights to inform performance and strategy decisions

Why AstraZeneca:

Here you will shape how digital; data and technology unlock the potential of our science and speed life-changing medicines to patients. It is a pivotal moment in our transformation, with the investment and intent to become data-led at scale. You will work in an environment that rewards ownership and bold thinking, where experimentation is encouraged—whether that’s joining a hackathon or bringing unexpected teams into the same room to crack a tough problem. We value kindness alongside ambition, set high standards and provide the support to meet them. Your leadership will ripple across the enterprise: simplifying how we work, elevating productivity and quality, and enabling colleagues worldwide to focus on what matters most.

Call to Action:

Seize this moment to lead the strategy, performance and transformation that power our R&D—take the next step and help us move medicines to patients faster!

The annual base pay (or hourly rate of compensation) for this position ranges from $189,232.80 - $283,849.20 USD Our positions offer eligibility for various incentives—an opportunity to receive short-term incentive bonuses, equity-based awards for salaried roles and commissions for sales roles. Benefits offered include qualified retirement programs, paid time off (i.e., vacation, holiday, and leaves), as well as health, dental, and vision coverage in accordance with the terms of the applicable plans.

Date Posted

Closing Date

Our mission is to build an inclusive environment where equal employment opportunities are available to all applicants and employees. In furtherance of that mission, we welcome and consider applications from all qualified candidates, regardless of their protected characteristics. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please complete the corresponding section in the application form.