Director Global S2C Excellence Procurement

AstraZeneca is a global, innovation-driven BioPharmaceutical business that focuses on the discovery, development and commercialisation of prescription medicines for some of the world’s most serious disease. But we’re more than one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies.

We are trusted partners who are connected and integrated across the global enterprise, working closely with all functions from Commercial to Manufacturing. It opens up greater development opportunities for more responsibility on a global scale.

Join a team that supports the delivery of life-changing medicines for patients by enabling the rest of the business to run effectively and harness our transformative science. We’re on a journey of growth and evolution – to find better ways to translate value for the business and our patients.

About the role
This newly created role provides daily leadership and hands‑on support for all procurement activities within our Global Source‑to‑Contract (S2C) Excellence team. You will lead a team of S2C Specialists and S2C Experts to deliver against defined business objectives and SLAs for the Source‑to‑Contract process. Within your remit, you will be fully accountable for the successful delivery of sourcing and contracting events in line with the Procurement Operating Model and compliant with applicable procedures and category governance.

The role reports directly to the Senior Director, GSCE. You will be responsible for the ongoing performance management and continuous improvement of the S2C SET team, while also delivering your own activities to support critical projects. Drawing on a well‑developed understanding of sourcing and contracting approaches, systems, and tools, the S2C Director ensures rigour and application of best practices across all sourcing and contracting activity within the GSCE team.

Typical accountabilities:

Leadership

• Team leadership and performance: Manage team resources, priorities, and targets through direct reports; set clear objectives and track outcomes.

• Coaching and development: Lead, coach, and develop S2C team members’ professional capabilities and career growth.

• Compliance and ethics: Instill the highest standards of compliance, ethics, and governance consistently across AstraZeneca.

• Talent strategy: Build a high‑performing team by attracting, developing, and retaining talent from within and outside the organization; provide appropriate opportunities and support.

Partnering & collaboration

• Market practices and innovation: Continuously monitor procurement market practices and drive their adoption within the S2C team.

• Stakeholder engagement: Proactively manage stakeholders within and beyond the Procurement function to align on priorities and outcomes.

• Performance visibility: Ensure transparent visibility of team performance and deliverables through regular engagement and communication with stakeholders.

• Workload and quality management: Balance workload across the team, collaborate with other S2C teams, and ensure the quality of deliverables with timely guidance and support.

• Project delivery: Lead S2C projects where required, ensuring on‑time, in‑scope, and compliant delivery.

• Stakeholder satisfaction: Implement, monitor, and follow up on internal stakeholder satisfaction and feedback.

• Standards and compliance: Embed Global Procurement processes and standards within the team and ensure adherence and accountability.

Typical behaviours

• Adaptive and change‑focused: Comfortable operating in ambiguity and shaping processes, rules, and systems where not fully defined.

• Decisive and pragmatic: Makes informed decisions and owns outcomes.

• Customer‑centric: Focused on meeting and exceeding stakeholder expectations.

• Emotionally intelligent: Relates effectively to diverse stakeholders; self‑aware of strengths and development areas.

• Strategic thinker: Quickly identifies opportunities and risks; aligns S2C plans to broader business strategy.

• Versatile leader: Able to switch between doing, teaching, coaching, and delegating as appropriate.

Measures of success

• Service delivery: Performance against pre‑defined objectives, SLAs, and targets.

• Continuous improvement: Delivery of procurement continuous improvement and efficiency initiatives.

Essential requirements

• Education: Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Business, Supply Chain, or related field.

• Stakeholder management: Proven experience engaging and influencing senior stakeholders and building strong relationships.

• Procurement experience: Minimum 7 years in procurement, ideally in an international, matrixed, global environment.

• People leadership: Minimum 3 years of line management experience leading larger or multi‑disciplinary teams.

• S2C expertise: Experience in complex, global, end‑to‑end sourcing and contracting processes.

• Results orientation: Demonstrated track record of delivering against targets and outcomes.

• Change leadership: Proven experience delivering organizational change and continuous improvement initiatives.

Skills

• Communication: Excellent verbal and written communication skills with the ability to present complex information clearly at all organizational levels.

• Languages: Written and verbal fluency in English; additional languages are an advantage.

• Business partnering: Strong relationship‑building and business partnering skills across functions and geographies.

• Stakeholder engagement: Ability to quickly engage and influence stakeholders at different levels in the organization.

• Project management: Strong project and program management capabilities.

• Digital proficiency: Proficiency in Microsoft 365 (e.g., Excel, PowerPoint, Teams); familiarity with eSourcing and contract lifecycle management tools is a plus.

• Prioritization: Proven ability to manage multiple projects/tasks effectively in a fast‑paced environment.

Desirable

• Shared services leadership: Experience leading delivery teams in a shared services/SSC model.

• Advanced project credentials: Formal project management certification (e.g., PMP, PRINCE2) or equivalent experience.

• Procurement excellence: Hands‑on procurement sourcing experience in regulated or R&D‑intensive industries.

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.

AstraZeneca is an equal opportunity employer. We will consider all qualified applicants for employment without discrimination on grounds of disability, sex or sexual orientation, pregnancy or maternity leave status, race or national or ethnic origin, age, religion or belief, gender identity or re-assignment, marital or civil partnership status, protected veteran status (if applicable) or any other characteristic protected by law. We only employ individuals with the right to work in the country/ies where the role is advertised.

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.