Business User Acceptance Testing Lead (Assoc. Director, Global Clinical Solutions)

Location: Warsaw, Poland
Hybrid model of work: 3 days in office, 2 remote per week

Global Clinical Solutions (GCS) drives the delivery of technology and associated processes for the BioPharmaceuticals R&D organization, owning and providing industry-leading technology and services on behalf of Clinical Operations and its internal and external partnerships.

The Business User Acceptance Testing Lead (UAT Lead) is a member of Global Clinical Solutions Technologies (GCST) and is end-to-end accountable for the planning, coordination, execution, and completion of Business UAT activities for assigned initiatives and systems in the Clinical space.

The UAT Lead represents the business testing perspective in strategy and delivery discussions, ensuring UAT is integrated with project plans, release management, and validation activities. The UAT Lead supports continuous improvement of testing approaches and delivery outcomes, introducing suitable metrics, adopting industry standards and best practices, and leveraging tools (e.g., Jira) for test management, traceability, and reporting.

The UAT Lead ensures that UAT is conducted in accordance with ICH/GxP requirements and AstraZeneca validation standards, producing compliant evidence of testing, outcomes, and approvals.

The UAT Lead works closely with Business Users, Testers, System Owner, Functional Process Owners, Business Process Management Office (BPMO), R&D IT, vendor teams, project managers, and other internal and external stakeholders to define UAT scope, orchestrate test cycles, and confirm acceptance of the solution. The role consolidates business testing requirements, facilitates script development and approvals, drives defect management to closure, and provides clear status reporting and sign-off governance to enable optimal end-to-end delivery of clinical studies.

The UAT Lead will also support Access Management activities.

The UAT Lead may act as a backup for the System Owner or Functional Process Owner in their assigned area where appropriate, maintaining alignment with system lifecycle management and production readiness.

Typical Accountabilities

Main accountabilities

• UAT Strategy and Planning: Define and execute the UAT approach, ensuring the Project Lead and key stakeholders understand objectives, scope, acceptance criteria, test levels/cycles, risks, time/effort/cost estimates, resource needs, and incident management plans. Adapt plans based on progress and results, documenting changes as needed.
• Scope, Scripting, and Approval: Consolidate the UAT scope with business and IT stakeholders. Drive UAT scenario design and scripting with business SMEs, manage modifications, and obtain required approvals.
• Execution Management: Schedule, coordinate, and facilitate UAT sessions with business users and stakeholders. Monitor test cycles, track results, assess exit criteria, and ensure timely defect triage and resolution.
• Tooling and Test Readiness: Ensure business testers are onboarded to Jira and relevant test tools, including how to run scripts, record results, and raise/track defects. Coordinate test data setup and maintain adequate configuration management for traceability across requirements, test cases, defects, and releases.
• Governance, Compliance, and Training: Ensure UAT activities meet GxP and organizational policies. Confirm CornerStone UAT training completion before test execution. Create the UAT Test Report and coordinate formal sign-offs.
• Stakeholder Engagement: Align the business test strategy and plan with the Project Manager, System Owner, IT Test Lead, and other stakeholders. Communicate the testing perspective to adjacent activities such as integration planning and release management.
• Metrics and Reporting: Establish and track suitable metrics for test progress, coverage, defect quality, and product readiness. Ensure UAT status and outcomes are accurately documented in Jira and reflected in the UAT Test Report, highlighting risks, dependencies, and recommended go/no-go decisions.
• System Validation and Release Readiness: Ensure system validation activities are completed and documented, and secure approval to launch into production in line with validation protocols.
• Resource Coordination: Confirm SME allocation for UAT, manage tester availability, and proactively communicate delays or constraints impacting UAT execution.
• Policy and Strategy Contributions: Write or review the project test strategy and contribute to the organization’s test policy and continuous improvement of testing practices.
• Support Access Management activities.
• Backup Responsibilities: Act as backup to the System Owner/Functional Process Owner within the assigned area when required.

Essential

• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field
• Proven experience in software testing, business analysis, QA, or validation with hands-on UAT leadership
• Practical experience using Jira for test management, defect tracking, reporting, and traceability
• Proficiency with test tools and test data management
• Strong written and verbal communication and presentation skills
• Effective stakeholder management with SMEs, project managers, system owners, and IT leads
• Flexibility and adaptability in dynamic environments
• Solid understanding of System Lifecycle Management, release management, and change control
• Knowledge of GxP and working in regulated environments
• Analytical problem solving and defect resolution
• Experience with UAT metrics and reporting including coverage, defect trends, exit criteria
• Experience onboarding business testers to tools, execution protocols, and the defect lifecycle

Desirable

• Master’s degree or equivalent or relevant professional certifications
• Experience in pharmaceutical, biotech, or other highly regulated industries including validation, documentation, and audit readiness
• Experience using and developing automated test tools and frameworks and understanding where automation supports UAT versus manual business validation

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.