At AstraZeneca, we pride ourselves on crafting a collaborative culture that champions knowledge-sharing, ambitious thinking and innovation – ultimately providing employees with the opportunity to work across teams, functions and even the globe.
Recognizing the importance of individualized flexibility, our ways of working allow employees to balance personal and work commitments while ensuring we continue to create a strong culture of collaboration and teamwork by engaging face-to-face in our offices 3 days a week. Our head office and BlueSky Hub in downtown Toronto are purposely designed with collaboration in mind, providing space where teams can come together to strategize, brainstorm and connect on key projects.
Our dedication to sustainability is also central to our culture and part of what makes AstraZeneca a great place to work. We know the health of people, the planet and our business are interconnected which is why we’re taking ambitious action to tackle some of the biggest challenges of our time, from climate change to access to healthcare and disease prevention.
AstraZeneca’s Operational Data Strategy (ODS) has a core mandate to unlock decisions and insights from clinical operations data and consultation with key collaborators across the enterprise. We set the standards for how data is captured, connected, assured, and transformed into insight—pairing robust platforms with user‑centered analytics so leaders see what matters, when it matters, in a way that drives action.
We’re hiring an Associate Director, Business Strategy and Analytics to elevate how ODS delivers insight when decisions are made. Reporting to the Strategic Analytics and Enablement Lead, you will partner directly with senior collaborators to shape the question, translate complexity into clarity, and provide actionable guidance—often in the same conversation. You’ll blend collaborator consultation with modern analytics, AI‑enabled decision support, and outstanding UX to shorten the time from question to answer, increase confidence in choices, and scale what works across Clinical Operations. If you thrive at the intersection of business judgment, analytical rigor, and emerging AI capabilities—and you want your work to be used, not just viewed—this role is for you.
Collaborator decision partnership: Engage directly with business leaders to identify the decision at hand, shape hypotheses, and co-create analytic approaches that answer the right questions, using both traditional analytics and AI‑enabled workflows.
AI‑enabled decision support: Integrate AI tools into delivery to improve speed‑to‑insight, consistency, and scalability while maintaining governance and quality.
Power BI excellence: Design and deliver governed semantic models and Power BI solutions that prioritize user experience, accessibility, performance, and maintainability—augmenting with AI‑assisted content generation where appropriate.
From question to recommendation: Translate complex requirements into structured analyses and executive‑ready narratives, documenting assumptions, limitations, and recommended actions; adapt content in real time based on collaborator feedback.
Standards and governance: Establish and enforce standards for exploratory and descriptive analytics, UX/UI, documentation, versioning, accessibility, performance, and change control—covering both conventional and AI‑enabled processes.
Data readiness and modeling: Guide data collection and preprocessing across databases, APIs, and files; ensure readiness and alignment for governed semantic layers, demonstrating AI‑assisted data quality checks where appropriate.
Adoption and value realization: Drive utilization of decision support products through training, enablement, and proactive engagement; measure impact using adoption, satisfaction, and decision‑cycle time.
Coaching and community building: Coach specialists on delivery excellence, responsible AI use, and stakeholder‑centered analytic practices; help feed a business‑embedded analytics community.
Communication and influence: Present work to principals and cross‑functional collaborators; tailor content for decision forums, ensuring clarity, traceability, and responsible use of AI‑generated components.
Essential:
Stakeholder‑facing analytics consulting: Confirmed experience partnering with senior collaborators to co‑create, refine, and deliver analytics that directly support strategic decision making—framing questions, testing hypotheses, and guiding recommendations.
AI‑enabled analytics delivery: Hands‑on experience applying AI tools to accelerate insight with strong judgment on quality, ethics, and governance.
Power BI and semantic modeling: Guide knowledge of Power BI and BI applications, including governed semantic modeling, DAX, performance optimization, and UX/UI design for scalable decision support.
Advanced communication: Exceptional written and verbal communication skills with the ability to explain trade‑offs, limitations, and recommendations clearly to executive audiences; adept at producing executive‑ready narratives.
Complex analytic delivery: Demonstrated success delivering complex analyses and decision support products in business or scientific domains, balancing speed‑to‑insight with rigor and reproducibility.
Adoption and enablement: Experience coordinating with enabling functions and collaborators to drive adoption, training, and measurable value realization of analytics and decision support products.
Data and engineering foundations: Familiarity with database systems (SQL), ETL pipelines, cloud environments, and engineering practices (reproducibility, version control).
Agile and governance: Experience working in Agile delivery environments and exposure to governance frameworks for BI/AI product lifecycle, model monitoring, and change management.
Responsible AI practices: Knowledge of AI risk management, prompt hygiene, bias and explainability considerations, and controls for content provenance and validation.
Critical thinking: Structured scoping, focused hypothesis framing, and objective interpretation—ensuring analytics improve planning, execution, and oversight rather than merely visualizing data.
Business judgment and EQ: Ability to navigate collaborator priorities, negotiate trade‑offs, and influence decisions - grounding analytics in the business context, including ethical use of AI.
Growth mindset: Curiosity and continuous learning across AI capabilities, UX paradigms, and analytic methods—keeping solutions modern, accessible, and impactful across R&D.
Grit and resilience: Persistence through complex data landscapes, change management, and cross‑functional dependencies—delivering timely, high‑quality outcomes with measurable adoption and value.
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AstraZeneca is an equal opportunity employer that is committed to diversity and inclusion and providing a workplace that is free from discrimination. AstraZeneca is committed to accommodating persons with disabilities. Such accommodation is available on request in respect of all aspects of the recruitment, assessment and selection process and may be requested by emailing [email protected].
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Annual base salary for this position ranges from 110,968.00 to 145,645.50.
AstraZeneca is committed to providing fair and equitable compensation opportunities to all colleagues. Our compensation policies and practices have been designed to allow colleagues to progress through the salary range over time as they progress in their role. The range provided in this posting represents an offer pay range used in a majority of situations. The base pay offered will vary depending on multiple individualized factors, including the candidate's skills and experience, job-related knowledge, and other specific business and organizational needs. In some cases, offers outside the range may also be considered to address unique circumstances.
In addition, our permanent positions offer an annual Variable Pay Bonus/Short Term Incentive opportunity as well as eligibility to participate in our equity-based long-term incentive program (if applicable to role). Benefits offered for permanent roles include a competitive Flex Benefits & Retirement Savings Program, 4 weeks’ paid vacation, and annual Personal Days. Fixed Term Contract/Temporary positions (excluding students) are offered a Contract Benefits Program.
We are using AI as part of the recruitment process.
This advertisement relates to a current vacancy.
