Senior Director, Architecture – Enterprise & Strategy

About the team

AstraZeneca’s Enterprise Architecture team shapes the digital backbone that powers discovery, development, manufacturing, and delivery of life-changing medicines. We partner with senior leaders across R&D, Operations, Commercial, and Enabling Functions to translate strategy into scalable platforms, data and integration capabilities, and secure, modern architectures. We champion simplification, interoperability, and measurable business outcomes across a complex, global landscape.

About the role

The Senior Director, Architecture – Enterprise & Strategy has overall accountability for the consistent implementation of architecture decisions across business and IT to support the AZ business and IS strategy, ensuring architectures are compliant with relevant AZ standards, blueprints, and roadmaps. The role will be responsible for partnering with key business and IT Leadership teams, integrating information from business strategies and portfolios to develop the overall strategic direction, integration, and quality for AstraZeneca’s architecture portfolio (AZ’s architecture assets: Business, Application, Information, and Infrastructure). The Senior Director, Architecture – Enterprise & Strategy will also be accountable for the overall health and effectiveness of key architecture processes such as standards management and lifecycle management. The role will drive change in EA and will proactively address industry trends (e.g., MicroServices, API, Big Data, etc.) in the definition of AZ’s imperatives and guidelines and educate EA stakeholders. Additionally, the role acts as a sponsor or steering group member of projects with a cross-functional or enterprise-wide scope.

What you’ll do

• Lead enterprise design in one domain—Business, Data, Application, or Infrastructure—and set the segment’s architecture strategy, direction, and standards.
• Translate business priorities into enterprise architecture requirements; refine strategies and standards as needs evolve.
• Serve as the authority and sign-off for solution and segment architectures, blueprints, and 1–5 year roadmaps.
• Develop and oversee architecture roadmaps and blueprints, ensuring alignment with current priorities, global strategies, and solutions.
• Advise senior IT and business leaders and contribute to cross-functional decision-making forums.
• Champion Enterprise Architecture initiatives across IS; implement EA standards, processes, tools, and the information architecture design authority.
• Define holistic strategies and agreed approaches for managing key information to enable effective decision-making.
• Engage external experts, assess industry and market trends for enterprise impact, and build partnerships with key technology suppliers.
• Provide thought leadership across IS and continuously elevate architecture capability through best-practice sharing.

What you’ll bring

Required skills/experience:

• Background: Relevant technical degree or equivalent experience; strong business acumen
• Thought leadership: + 5 years experience as leader in an Enterprise Architecture domain.
• Enterprise architecture impact: Proven ability to define multi‑year architecture roadmaps and align them to business strategy; experience building components of an Enterprise Architecture practice.
• Integration and simplification: Experience with rationalization, consolidation, and integration across business domains using a formal framework.
• Commercial rigor: Experience leading justification phases, including product evaluations and business case formulation.
• Stakeholder influence: Track record influencing senior business and IT leaders to drive change; strong communication, facilitation, and relationship‑building skills; ability to translate technical topics into business language.
• Leadership and delivery: Experience managing, developing, and leading distributed teams; vendor management and negotiation with third‑party suppliers.
• External awareness: Strong networking skills; awareness of market developments and their relevance to AZ IS; ability to work effectively in diverse, multinational teams.
  

Desired skills/experience

• Mindset and management: Demonstrated initiative, customer orientation, cross‑cultural collaboration; people development and budget management experience.
• Education/certifications: Master’s degree and/or professional certification(s).
• Risk and compliance: Awareness of relevant legislation and data protection laws.
• Industry context: Understanding of the pharmaceutical/healthcare industry and competitor activity related to architecture and information management.
  

The annual base pay ranges from 182 516,00 - 273 774,00 USD Annually. Hourly and salaried non-exempt employees will also be paid overtime pay when working qualifying overtime hours. Base pay offered may vary depending on multiple individualized factors, including market location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience.  In addition, our positions offer a short-term incentive bonus opportunity; eligibility to participate in our equity-based long-term incentive program (salaried roles), to receive a retirement contribution (hourly roles), and commission payment eligibility (sales roles). Benefits offered included a qualified retirement program [401(k) plan]; paid vacation and holidays; paid leaves; and, health benefits including medical, prescription drug, dental, and vision coverage in accordance with the terms and conditions of the applicable plans. Additional details of participation in these benefit plans will be provided if an employee receives an offer of employment. If hired, employee will be in an “at-will position” and the Company reserves the right to modify base pay (as well as any other discretionary payment or compensation program) at any time, including for reasons related to individual performance, Company or individual department/team performance, and market factors. 

Technology at AstraZeneca is a home for purposeful disruptors!

SO, WHAT’S NEXT? 

Are you already imagining yourself joining our team? Good, because we’d love to hear from you! Click the link to apply and we’ll be in touch as soon as we can.  

Date Posted

31-okt.-2025

Closing Date

14-nov.-2025

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.

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 authorisation and employment eligibility verification requirements.