Director, IT

At AstraZeneca, we pride ourselves on crafting a collaborative culture that champions knowledge-sharing, daring 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 build a strong culture of collaboration and partnership by engaging face-to-face in our offices 3 days a week. Our head office and BlueSky Hub in downtown Toronto are purposely crafted 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 is an excellent place to work. We know the health of people, the planet and our business are interconnected which is why we’re taking bold actions to address some of the biggest challenges of our time, from climate change to access to healthcare and disease prevention.

Summary of Position:

Reporting to the VP of IBEX & IT (Innovation, Business Excellence & Information Technology), you will lead the local AstraZeneca Canada IT team as the thought leader translating the enterprise ambition, strategy, and priorities into your team’s Information Technology program. You will drive overall IT planning, implement key IT functions at the Mississauga and Toronto AZ offices, and use the global organization and opportunities to power the Canadian marketing company from an IT perspective.

This role is accountable for a broad spectrum of IT services in Canada including business partnering and development of new technical solutions – often requiring collaboration and harmonized delivery through global and third-party partners. IT infrastructure services and support are not within the scope of this role but require strong connection between this Director of IT role and the Director of Site Strategy and Engagement who owns infrastructure services and support.

This role is part of the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) comprising Directors across the business working together to achieve the enterprise priorities and it also sits on the IBEX & IT Leadership Team working most closely with the Director leaders of Data & Analytics, Commercial & Sales Excellence, and Digital & Marketing Excellence under a shared directive to drive transformation across the enterprise through data, digital, technology, and enterprise capability building.

What You’ll Do:

• Lead overall AZC IT strategy through creating an IT roadmap that incorporates local and global priorities, then developing an annual set of team priorities and ensuring the successful delivery of the associated portfolio of initiatives. Take charge of coordinating and leading all aspects of cost control, resource prioritization, and operational planning to meet budget objectives.
• Proactively act as the subject matter thought leader on IT, portfolio delivery, organizational change, solution design, and business analysis at the local level – using global, local, and external partner relationships to implement with precision. Collaborate across the business, conducting high-level investigations and feasibility studies. Use business experience and skills to assess and advise on practicability of alternatives, marrying up technical limitations with operational realities.
• Evolve and execute AZ Canada’s AI strategy to drive impact within the business through new innovations, simplification and efficiency.
• Build expert relationships that partner with global colleagues to understand long-term direction, influence, and shape the global roadmap, and adopt and embed relevant pull-through IT capabilities. Ensure the market is well represented above market and ensure local relevance and alignment to core global IT strategies.
• Create the technical roadmap and solutions to be a data-driven organization. Champion the technical data strategy, software selection, vendor selection, commercial data systems approach, and patient data systems approach.
• Ensure the consistency and maintainability of existing technical services, platforms, and applications by creating, maintaining, and implementing standards/procedures and leading a strong application owner framework for all relevant systems and technologies.
• Attract and mentor the best talent and team. Recruit, lead, coach, develop, and motivate staff to ensure accountabilities are clear and objectives are delivered to a consistent high level of quality, performance, and creativity. Create a climate that enables everyone to contribute to performance and continuous improvement objectives.
• Act as the champion for IT security and IT QA across the business maintaining stronger partnering with the business for all IT security needs while partnering closely with Procurement, Privacy, Compliance, and Global QA. Also proactively ensure strong control and audit readiness partnering on Digital governance with Director of Digital and Marketing Excellence. Process ownership and support for related core processes such as IT Security Assessments, Risk Impact Determinations, and facilitation support for Privacy Impact Assessments where required.
• Collect and report Adverse Events in accordance with AstraZeneca policies and SOPs.

What We’re Looking For:

• IT Expertise - Bachelor's degree or above with significant relevant experience leading an IT function; experience in the pharmaceutical/healthcare industry is preferred but not required. A track record of IT experience across Data systems, Digital, CRM, IT Service, and Equipment is ideal. Experience developing and implementing an organizational AI strategy is also important.
• Eye For Business - Shown evidence in leading, driving, and delivering cross-organization IT change programs, processes, and services that have a major impact within the organization. Strong change leadership is an important skill.
• People Management - Proven people manager and leader with demonstrated ability to lead teams and individual outcomes, champion multi-functional collaboration, and lead a team of a diverse group of employees.
• Customer Management - Good interpersonal skills with respect to relationship building, influencing, negotiating, and partnership across multiple stakeholder groups both internal to AZC and with AZ Global functions. Ability to build credibility and influence with exceptional ability to translate business needs into technical solutions and translate back to the business.
• Results Delivery - Resilient and energized by working in complexity; agile and adaptable to changes. High degree of initiative and capacity to lead multiple priorities of significant scope in a fast-paced area of the business.
• Critical Thinking – Ability to think creatively in developing and implementing business solutions; strength in articulating new models and business concepts. The ability to challenge the status quo in order to improve outcomes is also critical for this role.
• External Focus – Knowledgeable in the IT landscape across industries; able to keep a finger on the pulse of rapid changes in the technology landscape; savvy in using knowledge of major systems and partners; ability to network outside of AZC.

Who We Are:

Great People want to Work with us! Find out why:

At AstraZeneca, we are at the forefront of defining groundbreaking technologies that shape the future. Our commitment to innovation drives us to hunt for new technologies that have a long-term impact. By working on novel projects such as imaging, AI, machine learning, data transparency, we ensure that our efforts lead to quicker results while upholding our ethical standards.

Ready to make a difference? Apply now!

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.

Date Posted: 01-Nov-2024