Senior Director EUIT, Operational Excellence

AstraZeneca · Lisbon · €40–€60/hr (stated in the posting)

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The Senior Director, EUIT Operational Excellence is accountable for the integrity, performance and value of the run across the whole of Enabling Units IT as it moves to a 30:70, AI-powered product-and-platform operating model. Reporting to the VP, Enabling Units IT, this horizontal role owns Service Integration and Management (SIAM), the governance of the single strategic outsourcing partner and the circa 44-agent digital workforce, and the operational-risk and service-continuity agenda for the estate.

The Senior Director owns the outcome- and experience-based contract model (XLA/SLA, service credits of 10–15%, gain-share and contractual break points) that governs approximately $44M of IT Opex, and is accountable for resilience, service quality and the auditable evidence that the blended workforce of people, partner and agents is delivering the business case. Central to the role is making the true value of IT visible and credible to the Enabling Functions in which recognising IT not as a cost to be contained but as a driver of capacity, speed, quality, control, resilience and translating that into hard outcomes, including a measurable productivity saving of at least 10% for each function served, while making the run flatter, cheaper and more resilient and protecting delivery through the transition to secure the circa $8.8M post-tax cash saving and the 30:70 target at the aggressive end of the range.

The Senior Director partners closely with the Executive Directors for Finance IT and Core Functions IT, the Senior Directors for Data & AI Forward Engineering, Architecture and M&A IT, senior business leaders across the Enabling Functions, the Office of the VP cross-cutting reports (Strategic Outsourcing Partner, IT Procurement Business Partner and the Business Information Security Officer), Procurement, and Central Technology Risk and Data Governance.

Key Responsibilities

• Service Integration and Management (SIAM): Own the SIAM operating model that integrates and assures the single strategic partner and the circa 44 agents across a multi-tower, SaaS-led estate (Workday, SAP S/4, ServiceNow, Snowflake and the wider application landscape). Operate governance across the strategic, tactical and operational levels, underpinned by an integrated toolchain and a shared data model that provides a single source of truth for end-to-end service, major-incident and problem management, with clear accountability wherever delivery is outsourced.
• Demonstrating IT Value to the Functions: Make the true value of IT visible and credible to the Enabling Functions, positioning IT as a driver of capacity, speed, quality, control and resilience rather than a cost to be contained. Own a measurable productivity saving of at least 10% for each function served, releasing time, effort and spend to be reinvested in higher-value work and evidence it function by function against the run-cost bridge so each function sees a clear, auditable return on its IT investment. Report the value of agents that run IT itself and of agents that serve the business separately, never netted.
• Supplier and Partner Governance: Own the strategic partner relationship and the outcome-based managed-service agreement. Manage XLA/SLA performance, service credits (10–15%), gain-share, balanced risk/reward and contractual break points, holding the partner to business outcomes rather than staff-augmentation capacity, and actively mitigating lock-in.
• Experience and Outcome Measurement (XLA):Define and run the experience- and outcome-measurement framework for the run, in force from day one of the partner contract. Establish an experience baseline before contractualising targets, focus on a small set of three to five high-signal measures tied to business outcomes, and balance risk and reward rather than relying on penalties alone. Run a formal governance cadence - monthly operational reviews, quarterly target reviews and an annual review of the framework with defined joint-review and remediation triggers and with business owners, HR and Procurement at the table alongside IT.
• Run Assurance and Operational Excellence: Assure that the partner-run managed service and agent operations keep the estate live within the circa $44M IT Opex envelope, with no in-house staff operating the run. Drive continuous improvement, unit-cost reduction through blended rates and agent deflection (40–60% of L1), resilience and service quality.
• Commercial, Cost and FinOps Management: Develop, deliver and monitor the IT Opex run budget (circa $44M), track the savings run-rate against plan and flag early where it falls below plan. Apply FinOps and SaaS licence-optimisation discipline to drive down consumption and unit cost across the estate, and work with Procurement on commercial terms, gain-share, service credits, balanced risk/reward and value for money.
• Operational, Supplier and Continuity Risk (Op-Ex + Risk): Own operational, supplier-concentration and service-continuity risk for the estate. Lead the risk and controls agenda through the transition, knowledge transfer, hypercare and TUPE/transition exposure per wave and maintain the mitigations that underpin the business case.
• Transition and Sourcing Delivery: Support the phased transition to steady state in 2028 including standing up SIAM, the XLA contract and the run operating model ahead of the 70% reduction so that capability is in before capacity is out.
• Team, Stakeholder and Partner Leadership: Lead a lean, senior horizontal function and direct a far larger blended delivery capacity through the partner and agents. Influence the EUIT leadership team, senior Enabling Function business leaders, Procurement, the Business Information Security Officer and Central Technology Risk and Data Governance to drive resilient, outcome-based delivery.
• Governance, Risk and Compliance:Ensure supplier governance, service reporting and scorecards are auditable and evidence-based, and that SIAM and agent operations meet regulatory, SOX/GxP, AI-governance and data-governance requirements across the estate.

Key Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field of study - Business, Engineering, Computer Science or Information Technology. Master’s degree desirable.
• Significant experience leading IT service management, service integration (SIAM) and operations in a large, multi-tower, global enterprise.
• Significant experience designing and managing outcome-based managed-service and outsourcing contracts, including Service-Level Agreements, Experience-Level Agreements, service credits, gain-share and break clauses.
• Significant experience in supplier and vendor management at a Vendor Management Office standard, including selection (RFP), negotiation, onboarding, performance management and governance of a single strategic partner alongside a vendor tail, and the design of gain-share, service-credit and balanced risk/reward structures.
• Significant experience demonstrating and evidencing IT value and benefits realisation to business functions, including productivity-saving targets (for example at least 10% per function) tracked against a run-cost bridge.
• Significant experience leading large-scale sourcing transitions and workforce transformation, including offshore and managed-service transition, knowledge transfer, hypercare and TUPE.
• Significant experience governing a Cloud and software-as-a-service estate and emerging AI/agent operations, including measuring and assuring the performance of AI agents and partner delivery pods, across platforms such as Workday, SAP S/4HANA, ServiceNow and Snowflake.
• Experience applying FinOps and software-as-a-service cost-optimisation practices to large Cloud and SaaS estates.
• Experience owning operational, supplier-concentration and service-continuity risk, together with the related controls and resilience agenda.
• Experience working with regulatory and control aspects of IT in a regulated environment, including Sarbanes-Oxley and GxP, and audit-ready evidence.
• Experience developing and managing significant IT Opex budgets and tracking savings run-rates against plan.
• Substantial experience managing in a global matrix organisation with geographically dispersed teams and partners.
• Substantial experience communicating with and influencing senior internal and external stakeholders, including supplier and vendor networks, across areas and geographies.
• ITIL v4, SIAM Professional or equivalent service-management and supplier-management certification preferred.

Skills & Technical Proficiency

• Critical/ Strategic Thinking: Influences the broader business strategy with data and insights and anticipates futuristic changes.
• Results & Execution Focus: Sets ambitious yet realistic outcome targets, measures them rigorously and holds partners and agents to results.
• Business & Sustainability: Leverages a strong understanding of the organisational structure and business financials to make strategic recommendations and advocate for sustainable, resilient operations.
• Adaptability & Change Orientation: Champions bold moves and systemic changes and models resilience when faced with unexpected changes.
• Communication, Collaboration & Influence: Is an inspiring communicator, builds strong partnerships, and bridges silos to achieve broader organisational goals.
• Talent Development: Champions a culture based on feedforward, coaching, and stretch development and ensures a level playing field for diverse talent.
• Value & Insight Storytelling: Turns service, cost and performance data into clear, decision-ready evidence of IT value for the Enabling Function leaders and the EUIT leadership team and is candid when the evidence is unwelcome.
• Service Integration & SIAM Mastery: Designs and runs a SIAM model across strategic, tactical and operational governance that holds a single partner and an agent workforce to end-to-end outcomes across a multi-tower estate.
• Commercial & Contract Acumen: Structures and manages outcome/XLA contracts, service credits, gain-share and balanced risk/reward to protect value, drive performance and avoid lock-in.
• FinOps & Cost Optimisation: Drives consumption, licence and unit-cost reduction across a Cloud and SaaS estate and evidences the saving against plan.
• Operational Risk & Resilience: Anticipates and manages supplier-concentration, continuity and transition risk, and builds resilience and control into the run.
• Partner & Agent Performance Management:Designs and runs measures for partner delivery pods and AI agents under identity-first, human-accountable governance, holding them to accuracy, deflection, SLA/XLA and cost outcomes.

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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.

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