Senior Director - EUIT Data & AI Forward Engineering Lead

AstraZeneca plc; India; On-site; INR 3,000,000 - 6,000,000; Full time

Job summary

AstraZeneca plc in India seeks a Senior Director to lead EUIT Data & AI Forward Engineering. Based in Chennai or Bangalore, you will shape data & AI strategy, build data products and AI capabilities, and drive governance, security and responsible AI across enabling functions.

You will lead a diverse team, partner with Finance, HR, GBS, Legal, M&A, and UK colleagues, and foster an environment where experimentation translates into measurable value and cost improvements.

Job description

Senior Director - EUIT Data & AI Forward Engineering Lead

Location: Chennai or Bangalore, India

Reports to: Head of Enabling Units IT

The Opportunity

Intelligent data solutions and machine learning are changing how we work, make decisions and deliver value across AstraZeneca. We seek a Senior Director, Enabling Units IT Data & AI Forward Engineering Lead to help build that change.

You will guide and manage a team that brings data, AI and forward engineering closer to the business. Working across Finance, HR, GBS, Legal, Compliance, M&A and EUIT, your team will turn business opportunities into trusted data products, AI solutions and measurable improvements in productivity, cost, speed and decision-making.

This is a broad technology leadership role combining strategy for data and AI, engineering, product leadership, transformation and operational excellence. You will collaborate with senior business and technology leaders and develop talent in India and the UK. You will invent an environment where teams can experiment, learn, and turn promising ideas into solutions that make a difference.

What You'll Do

Shape Data & AI strategy

You will define and deliver the EUIT Data & AI Forward Engineering strategy, connecting technology investment to business priorities.

You will partner with senior leaders across Finance and enabling functions to identify opportunities where data, AI and automation can improve decisions, simplify work and create measurable value.

You will also bring relevant external perspectives into AstraZeneca, translating developments in AI, data and engineering into practical opportunities for the organisation.

Build Forward Engineering and Data Products

You will build a forward engineering model where multidisciplinary teams work closely with business colleagues to understand problems, test ideas and rapidly develop solutions.

Your organisation will develop trusted, reusable data products and AI capabilities that support analytics, automation and decision-making.

You will work with enterprise teams to establish strong engineering, architecture, security and governance practices, with privacy, responsible AI and data quality incorporated from the beginning.

Scale AI and Agentic Solutions

You will shape how AI agents are developed, deployed, managed and improved across EUIT.

Working with technology, security and governance teams, you will establish clear approaches for ownership, human oversight, observability, evaluation and cost management.

You will encourage reuse and interoperability while reducing unnecessary duplication. Solutions will be measured against clear outcomes including productivity, quality, adoption and cost.

Turn Innovation into Business Value

You will create practical ways for teams to experiment with new technology, quickly test promising ideas and scale solutions that deliver value.

Rather than focusing only on proofs of concept, you will help teams establish proof of value , linking investments to measurable improvements in productivity, cost, speed, risk reduction and decision-making.

You will establish clear baselines and measures with Finance and business partners so that the impact of technology investment is visible and understood.

Build AI Capability Across EUIT

A significant part of the role will be helping colleagues across EUIT build confidence and capability with AI.

You will develop learning opportunities that bring AI to life through hackathons, demonstrations, speaker sessions, communities of practice and role-based learning.

You will create opportunities for colleagues to experiment safely and help promising ideas progress from demonstrations into useful products, tools and AI agents.

Lead Talent and Organisation Development

You will build and develop a diverse team of forward engineers, data product leaders, AI specialists and technology leaders, with a significant talent base in India.

You will help evolve EUIT towards persistent, product-focused teams that are accountable for outcomes, adoption and continuous improvement.

You will also shape future skills and career pathways across forward engineering, data products, AI and agent engineering, platform architecture and value management.

Strengthen Managed Services and Resilience

You will work with strategic partners and managed service providers to strengthen operational performance, resilience and cost effectiveness.

You will encourage greater automation and increasingly self-healing operations while maintaining business continuity across critical EUIT services and delivery locations.

You will also promote strong commercial and FinOps practices across data, cloud and AI investment.

What Success Could Look Like

Success in this role means:

Business teams can demonstrate measurable productivity improvements from data and AI.

Trusted data products are increasingly reused across Finance and enabling functions.

AI agents deliver measurable value and operate within clear governance and oversight.

Strong ideas mo