Senior Manager/Associate Director--Strategic Planning

Position Overview

We are seeking an experienced and strategic PMO Senior Manager / Associate Director to join the IBEX & Digital department at AstraZeneca China. This role will serve as a key partner to department leadership, driving strategic planning, orchestrating department-wide activities, and ensuring the successful execution of high-impact initiatives. The ideal candidate will bring a strong blend of strategic thinking, project management excellence, and cross-functional coordination capabilities to accelerate the department's transformation agenda.

Key Responsibilities

1. Strategic Planning & Leadership Support

• Partner with IBEX & Digital leaders to develop the overall department strategy, define key initiatives, and shape objective planning cycles.
• Translate enterprise and commercial strategy into actionable departmental priorities and measurable outcomes.
• Provide thought partnership and structured problem-solving support to the Leadership Team (LT) on strategic topics.

2. Department Operations & Activity Management

• Orchestrate and support key department activities, including functional planning cycles, Leadership Team (LT) meetings, and cross-functional workshops.
• Design meeting agendas, prepare pre-reads and executive materials, facilitate discussions, and drive follow-through on action items.

3. Initiative & Project Management

• Lead the setup of taskforces for key strategic initiatives, including scoping, resourcing, governance, and stakeholder alignment.
• Drive end-to-end project management, including milestone planning, risk identification, dependency management, and progress tracking.
• Provide regular status reporting to leadership and proactively escalate risks and mitigation plans.

Capabilities & Requirements

Professional Experience

• Proven experience in pharmaceutical commercial functions (e.g. Marketing, Commercial Excellence, Business Operations, or Corporate/BU PMO).
• Demonstrated track record of managing complex, cross-functional projects in a matrixed organization.

· Professional experience in a multinational pharmaceutical company, a leading multinational in a similar sector (e.g. FMCG), or a leading local pharmaceutical company.

· Experience supporting or leading digital transformation or AI initiatives/projects—such as digital customer engagement, data-driven business solutions, or AI-enabled workflow improvement—is a plus.

Core Competencies

• Strategic Thinking & Problem Solving: Ability to structure ambiguous business problems, generate insights, and translate them into clear recommendations and action plans.
• Strategy Translation: Strong comprehension of pharma industry dynamics and strategy, with the ability to translate corporate/commercial strategy into functional initiatives and executable roadmaps.
• Communication: Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with strong proficiency in English (working language for global stakeholder engagement).
• Coordination & Stakeholder Management: Outstanding ability to coordinate across functions, influence without authority, and align diverse stakeholders toward common objectives.

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree required; MBA or advanced degree preferred.
• Prior experience in PMO, strategy consulting, or Chief of Staff type roles is a strong plus.
• Familiarity with commercial excellence, digital transformation and data-driven ways of working in the pharmaceutical industry.
  

Date Posted

Closing Date

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.