Business & Strategy & Portfolio Senior Specialist

AstraZeneca • Durham, NC

1d • Hybrid

About The Position

This role partners with Clinical Operations leaders to frame the questions that steer our portfolio, translate complex data into clear, executive-ready choices, and drive decisions that improve speed and certainty across development. Reporting to the Strategic Analytics and Enablement Lead, you will shape how senior leaders see the business and where they focus next—ensuring the right insights arrive at the right moment to move our pipeline forward. You will thrive here if you combine the structured thinking of a strategist with the analytical fluency of a data professional and the credibility to influence at VP level and above. How would you shorten time from question to answer, sharpen confidence behind our choices, and raise the bar for decision-making across Clinical Operations?

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Analytics, Data Science, Life Sciences, Economics, Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related field.
• 3+ years of relevant experience in strategy, consulting, business analytics, portfolio management, or decision-support analytics.
• Proven experience partnering with senior stakeholders to co-create and deliver analyses that inform strategic and business decisions.
• Strong structured problem-solving skills, with the ability to frame ambiguous business questions and drive them to clear recommendations.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain trade-offs, limitations, and recommendations clearly and credibly to executive audiences.
• Working proficiency in Power BI, with the ability to design intuitive dashboards and partner effectively with technical teams on semantic modeling, DAX, and performance.
• Demonstrated ability to balance speed-to-insight with rigor, quality, and reproducibility.
• Comfort applying analytics tools, including AI-enabled approaches where appropriate, with sound judgment around quality, ethics, and governance.

Nice To Haves

• Experience in management consulting, ideally within a life sciences or healthcare practice.
• Experience in pharmaceutical, biotech, or clinical operations strategy, analytics, or portfolio functions.
• Prior experience presenting recommendations to VP-level stakeholders and above.
• Master's degree (MBA, MS in Analytics, or related) preferred.
• Familiarity with SQL, ETL pipelines, cloud environments, Agile delivery, BI/AI governance, responsible AI practices, model monitoring, and change management.

Responsibilities

• Partner with senior business stakeholders to frame high-impact questions, define success metrics, and structure the decisions that most influence portfolio outcomes.
• Turn complex, cross-functional clinical operations data into concise narratives, clear options, and defensible recommendations that leaders can act on with confidence.
• Communicate trade-offs, challenge assumptions, and align delivery with strategic priorities; influence roadmaps and shape thinking at the VP level and above.
• Apply modern analytics and responsible AI methods—including LLM-based tools and agentic workflows where appropriate—to accelerate scenario planning, risk/benefit trade-offs, and portfolio prioritization.
• Design and iterate scalable Power BI products, partnering with technical teams to ensure robust semantic models and intuitive UX that enable confident self-service across the business.
• Standardize effective solutions and scale them across use cases, reducing duplication and accelerating value realization across Clinical Operations.
• Balance speed-to-insight with rigor, auditability, and governance; uphold responsible data and model practices.
• Champion adoption, coordinate training, and track realized value; iterate based on stakeholder feedback to continuously sharpen decision-support products.

Benefits

• We pair bold goals with a supportive, collaborative culture, valuing kindness alongside ambition, and we invest in the platforms, skills, and partnerships needed to become a truly data-led enterprise.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior