Senior Director Compliance and Legal Services

AstraZeneca • Wilmington, DE

1d

About The Position

In GBS we dare to change the way we work—being brave, resilient, and focused on simplifying how we deliver value. Through our global scale and diverse services, we drive outcomes with innovation and expertise. This requires a team that sees no boundaries, collaborates across functions, challenges the norm, and feels empowered, motivated, and engaged.
The Senior Director, Compliance and Legal Services will lead the global build-out and maturation of a cohesive service portfolio spanning Compliance, Privacy, Legal Operations, and eDiscovery within GBS. Reporting to the Head of GBS Operations & Enabling Functions Services, this role supports strategy build, is the GBS Business Partner for the Legal and Compliance function and helps drive execution through robust governance, service management, transformation and continuous improvement of services. The Senior Director will also bring advanced digital skills that can support future transformation and solutions for this highly regulated space, as well as pragmatic experience of delivery.
This Senior Director will partner closely with Global Compliance, Legal, Privacy, and IT to deliver reliable, high-quality, and cost-effective services that are tech‑first, data‑driven, and automation‑enabled. The role demands leadership through influence, deep stakeholder engagement at senior levels, and the ability to translate insight into measurable outcomes.
Typical Accountabilities
The role holder will be accountable for leading and managing the Compliance & Legal Services portfolio within GBS, with an initial scope spanning:
eDiscovery and Legal Hold Services (in partnership with Legal and IT)
Compliance Services
Privacy Operations (data subject request operations)
The role holder will be accountable for the Compliance & Legal Services team, including:
Strategic Leadership: Define and drive the vision, strategy, and roadmap for Compliance, Privacy, Legal Ops, and eDiscovery services, aligned to GBS and enterprise strategy. Leverage external trends in legal tech, privacy tech, and eDiscovery to enhance service models and accelerate time to value. Set clear objectives, outcomes, and success measures to guide investment and prioritization.
Growth Identification and Realization: Identify and qualify growth opportunities (e.g., expansion of privacy operations, scaling eDiscovery managed services). Translate insights into actionable plans with business cases and value tracking to support disciplined scaling and benefits realization.
Digital, Data, and Digital Leadership: Drive a tech‑first approach. Partner with GBS Transformation and IT to deploy and optimize platforms such as matter management, workflow/orchestration (e.g., ServiceNow), privacy management suites, eDiscovery and legal hold tools, analytics, RPA/IPA, and GenAI‑assisted capabilities with appropriate guardrails. Champion data integrity, metadata standards, and analytics-driven decision making. Lead change management to secure adoption and value.
Service Management and Operations: Own the end‑to-end service catalogue, including SLAs, KPIs, and OLA alignment with partnering teams. Define service tiers and pricing principles, manage demand intake and triage, and oversee the full service lifecycle from onboarding to retirement. Ensure mature incident, change, and problem management; and drive strong vendor/partner management across legal tech, eDiscovery vendors, alternative legal service providers (ALSPs), and BPOs.
Customer Experience (CX): Build a customer‑centric mindset using design thinking to improve user experience, adoption, and engagement for legal and compliance stakeholders. Define “moments that matter,” measure sentiment (CSAT/NPS), and close feedback loops with visible improvements.

Requirements

• Experience: 12–15+ years in Global Business Services/shared services, legal operations, compliance/privacy operations, or closely related multidisciplinary environments, with leadership of global teams. Proven track record transforming services and processes at enterprise scale in complex, regulated environments.
• Regulatory/Compliance: Demonstrated experience running services with significant legal and/or compliance obligations (e.g., privacy operations, SOX controls, records retention, legal hold, eDiscovery).
• Tech‑First Delivery: Experience driving tech‑enabled operating models using CLM/matter management, privacy management platforms, eDiscovery/forensics tools, workflow orchestration, analytics, and automation (RPA/IPA; exposure to AI/GenAI with appropriate guardrails).
• Stakeholder Management: Strong senior‑level engagement skills; ability to influence and partner with Group Compliance, Legal, Privacy, IT, and business leadership.
• Strategic Thinking: Ability to translate high‑level goals into operational plans, operating models, and measurable roadmaps.
• Commercial Acumen: Strong financial management, budgeting, and benefits tracking; P&L ownership experience.
• Technological Literacy: Knowledge of ERP (e.g., Workday/Oracle), ITSM platforms (e.g., ServiceNow), CLM and matter management systems, privacy/GRC tooling, eDiscovery platforms, analytics/BI, and automation tools.
• Leadership: Proven ability to lead through influence in a matrix, build high‑performing teams, and drive adoption and change across functions and cultures.
• Vendor Management: Experience negotiating and managing global vendors and ALSPs with outcome‑based contracts and clear performance frameworks.
• Compliance Mindset: Familiarity with SOX, GDPR and global privacy laws, records management, eDiscovery standards, and internal controls; strong risk and control orientation.
• Change Leadership: Success leading complex transformations, transitions, and global rollouts with formal change management.
• Communication: Executive presence with clear, concise communication and the ability to convey complex topics to diverse audiences.

Nice To Haves

• Education: Bachelor’s degree in Business, Law, Finance, Information Management, or related field; MBA or JD/LLM highly preferred. Relevant certifications (e.g., CIPP/E, CIPM, IAPP, CCEP, ACEDS, Lean Six Sigma).
• Industry: Experience in life sciences/healthcare or other highly regulated industries.
• Data/AI: Hands-on experience operationalizing analytics and AI/GenAI use cases in legal/compliance contexts with robust governance and privacy-by-design.

Responsibilities

• Lead and manage the Compliance & Legal Services portfolio within GBS
• Define and drive the vision, strategy, and roadmap for Compliance, Privacy, Legal Ops, and eDiscovery services, aligned to GBS and enterprise strategy.
• Identify and qualify growth opportunities (e.g., expansion of privacy operations, scaling eDiscovery managed services).
• Drive a tech‑first approach.
• Own the end‑to-end service catalogue, including SLAs, KPIs, and OLA alignment with partnering teams.
• Build a customer‑centric mindset using design thinking to improve user experience, adoption, and engagement for legal and compliance stakeholders.

Benefits

• short-term incentive bonus opportunity
• eligibility to participate in our equity-based long-term incentive program (salaried roles)
• to receive a retirement contribution (hourly roles)
• commission payment eligibility (sales roles)
• qualified retirement program [401(k) plan]
• paid vacation and holidays
• paid leaves
• health benefits including medical, prescription drug, dental, and vision coverage in accordance with the terms and conditions of the applicable plans

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees