Business & Strategy & Portfolio Senior Specialist

Location: Winchester Place, Durham, North Carolina, United States
Working model: Office-based / hybrid, with an expectation to work from the office on average a minimum of three days per week
Function: Operational Data Strategy
Reports to: Strategic Analytics and Enablement Lead

Introduction to Role

Are you ready to turn complex clinical operations data into clear actions that speed high-quality decisions and ultimately help deliver medicines to patients faster?

As a Business & Strategy & Portfolio Senior Specialist in our Operational Data Strategy team at Winchester Place in Durham, North Carolina, you will sit at the intersection of business questions, analytics, and user experience — ensuring leaders see what matters, when it matters, in a way that drives action.

Reporting to the Strategic Analytics and Enablement Lead, you will partner with stakeholders across Clinical Operations to shape decisions at the point of need. You will translate complexity into clarity, apply modern analytics and AI-enabled decision support, and scale what works across teams.

How would you shorten the time from question to answer, increase confidence in choices, and raise the bar for data-driven decision-making?

Accountabilities

• Decision Support Strategy: Partner with business stakeholders to frame high-impact questions, define success metrics, and target the decisions that matter most.
• Analytics Translation: Turn complex, cross-functional clinical operations data into concise narratives, options, and recommendations that leaders can act on immediately.
• AI-Enabled Decision Support: Apply analytics and responsible AI methods to inform what-if scenarios, risk/benefit trade-offs, and portfolio choices with clear governance and quality.
• Power BI Product Delivery: Design and deliver scalable BI products, including robust semantic models, performant DAX, and intuitive UX/UI that enable confident self-service.
• Portfolio Insight Scaling: Standardize effective solutions and scale them across use cases, reducing duplication and accelerating value realization across Clinical Operations.
• Quality, Ethics, and Reproducibility: Balance speed-to-insight with rigor, auditability, and data assurance; uphold governance and model monitoring where applicable.
• Adoption and Change Enablement: Coordinate training, champion adoption, and track value; gather feedback to iterate and continuously improve decision-support products.
• Stakeholder Engagement: Communicate trade-offs and limitations clearly; influence roadmaps and align delivery with strategic priorities to maximize business impact.

Essential Skills and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree required in Business, Analytics, Data Science, Life Sciences, Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related field.
• Minimum 3 years of relevant experience in business analytics, strategy, portfolio management, data/BI product delivery, or decision-support analytics.
• Proven experience partnering with stakeholders to co-create, refine, and deliver analytics that support business and strategic decision-making.
• Hands-on experience applying analytics tools, including AI-enabled approaches where appropriate, with strong judgment around quality, ethics, and governance.
• Strong Power BI and BI application experience, including semantic modeling, DAX, performance optimization, and UX/UI design for scalable decision support.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills with the ability to explain trade-offs, limitations, and recommendations clearly to business audiences.
• Demonstrated ability to deliver analyses and decision-support products while balancing speed-to-insight with rigor and reproducibility.
• Experience coordinating with stakeholders to support adoption, training, and value realization of analytics and decision-support products.

Desirable Skills and Experience

• Master’s degree preferred.
• Experience in pharmaceutical, biotech, clinical operations, R&D, or another regulated environment.
• Familiarity with SQL, ETL pipelines, cloud environments, Agile delivery, BI/AI governance, responsible AI practices, model monitoring, and change management.

Working at AstraZeneca

When we put unexpected teams in the same room, we unleash bold thinking with the power to inspire life-changing medicines. In-person working gives us the platform we need to connect, work at pace, and challenge perceptions.

That’s why we work, on average, a minimum of three days per week from the office. But that doesn’t mean we’re not flexible. We balance the expectation of being in the office while respecting individual flexibility. Join us in our unique and ambitious world.

Why AstraZeneca

Here, science and technology move together to solve real problems that matter to patients. You will work alongside clinicians, data scientists, engineers, and product leaders who combine curiosity with disciplined delivery, using digital, data science, and AI to advance the next wave of breakthroughs from lab to clinic.

We value kindness alongside ambition, encourage bold questions, and provide the tools and trust to experiment, learn, and make decisive progress — so your contributions translate into better decisions, stronger pipelines, and tangible impact on patient lives.

Call to Action

If you are ready to shape how data drives confident decisions across clinical operations and amplify your impact on patients, step forward and make your mark with us at Winchester Place in Durham, North Carolina.