Business Planning & Process Manager

Business Planning & Process Manager

Location:
London, UK
Competitive Salary & Excellent Company Benefits

The Oncology Business Unit is seeking an exceptional Business Planning & Process Manager to drive strategic and commercially focused initiatives that enhance franchise performance and execution excellence. This role goes beyond traditional PMO activity — requiring hands‑on commercial experience, strong organisational skills, and the ability to partner closely with customer‑facing and cross‑functional teams to uplift the quality and consistency of core commercial processes.

Operating at the heart of the Oncology Business Unit, you will work with senior stakeholders — including the Business Operations Lead, OBEX Director, Strategy & Operations Lead, Brand Leads and Franchise Heads — to uplift capabilities across customer engagement, strategic and operational planning, and launch preparedness. You will ensure our ways of working are robust, insight‑driven, strategically aligned, and continually improving.

By embedding best‑practice commercial processes, harmonising planning approaches, and enabling clear, consistent execution across brands and franchises, you will help AstraZeneca Oncology continue to lead the UK market.

• Drive strategic project delivery aligned with the Oncology Business Unit’s transformation priorities, ensuring initiatives enhance franchise performance and support future growth.
• Strengthen core commercial processes (e.g., planning cycles, customer engagement workflows, launch readiness frameworks), ensuring they are consistent, efficient and insight‑driven.
• Partner with franchise and functional leaders to clarify strategic priorities and shape planning and execution frameworks that support high‑quality commercial decision‑making.
• Champion continuous improvement, identifying opportunities to simplify or uplift processes and helping embed improved ways of working.
• Leverage above‑market insights, working with global and EUCAN teams to bring relevant tools, frameworks and best practices into local execution.

• Coordinate and integrate high priority‑ OBU initiatives within a structured business calendar, ensuring clear sequencing and strong execution.
• Monitor project progress and implementation, identifying risks early, escalating where needed, and ensuring appropriate corrective actions are taken.
• Provide clear, timely and actionable communication to leadership and cross functional teams to support alignment and informed ‑decision making‑.
• Ensure clarity of responsibilities, timelines and deliverables, helping teams maintain momentum and stay focused on business‑critical‑activity.
• Support teams in adopting improved processes, ensuring governance standards are met and enabling smooth implementation of new or refined ways of working.
• Maintain compliance with internal governance and external regulatory requirements related to UK oncology operations.

• Commercial
  
  Experience:
  
  Hands‑on experience in a commercial role within pharmaceuticals or a similar regulated industry (e.g., brand management, field sales management, marketing, commercial excellence‑ or business operations).
• Strong Business Acumen: Understanding of core commercial drivers such as customer engagement, brand planning, launch readiness, and franchise performance levers.
• Process & Planning
  
  Skills:
  
  Experience contributing to or improving commercial planning cycles, operational planning, or execution frameworks.
• Cross Functional‑
  
  Collaboration:
  
  Proven ability to work effectively with marketing, sales, medical, access and operations teams, aligning on shared priorities and deliverables.
• Execution Focus: Ability to take ownership of work streams, keep activity on track, and ensure outputs are high quality, ‑insight informed‑ and commercially relevant.
• Communication & Influence: Strong communicator able to distil information clearly and influence stakeholders constructively without formal authority.
• Continuous Improvement Mindset: Demonstrated interest in improving how teams work, simplifying processes, and embedding best practice in day‑to‑day‑operations.