Senior Business Analyst – Biologics Discovery Platform

Senior Business Analyst – Biologics Discovery Platform

Introduction to role: Are you ready to accelerate the discovery of life-changing medicines? At AstraZeneca, we unite modern science with data-driven, platform-enabled R&D to transform early biologics discovery. As a Senior Business Analyst, you'll play a pivotal role in translating sophisticated scientific and operational needs into scalable, high-impact solutions. Your insights and rigorous requirements will shape decisions that enable faster experimentation, smarter portfolio choices, and seamless integration of AI-ready data flows.

Partnering closely with Biologic Engineering scientists, senior business partners, and program managers, you'll lead requirements gathering and establish demand management for lab and data-flow automation. Operate independently while collaborating across a global IT organization to drive outcomes and mentor Business Analysts, elevating skills and embedding standard methodologies.

• Facilitate workshops and partner interviews to capture needs across target , screening, and lead optimization; translate into clear epics, user stories, and acceptance criteria.
• Drive agile processes with scrum masters by refining backlogs to prioritize value and translating user stories into software development tasks.
• Map, document, and maintain end-to-end business processes to support clarity, consistency, and continuous improvement.
• Shape multiquarter roadmaps and prioritize initiatives based on value, risk, and dependency analysis aligned to discovery milestones and portfolio needs.
• Build strong relationships across early discovery science, platforms, data science, and IT; align on priorities and ensure transparent status reporting and decision logs.
• Translate ambiguous scientific or operational challenges into structured problem statements, options, and decision frameworks for senior collaborators.
• Lead elicitation through to validation and signoff; ensure traceability from business objectives to user stories, test cases, and release notes.
• Coordinate between discovery labs, data/AI teams, automation engineering, and platform IT to resolve dependencies and ensure integrated delivery.
• Maintain risk registers, run scenario analyses, and present option tradeoffs with quantified impact to guide escalation decisions.
• Coach BAs and scientists in requirements hygiene, story writing, and value tracking; contribute playbooks, templates, and communities of practice.

• Minimum 6+ years’ experience working with complex integrated systems, preferably in molecular biology and antibody discovery in a pharmaceutical research organization.
• Demonstrable experience of successfully deploying a variety of business analysis tools & techniques to enable business change; adept at virtual collaboration to lead, shape and develop innovative solutions.
• Experience shaping product visions, defining value hypotheses, outcomes, and success metrics; able to balance short-term delivery with long-term platform scalability.
• Strong engagement, communication, and collaborator management skills across scientific and IT partners.
• In-depth knowledge of computational and experimental techniques used within biologics discovery.
• Skilled in analysing and documenting end-to-end data flows, including profiling, mapping, and how data is analysed.
• Ability to manage high levels of risk by making complex judgements, developing innovative solutions, and applying a comprehensive multi-functional and industry understanding.

• Experience with Atlassian based software management tools (e.g. Jira, Confluence).
• Comfort with low fidelity prototyping, journey mapping, and usability testing to ensure solutions fit scientist workflows.
• Contracting and vendor governance including developing measurable acceptance criteria and ability to govern vendors against outcomes rather than activity.
• Understanding of lab automation ecosystems (e.g., scheduling, liquid handlers, plate readers) and how instrument data flows into ELN/LIMS and analytics.
• Good understanding of industry technology trends regarding Agentic AI.

The…