AstraZeneca · 4 days ago
Director, Ignite - Product Owner - Core Modernization
US - Gaithersburg - MD
Full-time
Hybrid
Director/Executive
8+ years expAstraZeneca is a global, innovation-driven biopharmaceutical company. The Product Owner (Director) leads the strategy, delivery, and ongoing improvement of the enterprise Decom Factory Platform, ensuring compliance, governance, and value realization across the organization.
BiopharmaBiotechnologyHealth CareMedicalPharmaceuticalPrecision Medicine
Responsibilities
Product Strategy and Roadmap
Define vision, objectives, and OKRs for the integrated decommissioning + archival service, prioritized by compliance risk, cost to serve savings, and technical debt reduction
Build and maintain a quarterly roadmap: single intake (NextGen) enhancements, ServiceNow workflow automation, Snowflake ingest patterns/QA standards, and reporting/value realization improvements
Translate strategy into epics/features; prioritize backlog based on customer value, risk reduction, and expected return on investment
Operating Model, SLAs, and User Journey
Establish end to end operating model across intake validation, change preparation/approval (CAG), infrastructure ticketing, archival planning/ingest/UAT, CMDB updates, and value confirmation
Set and maintain SLAs, WIP limits, and paths for critical issues; plan capacity for concurrent application / parallel execution
Define a clear user journey with standard communication touchpoints (orientation, CR submission, soft delete confirmation, archival plan approval, UAT, prod ingest, CMDB update, closure) and templated status updates
Configuration Governance (Policy Ownership)
Own service configuration/data governance policies: CMDB data quality standards, CI reconciliation rules, “Non-Operational” status criteria, approval thresholds, and audit evidence requirements
Sponsor single source of truth adoption (registry/CMDB alignment) and targeted cleanup/audits
Stakeholder Engagement and Change Leadership
Engage senior leaders across Ignite, R&D IT, Commercial IT, ETS, EAS, Procurement, and Compliance to align priorities, remove blockers, and communicate outcomes
Chair governance reviews on throughput, SLA adherence, compliance findings, CMDB quality, and savings realization
Drive change management for the single intake and onerepository strategies; publish guidance and playbooks for customers and partners
Delivery Oversight and Continuous Improvement
Act as executive Product Owner for the platform backlog (ServiceNow flows, Snowflake templates, metadata/QA libraries, reporting)
Partner with the Scrum Master/Orchestrator to run cadence, lead risk/issues, and deliver sprint outcomes; drive root cause analysis and improvement experiments
Ensure standardized runbooks/checklists and training (including GRAD awareness) are published and kept current
Value Capture, Product Outcomes, and Reporting
Define product outcomes and success metrics, including:
Cycle time per stage (intake → CR → soft delete → archival plan → UAT → prod ingest → CMDB → closure)
Customer satisfaction for Business Owners and partner teams (ETS/EAS)
Savings realization lead time and cumulative savings validated with Finance/Procurement
Own the value realization framework: baselines, savings hypotheses, milestone tracking, and auditready confirmation at closure
Publish monthly/quarterly executive dashboards and narrative: progress vs. OKRs, outcome metrics, risks, and nextstep improvements
Compliance and Risk Management
Embed GRAD/legal hold requirements into process artifacts and approval gates; ensure CAG alignment and audit ready traceability for decommissioned assets and archived data
Sponsor CMDB data quality improvements and periodic audits aligned to “single source of truth.”
Optional (AgentEnabled Evolution)
If agentic capabilities are pursued, own the “agent product” strategy and controls (humanintheloop, logging/provenance, draft acceptance important metrics); ensure compliance and risk posture remain intact while improving cycle time and documentation
Qualification
Required
Leadership: 8–12 years of progressive responsibility with 3–5 years leading cross functional product/service teams in IT operations, platform services, or lifecycle management; proven people leadership across geographies in matrix organizations
Product/Service Ownership: Demonstrated ability to define strategy, OKRs, backlogs, and deliver measurable product outcomes (cycle time reduction, compliance adherence, customer value, and financial savings)
Governance & Compliance: Experience setting and enforcing configuration/data governance (CMDB data quality, change approvals, evidence standards); familiarity with records retention/legal hold frameworks (e.g., GRAD)
Tooling & Platforms: Solid understanding of ServiceNow (Change/Catalog/Flows, CMDB), data platforms (Snowflake ingest/QA concepts), and value reporting (Excel; Power BI desirable)
Financial Acumen: Ability to frame savings hypotheses, partner with Finance/Procurement, and confirm realized savings with audit ready documentation
Stakeholder Management: Strong executive presence; ability to influence senior stakeholders and drive cross organization alignment and change
Preferred
Pharma/regulated IT experience and enterprise archival patterns (SDR Gold on Snowflake; eDiscovery Vault/SDR Bronze)
Experience leading decommissioning or modernization programs at scale (app retirement, infra ticket orchestration, CMDB cleanup)
Expertise in workflow automation backlogs (ServiceNow Flow Designer) and reusable ingestion templates/patterns on Snowflake
Exposure to agent assisted operating models and human in the loop controls
Benefits
Short-term incentive bonus opportunity
Equity-based long-term incentive program (salaried roles)
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
Company
AstraZeneca
AstraZeneca is a pharmaceutical company that discovers, develops, manufactures, and markets prescription medicines. It is a sub-organization of Investor.
10001+ employees
H1B Sponsorship
AstraZeneca has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships. Please note that this does not
guarantee sponsorship for this specific role. Below presents additional info for your
reference. (Data Powered by US Department of Labor)
Distribution of Different Job Fields Receiving Sponsorship
Represents job field similar to this job
Trends of Total Sponsorships
2021 (2)
2020 (11)
Funding
Current Stage
Public CompanyTotal Funding
$5.26B2024-07-30Post Ipo Debt· $1.51B
2023-02-28Post Ipo Debt· $2.25B
2023-02-24Post Ipo Debt· $1.5B
Leadership Team
Pascal Soriot
Chief Executive Officer
Aradhana Sarin
Group CFO and Executive Director
Recent News
2026-01-23
Pharma Letter
2026-01-22
Company data provided by crunchbase