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.
Accountabilities:
- Facilitate workshops and partner interviews to capture needs across target ID, 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.
Essential Skills/Experience:
- 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 en