The Head of Oncology Business Excellence (OBEX), EUCAN leads the regional business excellence agenda across Europe and Canada. The role enables future-fit customer engagement, insights-driven decision-making, operational excellence, and scalable omnichannel and digital capabilities for Oncology. The role shapes strategy, drives transformation, and builds capabilities to support upcoming launches, accelerate franchise performance, and improve patient outcomes through pathway optimisation and external partnerships.
Indicative focus: ~50% Business Excellence (OBEX), ~30% Customer 2030 (new CRM and future field sales model), and ~20% Business Planning.
Reporting and Scope
- Reports to: SVP Head of Oncology, EUCAN
- Geographic remit: Europe and Canada (EUCAN), with strong interfaces to Global functions, Regional Leadership and Local Marketing Companies (MCs)
- Team: Direct leadership of the EUCAN Insights & Analytics team (5) and indirect functional leadership of the EUCAN in-country OBEX teams
- Network: Leads the EUCAN OBEX network, creating engagement platforms and coordinating key programmes to enable efficient scaling aligned to market and business needs
- Budget responsibility: Owns the EUCAN regional Analytics & Insights budget and is co-accountable for the EUCAN regional AI implementation budget
Key Accountabilities
Shape the EUCAN Oncology Business Excellence Strategy
- Partners with country and regional leadership to define a bold, future-fit OBEX vision aligned to EUCAN Oncology strategy and AstraZeneca global priorities.
- Identify critical capabilities, tools, data, and processes to sustain competitive advantage and value creation.
Enable insights and performance management to support launch excellence
- Standardise core performance analytics and reporting to deliver rapid, actionable insights and support evidence-based decisions across franchises.
- Set clear governance for priorities, deliverables and ways of working across Global, EUCAN and MC teams (including transition of brands/indications and adherence to agreed protocols).
- Manage key vendor/partner relationships and the regional insights & analytics budget to ensure timely, high-quality delivery.
Co-accountable for EUCAN Oncology Customer Engagement (Customer 2030) and AI priorities
- Co-lead (as the EUCAN Oncology representative) the design and delivery of Customer 2030 across the EUCAN region, including the new CRM and the future field sales model.
- Partner with MCs and Global Commercial Digital Health to prioritise, pilot and scale true omnichannel enablement and digital health solutions.
- Co-lead (as the EUCAN Oncology representative) the design and delivery of priority AI verticals for the region, in partnership with enterprise AI and IT teams.
Business Planning & Transformation
- Shape the EUCAN Oncology strategic planning agenda, oversee key commercial strategic projects, and prepare and facilitate EUCAN OBU MT meetings, including governance of minutes, follow-up actions, and communication channels.
- Lead cross-functional alignment: Partner with Franchise Heads, Medical, Market Access, Diagnostics, Finance, Compliance and MC leadership to align on priorities and execution.
- Act as the bridge between Global (e.g., Global Business Planning & Transformation, Global Commercial Digital Health), EUCAN region, and MCs.
- Engage across AstraZeneca to identify synergies in the selection and implementation of key projects and/or platforms that benefit OBU.
- Support MCs and the region to deliver high-quality forecasts and business planning outputs (e.g., QBR, RBU, MTP, BSP, LRR), including regional consolidation.
- Drive simplification and automation of forecasting inputs and financial models to improve accuracy and efficiency.
Education, Qualifications, Skills and Experience
Minimum requirements
- Degree qualified.
- 10-15+ years in pharmaceutical/biotech, spanning strategic planning, sales & marketing, commercial operations/business excellence, insights & analytics/forecasting, and/or digital/omnichannel.
- Relevant experience in digital and/or AI-enabled commercial roles (highly preferred).
- Proven experience leading customer engagement transformation (e.g., CRM implementation, omnichannel ways of working, field force enablement).
- Demonstrated use and understanding of secondary data sources and performance tracking.
- In-depth knowledge of regional market dynamics through in-market or regional experience.
- Understanding of all stages of drug development.
- Proven track record of attracting and developing talent and optimising team performance in direct and matrix leadership roles.
- Strong financial and business acumen, including forecasting and strategic planning processes.
- Advanced strategic thinking, judgement and influencing skills.
- Able to articulate a vision, set direction and influence major business decisions.
- Able to express complex ideas and strategies clearly and compellingly to multiple stakeholder groups.
Advantageous
- MBA or advanced degree.
- Experience in Oncology
- Experience in either regional or global roles
- Expertise in:
- Data & Analytics: insights generation, forecasting, measurement of omnichannel impact, platform strategy.
- Customer Engagement: omnichannel strategy and execution, field enablement, in-call quality, data-driven content creation.
- Operational Excellence: commercial operations, performance analytics, incentive compensation, reporting.
Key Relationships
Internal:
- Regional and Country Leadership
- Regional Tumour Teams
- Regional A&I team (direct reports)
- Country OBEX leads
- Cross BU Business Excellence leads (IBEX)
- Global teams (Franchise, A&I, IBEX, OBEX)
- Enterprise AI and IT partners
- Regional functional heads
- Regional admin team
External:
- Market research providers and other partners
Date Posted
13-may-2026
Closing Date
14-may-2026
AstraZeneca embraces diversity and equality of opportunity. We are committed to building an inclusive and diverse team representing all backgrounds, with as wide a range of perspectives as possible, and harnessing industry-leading skills. We believe that the more inclusive we are, the better our work will be. We welcome and consider applications to join our team from all qualified candidates, regardless of their characteristics. We comply with all applicable laws and regulations on non-discrimination in employment (and recruitment), as well as work authorization and employment eligibility verification requirements.
