AstraZeneca Posted March 6, 2026

【AstraZeneca】【CET】Director, Advanced Analytics & AI, Customer Experience & IT

Kita-ku, Osaka, Japan Full time
Commercial & General Management Director

AstraZeneca is the source of truth for this posting and owns the application process. We surface normalized context and market comparison you won't find on the original listing.

About this opportunity

Job purpose

As a leadership team member within Customer Experience & IT (CET), the Director – Advanced Analytics & AI is accountable for designing, building, and scaling modern AI capabilities, including agentic AI systems, generative AI applications, predictive analytics, and intelligent workflow automation, across Commercial, Medical, and Enabling functions.

This role leads the end-to-end lifecycle of AI-driven capabilities, ensuring they are, Business-relevant, Technically robust, Governed and compliant, and Scalable beyond pilot.

The role transforms AI from isolated experiments into enterprise-grade intelligent applications embedded in daily decision-making.

Role and Responsibilities

1) AI & Intelligent Application Strategy

Define Japan’s AI roadmap covering: Agentic AI systems

Generative AI applications

Decision intelligence

Predictive and prescriptive analytics

Identify high-impact use cases aligned with business priorities

Ensure AI initiatives are outcome-driven, not technology-driven

Align with global AI architecture and governance principles

2) Agentic AI & Modern AI Systems

Design and deploy AI agents that: Perform multi-step reasoning

Interact with enterprise systems (CRM, Data Lake, content repositories)

Automate workflows with human-in-the-loop governance

Define orchestration patterns for agent collaboration

Establish guardrails for autonomy levels (Human-led / Co-led / AI-led)

Ensure auditability, explainability, and logging standards

This role typically leads early-stage and capability-defining initiatives, not incremental enhancements.

3) Generative AI & Knowledge Systems

Develop RAG-based assistants for: Strategy drafting

Insight extraction

Field planning

Content optimization

Define vector architecture, retrieval standards, and prompt governance

Ensure safe and compliant usage in regulated environments

Drive reusable AI building blocks rather than isolated bots

4) Advanced Analytics & Predictive Modeling

Lead development of models including: Segmentation & targeting

Potential estimation

Forecasting & scenario simulation

Impact & KPI gap analysis

Establish model lifecycle standards (validation, drift monitoring, retraining)

Partner with Data & BI for production data pipelines

5) AI Governance & Risk Management

Define evaluation protocols (offline & live)

Monitor bias, drift, hallucination, and performance degradation

Ensure compliance with regulatory, privacy, and MLR standards

Maintain model and agent registry with full traceability

6) From PoC to Scalable AI Capability

Collaborate with Strategy & Demand on business framing

Run or co-run AI PoCs with clear value metrics

Define Scale-ready artifacts (SLOs, monitoring, rollback strategy)

Establish LLMOps / MLOps standards for sustainable deployment

7) AI Capability Building

Build and lead AI engineers, data scientists, and AI product leads

Promote AI literacy across business stakeholders

Establish internal reusable AI components (agent templates, evaluation kits)

Foster disciplined experimentation culture

Requirements

EducationMS or PhD in Data Science, AI, Computer Science, or related field preferred

Experience

12+ years in analytics, AI, or engineering leadership

Hands-on experience deploying AI systems beyond experimentation

Experience in regulated industry preferred

Proven ability to drive business adoption of AI

Technical Expertise

Agent frameworks and orchestration

Generative AI, RAG, vector databases

MLOps / LLMOps

API-first and event-driven architecture

Predictive modeling and statistical learning

Observability and monitoring frameworks

Business Skills

Strong commercial acumen

Ability to translate AI into measurable impact

Executive communication

Portfolio prioritization

LanguageFluent Japanese; business-level English

Career Level

F

Location

Osaka or Tokyo

Date Posted

06-3月-2026

Closing Date

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.

Job details

Seniority
Director
Function
Commercial & General Management
Therapeutic area
Not listed
Location
Kita-ku, Osaka, Japan
Employment type
Full time

How this role compares

Computed from every other active Commercial & General Management role in our database, not just this employer's listings.

We currently track 9 comparable Director Commercial & General Management roles across 2 biopharma companies.

9Comparable roles tracked
3Currently active
2Companies hiring similar roles
2Countries represented

Salary context

2 of 9 peers report a salary range (USD, annualized)

Peers share this role's job function and a matching or adjacent seniority level -- not necessarily the same therapeutic area or country.

This roleSubject Not listed on this posting
Lowest disclosed · Director, PDM Strategy · Gilead Sciences, Inc. $226,185/yr – $292,710/yr
Peer group range $259,448 – $278,850 (median $269,149)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 9 comparable roles

United States8
Spain1

Seniority mix

9 of 9 peers have a known seniority level

Director6
Senior Director3

Therapeutic area mix

3 of 9 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden

Oncology2
Vaccines & Infectious Disease1

Similar opportunities

The closest matches from our peer group, ranked by how similar they are, not how well you'd qualify for them -- treat this as market context, not a guaranteed shortlist; a weak match is labeled as one below.

45%similar
AstraZeneca Wilmington, Delaware, United States of America Director
Same function Same seniority
45%similar
Gilead Sciences, Inc. Foster City, United States Director
Same function Same seniority
45%similar
AstraZeneca Wilmington, Delaware, United States of America Director
Same function Same seniority
45%similar
AstraZeneca Gaithersburg, Maryland, United States of America Director
Same function Same seniority
45%similar
AstraZeneca Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America Director
Same function Same seniority
45%similar
AstraZeneca Barcelona, Spain Director
Same function Same seniority

How we calculate "similar"

No black box, no LLM guesswork: a deterministic score built from four normalized attributes. Here's this role's own peer group at different match levels, so you can see the mechanism, not just the result.

Every comparison starts from the same 100-point budget: 25 for working in the same function, 40 for the same therapeutic area, 20 for the same or adjacent seniority, 15 for the same country. A dimension we can't confirm on both sides contributes nothing, never a guess, never a free pass.

45%
Director, US Forecasting & Analytics– Vaccines & Immune Therapies
AstraZeneca · Wilmington, Delaware, United States of America · Director
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
45%
Director, AI Customer Engagement, US Oncology
AstraZeneca · Gaithersburg, Maryland, United States of America · Director
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
35%
Senior Director, Corporate Responsibility Operations
Gilead Sciences, Inc. · Foster City, United States · Senior Director
Function Therapeutic area Adjacent seniority Country
35%
Senior Director, Competitive Intelligence, Oncology R&D
AstraZeneca · Gaithersburg, Maryland, United States of America · Senior Director
Function Therapeutic area Adjacent seniority Country
Unmatched or unknown dimensions score exactly the same: 0 points, never a partial guess. A role we know almost nothing about beyond its function bottoms out at 25%; it never inflates to 100% just because there's little to compare against. Seniority uses a defined ladder (Associate → Manager → Associate Director → Senior → Principal → Director → Senior Director → Executive/VP) so "Director" and "Senior Director" count as adjacent, but "Director" and "Executive/VP" do not.