Automation Associate Principal SME - Global Engineering & Real Estate
About this opportunity
With science at its heart, this is the place where breakthroughs born in the lab become transformative medicines – for the world’s most complex diseases. In our dynamic environment, be supported by the brightest minds working together side by side.
We are looking for a driven and forward-thinking Automation Associate Principal Subject Matter Expert (SME) to join the Operations Technology and Connectivity team within Global Engineering & Real Estate. Global Engineering & Real Estate is a global function responsible for ensuring that the company’s physical facilities, technical infrastructure, and capital projects support both current and future business needs.
From early concept design through to implementation, you will provide technical leadership, influence key decisions, and work with stakeholders across sites, projects, IT, operations, quality, and external partners to deliver world-class Operational Technology (OT) solutions.
You will also be at the forefront of our digital transformation journey, applying Industry 4.0 technologies to help create Smart Factories and enable our vision of Autonomous Manufacturing.
This is a unique opportunity to combine strategic impact, technical excellence, and global collaboration in a role that directly supports our mission of delivering medicines to patients.
Accountabilities/Responsibilities
Define Operational Technology (OT) scope within Global Engineering projects:
Work with site and project stakeholders to ensure alignment with project scope.
Provide technical leadership and design assurance overview during capital project design - from concept through to detailed design and equipment/system selection.
Communicate site and project requirements to vendors.
Ensure that systems are specified and delivered in alignment with AZ’s global automation strategy.
Drive the digital transformation of our assets by implementing Industry 4.0 technologies to establish Smart Factories and Autonomous Manufacturing.
Manage delivery of the OT-aspects of Global Engineering projects in EMEA and globally:
Work effectively with local and internationally-located peer engineers to deliver complex projects in a dynamic team environment.
Manage Outside Service Partners (OSPs - contractors) within the OT team.
Establish strong and positive partnerships with:
Project Managers, Project Technical Managers, and vendors during all phases of projects.
Site Manufacturing Operations and Quality teams: to ensure quality and security of supply to our patients.
Site and Global IT: to ensure alignment of data standards and infrastructure to enable AstraZeneca’s Autonomous Manufacturing vision.
Global Engineering team: to both champion and learn from best practices.
Essential Requirements – Education and Experience
Bachelor’s degree (equivalent experience will be considered) in an Engineering related discipline.
Subject Matter Expertise of either SCADA/PLC or DCS to include specification, procurement, installation, start-up, and commissioning.
Experience in one or more of the following:
IT and OT architectures for manufacturing environments
Integration with IT Systems
Warehouse Control Systems, AGVs, Robotics
Understanding of OT cybersecurity
Engineering standards development and governance
Excellent communication skills including an ability to engage honestly and influentially with internal and external business leaders and partners.
Fluent Swedish and English.
Advantageous to have experience of
Pharmaceutical Manufacturing areas including API, Biotechnology, Oral Solid Dosage, Formulation and Fill, Packaging, Medical Devices.
Current GMP regulations and an understanding of regulatory agency expectations and current industry practices. Experience from a different, non-Pharma, regulated industry would also be relevant.
Why AstraZenecaAt AstraZeneca, we’re dedicated to being a Great Place to Work. Where you are empowered to push the boundaries of science, challenge convention and unleash your entrepreneurial spirit. To embrace differences and take bold actions to drive the change needed to meet global healthcare and sustainability challenges.
There’s no better time to join our global, growing enterprise as we lead the way for healthcare and society.
Are you ready to make a difference? Great, because we can’t wait to hear from you! We look forward to your application no later than August 16th, 2026.
Date Posted
29-juni-2026
Closing Date
16-aug.-2026
Our mission is to build an inclusive and equitable environment. We want people to feel they belong at AstraZeneca and Alexion, starting with our recruitment process. We welcome and consider applications from all qualified candidates, regardless of characteristics. We offer reasonable adjustments/accommodations to help all candidates to perform at their best. If you have a need for any adjustments/accommodations, please complete the section in the application form.
Job details
How this role compares
Computed from every other active Manufacturing & CMC role in our database, not just this employer's listings.
We currently track 393 comparable Principal Manufacturing & CMC roles across 56 biopharma companies.
Salary context
189 of 393 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.
Where these roles are based
Top locations among the 393 comparable roles
+ 12 more countries
Seniority mix
393 of 393 peers have a known seniority level
Therapeutic area mix
2 of 393 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden
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.
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.
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.