Senior Director, Data & AI Risk Management in Macclesfield

We're building a connected, end-to-end Enterprise AI engine - uniting data foundations, AI technology, process reinvention, and business-facing AI to accelerate results across the whole value chain. Success depends on being exceptional connectors: you'll actively leverage existing capabilities, celebrate and promote reuse, export breakthrough ideas across geographies and functions, and obsess over scaling impact rather than building in isolation. If you thrive in high-collaboration environments where your role is to turn complex, cross-functional problems into reusable, enterprise-wide capabilities - and where the measure of success is adoption and scale, not just innovation - you'll have the platform (and sponsorship) to make it real.

The Senior Director, Data & AI Risk Management provides enterprise leadership for the identification, assessment, and management of Data and AI risks. The role ensures that Data and AI are deployed at scale while remaining within agreed risk appetite, regulatory expectations, and ethical standards. Acting as a senior risk authority and trusted partner to the business, this position translates policy intent into practical risk decisions, drives mitigation where needed, and enables leaders to make confident, timely decisions on Data & AI initiatives.

Accountabilities

• Lead diverse, global teams to define and own the enterprise approach to identifying, assessing, and managing Data & AI risks across strategic, operational, ethical, and regulatory dimensions, ensuring decisions reflect organisational values and priorities.
• Integrate Data & AI risk into broader Enterprise Risk Management processes so that risk appetite, strategic objectives, and technology ambitions stay aligned as new capabilities scale.
• Ensure material Data & AI risks are surfaced early, clearly understood, and actively managed at an enterprise level, enabling transparent trade-offs between innovation and control.
• Challenge the adequacy of mitigations, drive timely remediation of material issues, and escalate where risks exceed agreed appetite or controls are ineffective, improving the overall enterprise risk posture.
• Provide harmonised risk positions that support confident, timely decision‑making and informed discussions related to risk appetite in senior leadership and governance forums.
• Oversee enterprise-level risk aggregation, reporting, and insight for Data & AI, giving senior leadership a clear view of systemic risk exposure, trends, and residual risk against appetite.
• Establish and lead the enterprise operating model for Data & AI Risk Management, defining clear accountabilities, decision rights, escalation paths, and governance forums with strong stakeholder engagement across business units, regions, and functions.
• Continuously improve risk management processes for Data & AI by incorporating stakeholder feedback and external best practices, ensuring methods stay relevant as technologies evolve.
• Serve as a senior advisor on complex or novel Data & AI use cases, enabling proportionate risk decisions rather than default risk avoidance, so that innovation can move forward safely.
• Partner with Business areas, Project Teams, and Data Offices to embed risk management into ways of working, delivery pipelines, and operating models from the earliest stages of initiatives.
• Build strong relationships across Legal, Compliance, IT, and Privacy to ensure aligned and consistent approaches to Data & AI risk across the organisation.
• Own and manage interactions with Group Internal Audit related to Data & AI risk, including Management Action Plans and remediation tracking.
• Identify opportunities to safely accelerate data enablement and AI deployment within agreed risk appetite, turning uncertainty into structured opportunity.
• Model collaborative behaviours by partnering effectively across functions and levels, actively listening, resolving conflicts constructively, and co‑creating solutions that achieve shared goals.
• Synthesize complex issues into concise narratives for high‑stakes forums, anticipating stakeholder concerns, navigating ambiguity, and driving alignment and decisions with clarity and confidence.
• Demonstrate executive presence in engagements with senior executive leadership and governance bodies such as Audit Committee or data councils, promoting a culture of responsible and confident Data & AI use.

Essential Skills/Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Information/Data Science, Informatics, Computer Science, Economics, or related discipline – or equivalent number of years of experience.
• Significant senior experience in risk management, assurance, governance, or second‑line oversight within a complex organisation.
• Demonstrated ability to build and lead a high‑performing team with deep expertise in enterprise Data & AI risk management.
• Champion a culture of responsible, compliant, and value‑focused use of data and AI across the organisation.
• Demonstrated project leadership skills. Demonstrate effective communication skills with the ability to influence others to achieve objectives.
• Proven change management, collaboration, and negotiation skills.

Desirable Skills/Experience

• Master’s or PhD in Business Administration, Information/Data Science, Informatics, Computer Science, Economics, or related discipline.
• Experience in life sciences and healthcare.
• Intimate knowledge of relevant key business processes in the Pharma industry.
• Data and / or AI Governance and Data Management education and certifications.
• Familiarity with relevant data and AI regulations and compliance requirements (e.g. GxP, GDPR, EU AI Act, NIS2, etc.).
• Applied data management, data science, AI development, or AI governance skills, including experience with related tools.
• Exposure publishing relevant data and / or AI risk management topics in peer-reviewed journals, conferences, and other scientific proceedings.

When we put unexpected teams in the same room, we unleash bold thinking with the power to inspire life-changing medicines. In-person working gives us the platform we need to connect, work at pace and challenge perceptions. That's why we work, on average, a minimum of three days per week from the office. But that doesn't mean we're not flexible. We balance the expectation of being in the office while respecting individual flexibility. Join us in our unique and ambitious world.

AstraZeneca offers the chance to solve complex problems at scale where data, analytics and AI directly influence how life-changing medicines are discovered, developed and delivered. Work at the earliest stages of high-impact initiatives to shape direction from day one, turning uncertainty into robust approaches that power better decisions across the company. Experiment with modern technology platforms in a fast-moving environment that encourages curiosity, ownership and continuous learning through real projects, hackathons and cross-functional collaboration. Join diverse experts who share knowledge openly, challenge assumptions constructively and are backed by meaningful investment to push boundaries in digital and data while keeping patients at the heart of every decision.

Ready to lead how Data & AI risks are managed while enabling bold innovation? Apply now to take on this pivotal role.