Lead Engineer – Analytics & AI

Role Title: Lead Engineer – Analytics & AI

Location: Chennai

We are one purpose-led global organisation. The enablers and innovators, ensuring that we can fulfil our mission to push the boundaries of science and discover and develop life-changing medicines. We take pride in working close to the cause, opening the locks to save lives, ultimately making a massive difference to the outside world.

AstraZeneca (AZ) is in a period of strong growth and our employees have a united purpose to make a difference to patients around the world who need both our medicines and the ongoing developments from our science. In this journey AZ must continue to work across borders and with partners and new colleagues in a fast and seamless way. The ambition, size and complexity of the organisation, coupled with the opportunities afforded by new technology, has led the Board to approve a large-scale transformation programme – Axial.

The Axial Programme will be powered by S/4HANA a new ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system which will be implemented right across the organisation and will provide our business with standardised processes, enhanced financial management, common data and real time reporting, transforming the way we work through our entire supply chain - from bench to patient.

The new system will be used by more than 20,000 employees daily, is foundational to all AZ entities and is central to most core business processes. This is a once in a generation programme for AstraZeneca and will shape our ways of working globally for many years to come.

The Axial programme needs the best talent to work in it. Whether it’s the technical skills, business understanding or change leadership, we want to ensure we have the strongest team deployed throughout. We are aiming to deliver a world class change programme that leaves all employees with a fuller understanding of their role in the end-to-end nature of our global company. This programme will provide AZ with a competitive edge, to the benefit of our employees, customers and patients.

The SAP Datasphere and SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC) Lead will be responsible for the end-to-end analytics and planning ecosystem, driving architecture, engineering best practices, and delivery across SAP and non-SAP platforms. This role combines strong data engineering leadership with expertise to design governed data products in Datasphere, build performant SAC models/stories/planning solutions, build AI ready data, evaluate and implement Data Science and AI offerings from SAP Analytics and integrate enterprise data fabric concepts. The Lead will partner with Finance and Operations to translate business needs into scalable solutions, mentor engineers, and set standards for reliability, security, and cost efficiency.

What you’ll do

We are looking for an engineer who wants to build models, data pipelines and visualisations on the new SAP analytics & AI offerings (like Datasphere, SAP’s cloud-based analytics platform, SAP Joule, SAP Business AI, SAP BDC offerings). The team will work in a transparent and agile way, meaning there will be a published roadmap of analytics products and a constant flow of new work from across the Axial program and AZ. You will be part of a team that creates the most re-used analytics artefacts on the stack.

This means you need to have a passion for well-engineered analytics.

• ETL/ELT tooling / data pipeline tools

• Data modelling

• SAP data and associated business processes

• Visual, descriptive, predictive and prescriptive analytics

• Self-service enablement for Analytics & AI tools

• Data warehousing

• Analytics testing

Essential Skills

• 12–15 years overall, including 5+ years of strong Data engineering experience on any data management tools such SAP Datasphere, Azure, AWS, Databricks, Snowflake and analytical platforms such as SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC), Power BI, Tableau, MicroStrategy, or similar.

• Implemented Knowledge Graphs to unify cross-domain data, leveraging business metadata, ontologies, and associations to improve data governance, impact analysis, and self-service insights.

• AI/ML in analytics - Applying predictive forecasting, augmentation, and model driven insights within enterprise reporting and planning contexts.

• Data fabric - Experience defining and operating a business data fabric—semantic models, governed datasets, catalog/lineage, and productized data services.

• Designing and operating production-grade analytics solutions (modeling, pipelines, orchestration, CI/CD, testing, observability), with hands-on SQL and performance tuning.

• Building secure, governed data flows across SAP and non SAP sources; identity/SSO, role based access, and transport/change management.

• Defining standards, naming conventions, semantic layers, and data product contracts; implementing data quality controls, lineage, and metadata practices.

• Establishing runbooks, SLAs, incident/problem management, and cost/performance monitoring in cloud analytics environments.

• Authoring solution designs, architecture diagrams, data dictionaries; driving test strategies (unit, integration, UAT, performance) and automation.

• Defining test strategies, UAT, performance tests, and defect management; producing architecture diagrams, solution design documents, runbooks, and user guides.

• Working with senior business stakeholders to translate requirements, prioritize value, and drive adoption; good communication and influencing skills.

• Good interpersonal skills, strong analytical and problem-solving capabilities, and ability to thrive in an agile, dynamic environment.

• Energetic, organized, and self-motivated approach to work.

• Fluency in business English.

Desirable for the role

• SAP Datasphere: Space design, connections, semantic modeling (facts/dimensions, associations, hierarchies), data flow orchestration, governance, performance optimization, and cost management.

• SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC): Modeling (dimensions, measures, currencies, versions), story/dashboard design, planning features (data actions, advanced formulas, allocations, calendar/workflows), and Analytics Designer apps.

• Performance & cost optimization: Story responsiveness, query tuning, caching/partitioning, data action runtime, and capacity planning.

• Change enablement: Building training and communities of practice; coaching teams on standards and best practices.

• Certifications: SAP SAC, SAP Datasphere, SAP HANA, or equivalent analytics/cloud certifications.

• Advanced coding and scripting abilities in SQL, Python, and JavaScript for dashboard customization and data automation.

Why AstraZeneca?

At Astrazeneca we’re dedicated to being a Great Place to Work. Where you are empowered to push the boundaries of science and unleash your entrepreneurial spirit. There’s no better place to make a difference to medicine, patients and society. An inclusive culture that champions diversity and collaboration, and always committed to lifelong learning, growth and development. We’re on an exciting journey to pioneer the future of healthcare.

So, what’s next?

• Are you already imaging yourself joining our team? Good, because we can’t wait to hear from you.

• Are you ready to bring new ideas and fresh thinking to the table? Brilliant! We have one seat available and hope its yours

• If you’re curious to know more then we welcome your application no later than

Where can I find out more?

Our Social Media, Follow AstraZeneca on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/1603/

Follow AstraZeneca on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/astrazenecacareers/

Follow AstraZeneca on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/astrazeneca_careers/?hl=en

Date Posted

14-Nov-2025

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.

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 authorisation and employment eligibility verification requirements.