Supplier Excellence Director

Supplier Excellence Director

Location: Warsaw

Hybrid Model: 3 days per week from office

At AstraZeneca, we are united by a mission to push scientific boundaries and deliver life‑changing medicines. Every colleague plays a vital role in making a real difference for patients worldwide.

Within Global Business Services (GBS) we streamline processes and elevate experience for our internal customers and external partners, supporting our Bold Ambition 2030.

The GBS Data Office (GDO) Supplier Onboarding Services team spans Vendor Managed Services (VMS), Third Party Risk Management (3PRM), and Sanctions Screening. We deliver timely, compliant and effective services across AstraZeneca, enabling seamless buying and financial operations.

We are seeking an experienced leader to own and optimize supplier operations, scaling performance and value creation globally.

The Supplier Excellence Director is accountable for the global VMS service delivery. You will lead operational teams to achieve high efficiency, accuracy, resilience and service quality, ensuring supplier data is processed and maintained promptly and securely and in compliance – accelerating time to active supplier and enabling S2P execution. You will partner closely with GDO leaders across 3PRM, Data Operations, and Sanctions Screening, as well Finance, IT, Procurement, and Purchase‑to‑Pay (P2P), to align policies, controls, and process standards, remove hand-offs, and continuously improve cycle time, data quality, and user experience. The role is based in Warsaw and report to Senior Director, Supplier OnBoarding Services.

Key Responsibilities

• Leadership & People Management: Provide strong, hands‑on leadership to VMS operational teams (c. 20 colleagues across three locations). Set clear goals, coach for performance, and build a high‑trust, high‑accountability culture focused on efficiency, first-time-right data quality, compliance and customer outcomes.
• Operational Excellence & Efficiency: Own day‑to‑day VMS delivery. Optimize workflow design in ServiceNow and in connection with SAP MDG, case management and queue balancing to meet SLAs and prevent aging. Implement standard work procedures, controls, and playbooks to ensure consistent, high‑quality execution across regions and time zones.
• Performance Management: Define and standardize KPIs, SLAs, and operational dashboards for VMS. Establish a disciplined reporting cadence, drive root cause analysis, and use insights to course‑correct quickly. Track cycle time, first-time-right, throughput, backlog aging, defect rate, and audit readiness; align improvements with business priorities. Partner with IT, Procurement, and P2P to enhance service reliability and throughput.
• Business Partnering & Stakeholder Engagement: Lead stakeholder engagement across all SET areas. Run structured business reviews with markets and global stakeholders; co-create quarterly priorities, capacity plans, and improvement roadmaps aligned to business demand, portfolio launches, and critical programs. Communicate performance, value delivered, and forward plans; anticipate issues, resolve escalations, and strengthen partnerships.
• Customer Experience: Define and track customer experience metrics (e.g. CSAT). Maintain regular feedback loops with markets and global stakeholders to identify friction points and drive service enhancements; embed VOC into backlog and design decisions.
• End-to-End Collaboration with GDO: Partner closely with GDO leaders and Product Owners to align policies, controls, data standards, and platform roadmaps. Co-lead cross-functional improvement initiatives that simplify the onboarding journey, reduce handoffs, and accelerate time to activation.
• Continuous Improvement & Innovation: Champion Lean /SixSigma and introduce AI solutions to improve outcomes, throughput time, and elevate the end‑user experience.
• Change Management: Lead change plans, training, and communications to drive adoption of new processes and tools across regions and functions, with clear success metrics and benefits realization.
• Compliance & Data Integrity:  Ensure policy adherence, audit readiness, and standardized procedures across regions.

Qualifications

• Experience: 10+ years in supplier management, masterdata, procurement operations or related customer service, 5+ years successfully leading global teams and cross-functional projects in shared services/GBS or similar environments.
• Domain Expertise: Strong understanding of supplier lifecycle processes, source-to-pay (S2P), supplier masterdata management and good understanding of supplier risk assessment.
• Process & Tools: 3+ years of experience in ServiceNow (NextGen) within an enterprise-wide service; familiarity with SAP/MDG and S2P platforms (preferably Coupa). Proven track record deploying Lean/Six Sigma, process automation, and analytics; adept at performance dashboards and data-driven decisions.
• Leadership & Communication: Exceptional stakeholder management, senior-level communication and influence skills; ability to operate across cultures and time zones.
• Analytical & Results-Driven: Advanced analytical skills, KPI design, and benefits realization; history of driving productivity, quality, and continuous improvement at scale.
• Change Management: Experience leading large-scale change, training, and adoption across diverse business functions; strong communications and governance discipline.
• Languages: fluent English (speaking and writing). Additional languages (Spanish, German, Portuguese, Japanese) are an asset but are not essential.

What we offer:

Welcome to Warsaw Site, one of over 400 sites here at AstraZeneca, providing a collaborative environment where everyone feels comfortable and able to be themselves is at the core of AstraZeneca’s priorities, it’s important to us that you bring your full self to work every day.

To help you maintain your best self, here’s a sneak peek into some of the things this site provides for you:

• The best team to support you,
• Multisport card,
• Pension plan,
• Life insurance,
• after-work events,
• private medical care
• lunch card,
• bright and spacious environment,
• sustainable office working environment.

Please note that we are working in a hybrid model of 3 days per week from the office in Warsaw

Date Posted

15-gru-2025

Closing Date

05-sty-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.

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.