Senior Director – IT Business Partner, Legal & Compliance
AstraZeneca · United Kingdom, Luton
We are seeking a senior, enterprise-level technology leader to partner with the Legal and Compliance leadership teams and lead AI and technology-driven transformation of how AstraZeneca protects, governs and advises the business at global scale and in a highly regulated environment.
This role sits at the intersection of legal and regulatory strategy, technology innovation and executive leadership. You will be a trusted advisor to the General Counsel organisation and the Chief Compliance Officer organisation, shaping how AI, agents, data and modern platforms transform legal operations, contract and matter management, e-discovery, governance, risk and compliance, and ethics and assurance.
This is not a traditional IT delivery role. It is a business-embedded, outcome-led leadership position for someone who can influence at the top table, translate legal and compliance priorities into action, and scale AI and digital transformation with pace, discipline and trust; building and leading a high-calibre, product-centric Legal & Compliance IT team that orchestrates a world-class partner ecosystem, and proving in partnership with the business on how technology value is unlocked.
You will bring deep legal technology expertise and a genuine AI-first mindset: someone who starts from what AI makes possible rather than from today’s process, thinks innovatively about how the function can be fundamentally transformed, and earns influence through domain credibility with lawyers, compliance professionals and technologists alike.
Key Responsibilities:
Executive Partnership & Influence
- Serve as the primary technology and transformation partner to the General Counsel, Chief Compliance Officer and their leadership teams.
- Act as a credible thought partner at executive level, shaping priorities and influencing investment decisions.
- Translate complex legal, regulatory and risk challenges into clear, outcome-driven technology strategies and multi-year roadmaps.
AI-First Transformation & Innovation
- Champion an AI-first mindset across Legal and Compliance and IT: default to AI-enabled and agentic approaches when redesigning work, and challenge teams to reimagine processes rather than digitise existing ones.
- Bring innovative, original thinking to how the function operates from AI-assisted lawyering and autonomous compliance monitoring to intelligent self-service for the business and turn ideas into pilots, products and scaled capabilities.
- Use domain expertise to influence and inspire Legal and Compliance leaders, earning credibility by speaking their language, understanding professional, ethical and regulatory constraints, and showing what is practically possible.
- Track the legal tech and AI market, including start-ups, incumbents and emerging regulation, and translate it into differentiated advantage for AstraZeneca.
AI & Technology Transformation at Scale
- Lead enterprise-grade AI and digital initiatives across Legal and Compliance from experimentation to sustained value, driving the shift from proof of concept to proof of value with measurable outcomes.
- Identify and scale high-impact AI, agentic automation and analytics use cases; for example contract analysis and generation, legal research, matter and spend intelligence, regulatory change monitoring, continuous controls monitoring and investigations support.
- Redesign legal and compliance processes around AI-enabled ways of working, so that expert time moves from administration to judgement, advice and insight.
Legal Tech & Platform Strategy
- Set the strategy and evolution path for the Legal and Compliance technology estate including GRC, e-discovery, contract lifecycle, matter and document management, policy, ethics and case management platforms; balancing innovation with simplification and value for money.
- Apply deep legal tech knowledge including AI-native contract, research, e-discovery and GRC solutions, and the build-versus-buy and partner landscape to make sound, differentiated platform and vendor decisions.
- Scout, pilot and scale next-generation capabilities, ensuring they integrate with enterprise platforms and are fit for regulated, privileged and highly confidential use.
- Ensure a connected, data-driven view of risk, compliance and legal activity across the enterprise.
Responsible AI, Data Governance, Security & Regulatory Compliance
- Ensure responsible, ethical and compliant use of AI, with clear guardrails, human oversight and auditability appropriate to legal privilege, confidentiality and regulatory expectations.
- Own the integrity, privacy and security of legal and compliance data, including data residency, retention, legal hold and cross-border requirements.
- Partner with Legal and Compliance as both customer and advisor on emerging AI and technology regulation, helping to shape AstraZeneca’s own governance model.
- Maintain audit-ready, validated and well-governed systems and controls.
Reshaping Legal & Compliance IT Talent & Product-Centric Operating Model
- Reshape the Legal & Compliance IT workforce into a high-calibre, high-performing team: driven, strategic thinkers and recognised thought leaders who challenge the status quo and set the standard for business-embedded technology leadership.
- Lead the move from project and run-based delivery to a product-centric operating model, with persistent, empowered product teams aligned to value streams (e.g. legal operations, e-discovery and investigations, contracts, governance risk and compliance, ethics and assurance) and accountable for outcomes, adoption and continuous improvement.
- Define the skills, personas and career paths the future team needs - product ownership, AI and agent engineering, data and analytics, platform architecture, value management & partner orchestration and closing gaps through targeted hiring, reskilling and succession planning.
- Set a high-performance culture: clear outcome ownership, fast learning cycles, curiosity about emerging technology, and visible external presence through forums, communities and peer networks.
- Orchestrate the in-house team and strategic partners as one integrated product organisation, with the in-house core focused on strategy, architecture, product leadership and value, and partners on scaled delivery and run.
Demonstrating IT Value in Partnership with Legal & Compliance
- Co-own with Legal and Compliance leadership a clear, shared view of how IT value is unlocked - linking every investment and product to outcomes such as risk reduction, cost avoidance, cycle-time reduction, reduced external legal spend, productivity and better decisions.
- Establish transparent value measurement: baselines, outcome KPIs and benefits tracking agreed with the business and Finance, reported regularly and independently of delivery milestones.
- Showcase value to leadership and the wider enterprise through regular demonstrations, data-led storytelling and case studies that make the impact of AI and technology tangible and credible.
- Hold joint accountability with the business for adoption, change and benefits realisation; retiring low-value spend and reinvesting in what demonstrably works.
Investment, Portfolio & Value Management
- Own and govern the Legal & Compliance technology investment portfolio, ensuring delivery of value, alignment to strategic objectives and optimal use of resources.
- Build investment-grade business cases with clear outcomes and mobilise high-value investments.
- Manage delivery through outcome-based metrics, tracking benefits realisation and adoption - not just milestones.
Leadership & Ecosystem Management
- Lead and develop a high-performing, business-embedded product-centric team, role-modelling the standard of leadership expected of the future EUIT.
- Manage strategic partnerships with vendors, outsourcing and managed-service providers, legal technology specialists and system integrators, hold