Associate Director, IS Business Partner - Finance and Procurement

Developing innovative therapies is one of the most challenging, most essential and personally rewarding fields in science. This is the most exciting time to be a part of Astellas, a company with a uniquely collaborative and patient-focused culture. There's something special about working at Astellas. It's reflected in our focus on the people we serve, the way we treat each other and the results we achieve together as a company. Astellas is announcing an Associate Director, IS Business Partner - Finance and Procurement opportunity in Northbrook, IL. Purpose: * Work within Astellas to identify, implement and make effective use of technologies in order to enhance the value of the business for responsible functional area * Work with business leaders and the IS Teams to ensure that IT systems are aligned with global business and IS strategy for responsible functional area. * Develop and maintain the functional and technology roadmaps to drive the direction of the IT services for the responsible functional area. * Manage direct report IS team across Astellas regions to deliver the IS strategy for responsible functional area * Ensure that IT investment is relevant to business requirements, demonstrably beneficial and appropriately leveraged for the global functional area. * Act as an internal IT Account Manager for specified Business Function(s) or Geographies and ensure that the needs of the internal customer are recognized and addressed. Act as an escalation point for Senior Mgmt. Essential Job Responsibilities: * Compliance: * Embed Compliance Culture across all Regions of the business ensuring Integrity in Action is actively applied in all initiatives. * Ensure IS Function(s) strictly adopt a culture of ethics and compliance; leading by example and appropriately challenging non-compliance. * Ensure adherence to Astellas policies relating to Ethics and Compliance standards and interactions with Healthcare Professionals (HCPs), Healthcare Organizations (HCOs) and Patient Organizations (POs). * Key Accountabilities * Work closely with key Stakeholders to identify requirements and support delivery for Business Systems and Business Enhancements which IT can enable: * Manage IT Account Management relationships with business functions and internal customers as required in the specific Business Partner role. * Ensure that Business Functions understand and support IT initiatives as appropriate and that the IT function is responsive to feedback from internal customers. * Develop strong trusted relationships with key stakeholders to enable joint development and delivery of business and IT strategy. * Turn Business Strategy into clearly directed, beneficial and cost-effective IT projects. Prepare these projects for initiation, and remain accountable for delivery of the agreed business outcomes through project closure * Review and propose on trends and projects to be pursued within the functional area. * Ensure appropriate technical and managerial Go/No Go review of project proposals including the availability of cost/benefit/risk analyses ("business cases") and consistency with IT-Governance rules regarding decision-making. * Ensure availability of appropriate project plans for implementation addressing organizational, technical, process, change management and training perspectives when introducing new applications. * Ensure project delivery remains aligned to the agreed outcomes, and changes in scope and evolving business requirements are managed according to agreed governance. * Ensure appropriate selection of solutions and third parties required to support changes identified. * Leverage existing solutions from the IT estate and support the business to maximize the benefits delivered from project investment. * Ensure that initiatives generated by business functions are in line with the European approach and utilize appropriate tools where these already exist within the IT estate. * People Leadership * Develop the personal network required to enable successful collaboration internally and externally in support of departmental objectives: * Build effective and productive working relations with colleagues in relevant functions within Astellas business functions, Affiliates, plus other IS BP groups and peers in IS globally * Build effective and productive working relations with external peers and organizations to share knowledge and keep abreast of developments and practices. * Lead and develop team of direct reports, ensuring outcomes are delivered and managed across the team. * Carry out appraisals; ensure compliance with Astellas policy and other line management activities as required. * Undertake personal development activities to ensure that the core tasks and responsibilities of this role continue to be met as the role evolves in line with business change. Qualifications: Required * Pharma or similar sector experience with strong customer focus; in multi-disciplinary, matrix and cross-cultural settings. * Track-record of leading planning process with excellent organizational and collaboration skills * Robust experience in an IT Department, including international and multi-national business. * Proven experience operating in cross region role working with remote/virtual and cross-cultural teams. Experience with US/Europe/Japan an advantage. * Experience of managing Senior non IT Stakeholders in Account Management relationships, representing the needs of the business function and the IT department. * Experience of strategic planning (Roadmaps) and of aligning IT strategies with business goals. * Experience of working through different stages of the systems development life-cycle, including user requirements gathering and blue-printing. * Foundation in Process management, requirements gathering, analysis technique. * Ability to act and react with a customer focus first and foremost and to talk the (business) language of the customer. * Experience of working with a wide variety of Business systems relevant to the function supported International or Regional/Corporate HQ environment experience preferred but not essential. * Able to work flexibly to adapt to a wide range of different types of internal customers * Multi-tasking -- it is essential that this person can manage the complexity associated with a lead role in a growing Pharma company * Flexibility and mental agility necessary to solve complex problems and develop innovative solutions to business issues * Highly numerate and data literate * Proven compliance expertise; to understand and comply with industry laws and relevant regulations. * Coaching and collaboration skills to interact with all levels of personnel to achieve shared goals. * Demonstrable examples of ability to develop, coach and enable high performance teams and proactively promote best practice and knowledge sharing. * Proven ability to influence, (appropriately) challenge and engage diverse senior stakeholders. * Degree education and/or proven equivalent expertise in Business Partner environment * Knowledge of pharmaceutical business and related business processes to the specific BP role. * Strong time management skills with the ability to work with minimal or no supervision. * High level of communication skills and knowledge of English (verbal and written). Competencies Customer Focus: * Fosters a culture where everything is done to enhance value to patients. Intentional about meeting/exceeding customer expectations (internal/external). Strategic Orientation: * Credible leader: engages colleagues/team to effectively deliver strategic plan and secure the confidence of key stakeholders. * Considers broader picture and embeds a 'best practice' culture to increase operational performance within a multi-cultural, matrix and global organization. Innovation and Change: * Acts as ambassador for change; proactively fosters a continuous improvement and ideas generation culture. * Secures commitment from peers/colleagues to adopt new work processes, systems, and approaches to embed change. Results Orientation: * Demonstrates personal accountability for business performance (unit/function); consistently delivers high performance results addressing risks in a constructive manner. * Proactively supports team/colleagues to deliver effectively; sets clear expectations, priorities, and objectives utilizing resources for optimum performance. * Demonstrates integrity, sound judgment and decision making skills. Addresses non-compliance. * IT literate; able to utilize MS Office and virtual collaboration tools, database, compliance systems/applications, online knowledge repositories etc. Communication & Collaboration: * Strong collaborative skills: able to work cross-functionally and with virtual teams, to build trust, commitment and engagement. Adjusts approach to secure a positive and respectful outcome. * Regularly seeks and provides constructive feedback with due recognition for individual contribution. * Ability to deliver management reports and metrics and give 'formal' presentations and updates to diverse audience(s), corrective actions, qualitative/quantitative updates etc. Developing & Inspiring: * Creates an environment which fosters learning and development with appropriate stretch and 'risk.' Provides constructive feedback to utilize strengths and identify development needs. * Adopts a coaching approach to develop others and build future leaders with due respect for diversity and inclusion. Working as One Astellas: * Acts as an ambassador of ethics and compliance; incorporates cross-cultural perspective when addressing challenging situations. * Creates an environment which fosters mutual respect, integrity and value. #LI-JA1 Equal Opportunity Employer Minorities/Women/Protected Veterans/Disabled