Full-Time

Business Planning Lead

Posted on 7/12/2026

Deadline 7/19/26
AstraZeneca

AstraZeneca

10,001+ employees

Global pharmaceutical company developing prescription medicines

Compensation Overview

$190.4k - $285.6k/yr

+ Bonus + Equity Grants

Gaithersburg, MD, USA

Hybrid

Three days on-site per week required.

Bachelor's, MBA

Category
Business & Strategy (1)
Required Skills
Forecasting

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Requirements
  • Bachelor's degree in Business, Life Sciences, or related field
  • 5+ years of pharmaceutical marketing and/or sales experience with deep industry knowledge
  • Comprehensive understanding of pharmaceutical business including commercial operations and drug development processes
  • Shown ability to lead teams through ambiguous situations by providing transparency, structure, and strategic focus
  • Expertise in strategic planning processes, tools, and methodologies
  • Strong strategic thinking, analytical capabilities, and executive influencing skills
  • Sophisticated understanding of forecasting, budgeting, and financial planning processes
  • Excellent project management, communication, and relationship-building skills
  • Cross-functional team leadership experience with stakeholder management capabilities.
Responsibilities
  • Lead role, aligned to the Franchise Head, serving as business partner and core member of the Franchise Leadership Team. Dotted line reporting into Head of Oncology innovation and business planning.
  • Lead the planning and implementation of franchise goals/scorecard and priorities by collaborating with key internal cross functional stakeholders
  • Drive strategic planning processes by partnering with brand teams to produce, review, and continuously update strategic plans aligned with business objectives.
  • Lead brand strategic planning projects, ensuring key achievements are achieved and progress is monitored against established timelines and deliverables.
  • Prepare comprehensive planning outputs and present strategic recommendations to senior leadership to support critical decision-making processes.
  • Coordinate all financial (budget) planning and processes (HLOP,DLOP, BSP, tactical plan, etc.) as well as sales operations- be the liaison between HO and field in terms of ensuring key deliverables and plan execution.
  • Lead operational planning processes including budgeting, ensuring strategic alignment with broader business objectives, timelines, and resource requirements.
  • Serve as Project Management champion and critical link into Central Portfolio Management Office, providing inputs for accurate demand capture, risk identification and mitigation strategies aligned to US Oncology Scorecard
  • Coordinate portfolio prioritization within brand teams and provide strategic support to therapeutic areas (TAs) for resource allocation and execution of key priorities.
  • Lead the planning and execution of all franchise (FLT/National sales meetings) and above franchise (ONx) level meetings, develop and maintain calendar of key leadership touchpoints throughout the year
  • Develop and lead franchise or functional communications, including weekly update emails, and engagement plan.
Desired Qualifications
  • MBA or equivalent advanced degree
  • Senior-level pharmaceutical commercial experience
  • Experience in therapeutic area strategy and portfolio management; Advanced analytics and business intelligence expertise
  • Global pharmaceutical market experience.

AstraZeneca develops and markets prescription medicines and vaccines for global health, focusing on oncology, cardiovascular/metabolic, respiratory, and infectious diseases. Its products work by targeting specific biological pathways or cells to treat diseases or prevent infections, using small-molecule drugs, biologics, and vaccines. The company differentiates itself through its dual heritage from Sweden and the UK, a broad pipeline, and strong R&D with collaborations to move from discovery to patient access across multiple therapeutic areas. Its goal is to improve people’s health by discovering, developing, and delivering medicines and vaccines worldwide.

Company Size

10,001+

Company Stage

IPO

Headquarters

Cambridge, United Kingdom

Founded

1913

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Simplify Jobs

Simplify's Take

What believers are saying

  • July 2026 core EPS beat estimates at $2.63, supporting capital for R&D and manufacturing.
  • January 2026 AstraZeneca committed $15 billion to China through 2030, expanding local supply.
  • August 2026 CSPC joint venture builds biologics capacity for global markets and future launches.

What critics are saying

  • April 2026 FDA advisers rejected camizestrant, threatening breast-cancer growth and 2030 targets.
  • February 2026 China charged former executive Leon Wang, deepening compliance risk in AstraZeneca's largest foreign market.
  • Bristol Myers sued over Imjudo patents in Delaware, risking royalties, injunctions, and distraction.

What makes AstraZeneca unique

  • AstraZeneca's July 2026 pipeline spans oncology, rare disease, and six Phase III GLP-1 trials.
  • August 2026 Research Assistant embeds LLM retrieval across literature, trials, safety, and internal systems.
  • August 2026 SOPHiA collaboration strengthens global precision oncology launch with companion diagnostics.

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Benefits

Health Insurance

Dental Insurance

Vision Insurance

401(k) Retirement Plan

Paid Vacation

Paid Holidays

Flexible Work Hours

Growth & Insights and Company News

Headcount

6 month growth

3%

1 year growth

3%

2 year growth

5%
NOW LET US
Aug 15th, 2026
Research Assistant: AstraZeneca's agentic system for R&D.

Research Assistant: AstraZeneca's agentic system for R&D. AstraZeneca has unveiled Research Assistant, an internal LLM-based agentic system designed to help scientists and clinicians navigate diverse biomedical data sources and accelerate R&D workflows. Engineering & Technology Computer science > artificial intelligence. Title: Research Assistant: AstraZeneca's agentic system for R&D. Abstract: Nowletus describe Research Assistant, an internal LLM-based system developed at AstraZeneca to help scientists and clinicians explore biomedical questions across a broad range of data sources. The system provides a chat-style interface that brings together evidence from scientific literature, knowledge graphs, chemistry, clinical trials, safety resources, expression data, and internal experimental systems. It supports both a fast mode for direct question answering and a multi-step mode for more complex research tasks. Responses are grounded in retrieved evidence and linked back to the original sources, allowing users to review and further explore the underlying data. In this technical note, Nowletus outline the system architecture, the main design choices behind the product, and lessons learned from deploying it at scale to support day-to-day R&D workflows across AstraZeneca.

Mart Infomedia
Aug 13th, 2026
AstraZeneca Pharma India reports 30% revenue growth in Q1 FY27.

AstraZeneca Pharma India reports 30% revenue growth in Q1 FY27. AstraZeneca Pharma India Limited reported a strong start to FY2026-27, with total revenue from operations rising 30% year-on-year to ₹6,828 million in the first quarter ended June 30, 2026. The company said growth was supported by continued demand across its key therapy areas, including Oncology, Biopharmaceuticals covering cardiovascular, renal and respiratory diseases, and Rare Disease. The quarter also saw regulatory approvals for key medicines, new healthcare partnerships and initiatives aimed at improving diagnosis and access to treatment. Bhavana Agrawal, Chief Financial Officer and Director, AstraZeneca Pharma India, said the company's first-quarter performance builds on its track record of double-digit growth over the past five years. She added that the company remains focused on investing in opportunities that can support long-term growth and value creation. Praveen Rao Akkinepally, Country President and Managing Director, AstraZeneca Pharma India, said the company's performance reflects the strength of its portfolio and its focus on reaching more patients in India with innovative medicines. During the quarter, AstraZeneca received regulatory approval for acalabrutinib in combination with venetoclax, with or without obinutuzumab, for previously untreated chronic lymphocytic leukaemia and small lymphocytic lymphoma. The company also received approval for acalabrutinib with bendamustine and rituximab for adults with previously untreated mantle cell lymphoma who are not eligible for autologous stem cell transplant. Another major regulatory milestone was the approval of trastuzumab deruxtecan in combination with pertuzumab for the first-line treatment of adults with unresectable or metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer. AstraZeneca also expanded its healthcare initiatives during the quarter. The company signed an MoU with the Government of Telangana to introduce AI-based lung cancer screening across 20 public healthcare facilities in urban and rural areas. The programme will use Qure.ai's AI-powered chest X-ray technology to help identify high-risk pulmonary nodules and other lung conditions, while also training healthcare professionals. The company launched K+ Connect, a nationwide initiative focused on improving the identification and management of hyperkalaemia among patients with heart failure and chronic kidney disease. In cardiovascular care, AstraZeneca launched India Coronary Conquest 2026 with STEMI India. The clinician-led programme is designed to support advanced cardiovascular care through case-based learning and professional collaboration among interventional cardiologists. AstraZeneca Pharma India also received recognition at the OPPI India Awards 2026 for its work in Rare Disease and its Hyperkalaemia and Kidney Care initiative. It also received a Gold Award at the ETHRWorld Employee Experience Awards 2026. AstraZeneca Pharma India is the listed operating company of AstraZeneca in India. It focuses on prescription medicines across Oncology, Biopharmaceuticals and Rare Disease and has more than 600 employees across the country.

Alpha Data Analytics PSA
Aug 13th, 2026
AstraZeneca ends Bristol Myers Squibb deal.

AstraZeneca ends Bristol Myers Squibb deal. Wed, August 12, 2026 at 6:22 PM GMT-7 · Consumer · Compiled by Adalytica Engine v1.12 AstraZeneca has terminated its deal with Bristol Myers Squibb, ending a collaboration that underscored how quickly pharma alliances can be reshaped by rising U.S. investment and a renewed race for oncology assets. The cancellation, disclosed in an Aug. 3 filing, matters because partnerships in cancer drug development are not just research arrangements: they can determine how fast a therapy reaches patients, how costs are shared and how much future revenue each company can capture. In a sector where pricing power and pipeline quality drive valuation, the unwinding of a major tie-up forces investors to reassess both companies' strategic flexibility and the economics of their oncology portfolios. Sentiment Indicatorsi Proprietary · adalytica.com · August 13, 2026 Healthcare Severely Stressed AstraZeneca's shares were trading at 158.5 on Aug. 12, down from 193.12 on July 7, while Bristol Myers closed at 63.70 after recovering from a June trough of 54.95. The moves point to a market that is still sorting through the implications of the breakup and the broader re-rating of large drugmakers exposed to oncology and U.S. expansion. For AstraZeneca, the decision fits a larger pattern of pharmaceutical groups concentrating capital in the U.S., where demand, regulatory scale and innovation density remain unmatched. The company has been leaning on oncology as its main growth engine, and a cleaner strategic structure may give it more control over development and commercialization decisions. But it also raises the risk that the company must shoulder more of the cost and execution burden itself. For Bristol Myers, the end of the deal removes a potential source of pipeline support at a time when investors are already focused on whether the company can sustain growth as older drugs mature. The stock has been more resilient than AstraZeneca's over the latest stretch, helped by a stronger technical profile and a sharp rebound from June lows, but the loss of a collaboration with one of the sector's strongest oncology franchises may weigh on long-term sentiment. The broader backdrop is still favorable for companies with deep cancer pipelines. U.S. spending on pharma investment is rising, Chinese biotech competition is intensifying and regulators are tightening quality expectations, pushing global drugmakers to seek scale, speed and more defensible assets. In that environment, cancelled alliances can be read two ways: as a sign that companies are becoming more disciplined about capital allocation, or as evidence that the industry's partnership model is becoming less stable as the fight for returns gets tougher. For investors, the key question is whether AstraZeneca's move strengthens its control over future upside or simply shifts more risk onto its balance sheet. The answer will depend on whether it can turn its oncology pipeline into durable revenue without the support of a major partner, and whether Bristol Myers can replace lost strategic optionality with its own dealmaking or execution gains. | Entity | Gains | Losses | | AstraZeneca | | Strategic control | | Shared development cost | | Bristol Myers Squibb | | Capital flexibility | | Pipeline optionality | | Oncology rivals | | Dealmaking leverage | | Partnership stability | | Investors | | Clearer capital plans | | Near-term uncertainty | Long AstraZeneca / Short Bristol Myers Squibb AZN keeps more oncology upside Entry 158.50 Target 170.00 Stop 151.00 R:R 1: 1.53 Trade Idea Turn this analysis into a trade. Unlock the complete setup.

Yahoo Finance
Aug 11th, 2026
Hedge funds boost AstraZeneca stake to $5.5B despite pipeline setbacks

AstraZeneca topped second-quarter profit expectations with core earnings per share of $2.63 versus the $2.48 analysts expected. The firm reiterated its target of $80 billion in annual revenue by 2030. However, the quarter brought fresh pipeline setbacks. Its rare disease drug Ultomiris missed its main goal in a late-stage trial, the latest in a string of disappointments that also includes an earlier heart drug trial failure and a breast cancer drug application that US regulators rejected. Oncology revenue rose 15%, with cancer drugs Tagrisso and Imfinzi leading growth. AstraZeneca won EU approval for its breast cancer drug Etcamah, though a US regulatory panel rejected it in May. Hedge fund holdings increased to 56 funds in Q1 2026, up from 52 the previous quarter.

Associated Press
Aug 10th, 2026
Canada approves Fasenra for hypereosinophilic syndrome, cutting flare risk by 65%

Health Canada has approved Fasenra (benralizumab) as an add-on treatment for patients aged 12 and older with hypereosinophilic syndrome (HES), a rare disorder characterised by elevated eosinophil levels that can cause organ damage. The approval follows the NATRON Phase III trial, which showed benralizumab reduced the risk of disease flares by 65% compared to placebo. In the study, 19.4% of patients receiving benralizumab experienced disease worsening versus 42.4% in the placebo group. HES affects an estimated 2,000 to 2,500 people in Canada. The condition involves persistently high levels of eosinophils in the blood, potentially leading to progressive organ damage and proving fatal if untreated. Fasenra is administered subcutaneously every four weeks. The drug is also approved in Canada for severe eosinophilic asthma and eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis.

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