Senior Analytical Scientist – Senior Research Scientist Full-time

Introduction To Role

Are you ready to lead API analytics that accelerate novel oncology medicines from concept to candidate selection and ultimately to reach patients? Do you thrive at the interface of LC-MS science, digital enablement, and cross-functional decision-making to unlock clearer, faster answers?

In this role, you will set and execute the analytical strategy that enables rapid progression of new small-molecule assets through early preclinical phases. You will be a key driver of how we understand, control, and release our compounds—directly shaping the quality and speed of candidate selection and scale-up. By combining deep analytical expertise with collaborative leadership, you will translate complex data into decisive insights that move our pipeline forward and ultimately impact the lives of patients with cancer.

Accountabilities

• Analytical Leadership in Projects: Define analytical control strategies and drive execution across discovery and early development to de-risk routes, inform process decisions, and enable progression to milestones.
• Method Development and Validation: Design, optimize, and validate robust methods for route development, in-process controls, release, and stability—ensuring methods are fit-for-purpose and phase-appropriate.
• LC-MS Characterization: Apply LC-MS and complementary techniques to identify and track impurities and degradation pathways; interpret complex datasets to guide purification, formulation, and process optimization.
• Experimental Excellence: Plan and execute laboratory studies to high scientific and safety standards; deliver high-quality data at pace across multiple concurrent projects.
• Data Integrity and External Management: Critically assess, review, and report results from internal teams and CROs; ensure data integrity, traceability, and timely knowledge capture.
• Problem Solving and Innovation: Anticipate analytical risks, troubleshoot complex issues, and evaluate/implement new technologies and platforms that raise capability and throughput.
• Collaboration and Influence: Build strong networks with chemistry, pharmaceutical sciences, and other partners to accelerate decision-making, resolve issues quickly, and align on quality targets.
• Coaching and Knowledge Sharing: Mentor junior scientists; communicate findings and recommendations clearly to project teams and governance forums to drive informed decisions.
• Safety and Quality Advocacy: Champion AstraZeneca Good Laboratory Standards and SHE expectations, embedding a culture of quality, safety, and continuous improvement.

Essential Skills/Experience

• Degree or PhD in Chemistry or related discipline with substantial analytical chemistry content.
• Proven ability to lead API analytics within cross-functional teams to support progression through early preclinical phases.
• Demonstrated expertise in designing, optimizing, and validating analytical methods for route development, in-process control, and API release/stability testing.
• Strong LC-MS experience, including impurity and degradation product characterization and interpretation of complex datasets.
• Track record of planning and executing laboratory work to high scientific and safety standards across multiple concurrent projects.
• Experience critically assessing, reviewing, and reporting analytical data from internal teams and CROs, ensuring data integrity and traceability.
• Evidence of anticipating and resolving complex analytical challenges and contributing to continuous improvement and technology evaluation.
• Ability to collaborate and influence across disciplines to accelerate decision-making and resolve issues.
• Experience training and mentoring junior scientists and presenting findings to project teams and governance forums.
• Practical experience with data mining and lab automation approaches; partnering with IT to enhance data management across analytical platforms.
• Commitment to working in line with Good Laboratory Standards and Safety, Health and Environment expectations.

Desirable Skills/Experience

• Familiarity with high-resolution mass spectrometry, orthogonal chromatographic techniques, and structural elucidation workflows.
• Experience working at the interface between Medicinal Chemistry and Process Chemistry
• Strong CRO management, including scope definition, oversight, and quality review for outsourced analytics.
• Proficiency with design of experiments, multivariate analysis, and digital tools that streamline data mining and visualization.
• Hands-on experience integrating lab automation or electronic workflows across analytical instruments and data lakes.
• Record of scientific contribution through publications or presentations at internal and external forums.

Why AstraZeneca

Join a team that pursues bold science with clear purpose—transforming how cancer is treated by advancing a broad pipeline of novel molecules. Here, analytical scientists sit at the heart of decision-making, with access to cutting-edge platforms, rich data, and collaborators who bring chemistry, biology, data science, and clinical insight into the same room to spark new ideas. You will be empowered to move fast, test new approaches, and learn from outcomes, with kindness and ambition valued in equal measure. Your expertise will not only sharpen our control strategies but also accelerate the medicines that matter to patients worldwide.

Call To Action

If you are ready to lead impactful analytics that shape critical decisions and bring innovative medicines closer to patients, we would love to see how you'll make your mark!