Role Purpose

AstraZeneca is a global, innovation-driven biopharmaceutical business that focuses on the discovery, development and commercialization of prescription medicines for some of the world's most serious diseases. But we're more than one of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies. At AstraZeneca, we're proud to have a unique workplace culture that inspires innovation and collaboration. Here, employees are empowered to express diverse perspectives and are made to feel valued, energized and rewarded for their ideas and creativity.

Global Financial Services (GFS) was formed in Q3 2018 through the merger of Global Finance Operations, Integrated Finance Solutions and Cash Generation. GFS is at the heart of the Finance function - accountable to the AstraZeneca (AZ) Group for the design and delivery of high quality, simple to operate transactional finance processes that enable our customers to focus on AZ’s strategic priorities.

The creation of the Global Financial Services (GFS) centers in Warsaw (Poland), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) and San José (Costa Rica) will transform the AZ Middle Office and Back Office to a central function, supporting the business regions through simplification, standardization across the globe, and a structure that is scalable to support the bold ambition of becoming a $50bn company by 2025.

We have exciting opportunities to join our GFS Center in San José, which will establish best practices and be responsible for providing support to embedded finance (CFOs and country business partners and or BPs in Manufacturing).

Role Profile

As part of this team you will be able to learn how the planning, management and reporting systems operate across the globe and in all the different areas of the business same as you will also be part of the major transformation projects across “Finance, Planning and Tax”. By being part of this global team you will interact and work with users across the globe sitting in the Global Technology Centres, Global Financial Services and the whole Finance community thus expanding your knowledge and being able to add your contribution at a global level.

As a global L1 support team we ensure the systems supporting the financial and planning processes run smoothly, we partner with the business to guide them with their queries, we deliver a training portfolio to keep all active users up to date with the latest info on how to use the systems, we work together with the global technology colleagues on testing changes prior to being deployed, we collaborate and partner with senior stakeholders and system owners on finding new solutions and improvements for the deployed platforms, we play a key role in new initiatives and projects and we also manage access requests so that access is controlled tightly – helping to provide the right information in the right form in the right timeframe. We ensure that due process is followed and as we are listed on the US stock exchange, we operate within the SOx framework for statutory reporting.

Being part of the IT Finance Engagement Team translates into expanding your understanding of the business and its processes at a global level while at the same time you know how the systems operate translating this into gaining a broad and integrated view of the business and IT across all its different areas.

Key Responsibilities

The job holder will support different business areas within Planning, Management, Reporting and/or Tax.

The job holder will capture any new requirements from the business and will support any system changes required and some of the tasks related to this including assessing the impact, developing user requirements for changes and configuring the systems to deliver these changes or working with our IT Global Technology Centre (GTC) team to ensure the changes are delivered to the highest quality.

The job holder will be the first line of support to the end-users and will manage incidents (via Service Now system) raised by users to analyse them and where possible fix them or triage them to the second level support team (GTC).

The job holder will contribute as an expert to various IT or Finance projects.

The job holder will work within agreed development and support standards and processes, supporting the business capability and technology roadmaps set by EUIT. Ensuring Service Management principles are followed for the management of the corporate information model (e.g. ITIL standards for the recording of incidents, problems, requests and changes).

The job holder will monitor system activity and usage tracking to deliver recommendations to increase performance of data entry forms and reports (e.g. speed of response) or additional capability or information to increase user adoption. Perform Deployments,, integrations, reporting, etc. in line with the business process.

The job holder will assist in developing training content and provide Hyperion & SmartView training to the end user community.

The job holder will provide timely communications on behalf of the Hyperion business support team to the Hyperion user community and stakeholders regarding outages, data loads etc.

The job holder will be responsible of preparing and sending communication of release changes and service status.

The job holder will support testing including coordination of UAT and business sign off.

Essential Criteria

Business Administration/Industrial Engineering or Computer Sciences degree

Accounting and Finance degree

Advanced English Language skills

Worked in a similar Hyperion Planning Support Analyst role.

Experience in as a business planning and reporting role able to quickly understand the systems in use and / or other systems which interact with it.

Good experience managing relationships with Senior Stakeholder and working as first line support to the end-users.

Experienced business, data or systems analyst with knowledge of good information management principles.

Experience managing and implementing system changes.

Excellent analytical skills. Recognised methodology for problem solving and root cause analysis

Ability to interface with technical and business communities at strategic and detail level.

Excellent communication skills (including expertise delivering training).

Experience in Financial Planning Processes and Financial statutory reporting standards.

Experience working with SAP system (in particular FICO experience).

Desirable criteria

Experience using SNOW (Service Now) system to manage requests and incidents.

Experience of running SQL database queries

Experience of Hyperion Planning, Hyperion Essbase, PBCS, Oracle ODI, Data Management, and Smart View

Prior knowledge and experience of business processes.

Knowledge in Oracle PBCS Development - System configuration, business rules management,, business model updates and Financial reporting

Demonstrable experience of MS Office Applications including Advanced Excel Skills

Demonstrated experience of finance processes

Experience of OBIEE or similar BI tool

ITIL Service Management qualification (Foundation)

Experience of Agile Development methodology

Financial qualifications as CIMA or ACCA (PART QUALIFIED OR FINALIST STAGE OR QBE)

Other Role Requirements

Schedule flexibility to work on holidays when necessary.

Flexibility and Ability to travel and work in another AZ facilities outside the country when necessary.

Schedule flexibility to work on the days off given by the wellness Policy when necessary (Política de Bienestar).

Internal and External Contacts/Customers

Will interface with other Shared Services functions, Business CFOs/Finance Business Partners and 3rd party service providers.

According to the company policies, the candidate must prove that there are no situations that generate a conflict of interest (COI) for the company. The non-existence of COI is considered as an objective requirement of the position. To know beforehand the weightings of COI contained in the policies of the company, consult the Human Resources Department.

AstraZeneca is an equal opportunity employer. AstraZeneca will consider all qualified applicants for employment without discrimination on grounds of disability, sex or sexual orientation, pregnancy or maternity leave status, race or national or ethnic origin, age, religion or belief, gender identity or re-assignment, marital or civil partnership status, protected veteran status (if applicable) or any other characteristic protected by law. AstraZeneca only employs individuals with the right to work in the country/ies where the role is advertised.

Date Posted

Closing Date

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.