Job Description

Role Title : Lead Engineer - SAP Analytics Platform Engineer
Location: Chennai
We are one purpose-led global organisation. The enablers and innovators, ensuring that we can fulfil our mission to push the boundaries of science and discover and develop life-changing medicines. We take pride in working close to the cause, opening the locks to save lives, ultimately making an extensive difference to the outside world.
AstraZeneca (AZ) is in a period of strong growth and our employees have a united purpose to make a difference to patients around the world who need both our medicines and the ongoing developments from our science. In this journey AZ must continue to work across borders and with partners and new colleagues in a fast and flawless way. The ambition, size and complexity of the organisation, coupled with the opportunities afforded by new technology, has led the Board to approve a large-scale transformation programme - Axial.
The Axial Programme will be powered by S/4HANA a new ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system which will be implemented right across the organisation and will provide our business with standardised processes, enhanced financial management, common data and real time reporting, transforming the way we work through our entire supply chain - from bench to patient.
The new system will be used by more than 20,000 employees daily, is foundational to all AZ entities and is central to most core business processes. This is a once in a generation programme for AstraZeneca and will shape our ways of working globally for many years to come.
The Axial programme needs the best talent to work in it. Whether it's the technical skills, business understanding or change leadership, we want to ensure we have the strongest team deployed throughout. We are aiming to deliver a best-in-class change programme that leaves all employees with a fuller understanding of their role in the end-to-end nature of our global company. This programme will provide AZ with a competitive edge, to the benefit of our employees, customers and patients.
What you'll do
The SAP Datasphere and SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC) Platform Lead Engineer is responsible for designing, operating, and continuously improving the enterprise data and analytics connectivity layer across SAP and non-SAP ecosystems. This role leads the end-to-end integration architecture, security, performance, and reliability of live and acquired data flows between SAP S/4HANA, Datasphere, SAC, and external sources. The engineer defines standards, automates deployment and monitoring, and partners with security, network, and analytics teams to deliver trusted, governed, and performant data for reporting, planning, and sophisticated analytics.

• Platform ownership: Lead the build and run of SAP Datasphere and SAC connectivity, data integration pipelines, and modeling standards.
• Architecture and design: Define integration patterns (live, federated, acquired), connectivity topologies (Cloud Connector, SDI/SDQ), and performance optimization (pushdown, caching).
• Security and compliance: Govern SSO/SAML, trusted connections, roles/authorizations, and data protection aligned to enterprise policies.
• Reliability and operations: Implement end-to-end monitoring, alerting, SLAs, runbooks, and incident/problem management for connectors, agents, and data pipelines.
• Collaboration and leadership: Partner with SAP functional teams, data/analytics, network/security, and business partners; mentor engineers and implement standards.

Essential for the role

• 12-15 years in analytics/data, with at least 2-3 years in a SAC/Datasphere-focused Platform/Engineering role delivering solutions.
• Platform engineering and modelling: Lead Datasphere space/design modelling (semantic, fact/dimension, associations, hierarchies, measures) with strong performance optimization, cost control, and pipeline orchestration (federation, query pushdown).
• SAC solutions and usability: Deliver high-quality SAC stories, input templates, Analytics Designer apps, and guided workflows, emphasizing usability, governance, and performance; handle live/import models and secure refresh scheduling.
• Enterprise connectivity and security: Own live/acquired connectivity across S/4HANA, Datasphere, and non-SAP sources using Cloud Connector, Destination service, OData/JDBC, SDI/SDQ, remote tables; implement SSO/SAML, trusted connections, RBAC, and compliance.
• Operations, monitoring, and resilience: Establish observability (health checks, alerts), error handling, auto-recovery, and operations dedicated to meeting service commitments; optimize performance via partitioning, caching, and connectivity tuning.
• Governance and quality assurance: Define standards, naming conventions, data lineage, Data products and catalog/metadata,; drive testing (strategy, UAT, performance), defect management, and produce architecture/design documentation, runbooks, and user guides.
• DevOps and lifecycle management: Handle environment promotion (dev/test/prod), transport/deployment tooling, dependencies, and release readiness; supervise incident, problem, and change management.
• Stakeholder engagement and troubleshooting: Translate senior partner requirements, prioritize value, and drive adoption; perform root-cause analysis across network/security/SAP basis/Datasphere/SAC with good communication and diagnostic skills.
• SAP Coordination: Manage SAP OSS notes, service requests, and vendor engagements; evaluate and roll out feature packs and roadmap items.
• FinOps and cost optimization: Implement cloud cost governance for Datasphere and SAC, including usage analytics, right?sizing, tagging/chargeback, budget forecasting, and cost guardrails; drive performance-to-cost optimization.
• License management and entitlement governance: Administer SAC license allocations (BI, Planning) and Datasphere capacity; supervise active vs dormant users, reclaim and reassign entitlements, ensure compliance with contract terms, and report license utilization and optimization opportunities to leadership.

Desirable for the role

• FP&A and finance: Exposure to budgeting, forecasting, scenario planning, S/4HANA Finance, PAPM, or legacy BPC, Hyperion migrations.
• Sophisticated performance: Query pushdown strategies, partitioning, caching, and optimization of data actions and story responsiveness.
• Data engineering: Experience with Python & SQL scripting, data pipelines/ETL, CDC, and orchestration across hybrid landscapes; understanding slowly changing dimensions and surrogate key management.
• SAC Smart Predict: Practical use of forecasting and augmentation for analytics and planning.
• Data products: Building business models, publishing governed datasets, and catalog/lineage practices.
• Enablement: Developing training, adoption plans, and coaching for planners/reporting users; establishing communities of practice.
• Certifications: SAP SAC and SAP Datasphere certifications.
• Leadership: Prior experience leading multi-functional teams and vendors, mentoring, and establishing a high-performing delivery culture

Why AstraZeneca?
At Astrazeneca we're dedicated to being a phenomenal Place to Work. Where you are empowered to push the boundaries of science and unleash your entrepreneurial spirit. There's no better place to make a difference to medicine, patients and society. An inclusive culture that champions diversity and collaboration, and always committed to lifelong learning, growth and development. We're on an exciting journey to pioneer the future of healthcare.
So, what's next?

• Are you already imaging yourself joining our team? Good, because we can't wait to hear from you.
• Are you ready to bring new insights and fresh thinking to the table? Hard-working! We have one seat available and hope its yours
• If you're curious to know more then we welcome your application no later than

Where can I find out more?
Our Social Media, Follow AstraZeneca on LinkedIn
Follow AstraZeneca on Facebook
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Date Posted 10-Jan-2026
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.

Skills Required