AstraZeneca
Sr. Scientist / APS, Data Compliance & Governance Management
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Sr. Scientist / APS, Data Compliance & Governance Management
Transfer Readiness Analyst – Cross-Border Data Access
About The Beijing AI Center
The Beijing AI Center is a strategic investment by AstraZeneca to accelerate AI-driven drug discovery. It combines AI researchers, computational scientists, and platform engineers to apply advanced technologies (e.g., foundation models, agentic AI) to real R&D challenges in biologics discovery, computational chemistry, and AI-driven research.
The center focuses on three key areas:
- Discovery verticals (therapeutic design & preclinical predictions)
- Data & AI Platforms
- Ecosystem partnerships with leading Chinese academic institutions and AI companies.
The team operates at the intersection of global AstraZeneca data access and local AI-driven innovation in China.
Accountabilities
This role ensures secure, compliant, and efficient cross-border data transfer into China for the Beijing AI Center. Key responsibilities include:
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Addressing the operational gap between data requests and formal approvals, ensuring incoming data assets are:
- Assessed for regulatory compliance (e.g., DOJ EO 14117)
- Properly scoped and decision-ready
- Auditable and accessible for AI-driven research
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Primary data flow: Transferring global AstraZeneca R&D assets (molecular libraries, assay data, omics datasets, compound data, clinical datasets) to the Beijing AI Center.
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Focus: Not final approval but first-pass triage—streamlining the process while maintaining compliance with exports controls, personal data protections, and internal AstraZeneca policies.
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Future-proofing: This role stabilizes the current process while building a scalable, global cross-border data-sharing model.
What You Will Do
1. Transfer Readiness & First-Pass Triage
- Design and automate intake processes for cross-border data requests:
- Define request workflows, prioritization, routing logic, and queue management
- Perform mandatory first-pass triage for China or high-risk requests
- Check completeness of requests, including:
- Business justification
- Recipient details
- Intended use
- Data source & format
- Issue triage recommendations (in scope, out of scope, or ambiguous) with supporting rationale.
- Escalate complex cases to R&D Data Office, SMEs, and designated approvers.
- Manage DOJ EO 14117 compliance for CRO orders, assessing thresholds and classifications.
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2. Provenance Tracing, Annotation & Metadata Coordination
- Trace legacy or undocumented data assets by reviewing records across platforms.
- Ensure complete metadata is collected and standardized to support cross-border transfer.
- Partner with bioinformatics/expert teams to resolve gaps in:
- Data history
- Ownership context
- Scientific provenance
- Differentiate between new/well-annotated vs. legacy/incomplete data for tailored workflows.
3. Data Curation & China-Readiness
- Curate and annotate scientific data into standardized formats (e.g., structural @GDB, SMD).
- Support both biologics & small molecules, applying appropriate ontologies and structured metadata.
- Collaborate with domain scientists to resolve data gaps before transfer.
4. Workflow Management & Process Improvement
- Prepare structured evidence packages for approval bodies (Data Owners, Data Stewards, approvers).
- Track the interim data-sharing process from intake through transfer validation.
- Coordinate execution with cross-border teams, ensuring dependency tracking and compliance documentation.
- Capture recurring issues to inform a future scalable data-sharing solution.
- Standardize templates, checklists, SOPs, and audit pathogenesis.
5. Cross-Functional Partnership & Training
- Collaborate with R&D Data Office to define eligible/scoped data transfers.
- Work with Privacy & Compliance to align returns assessments.
- Build technical fluency across biologics, small molecules, and safety systems.
- Educate business scientists on:
- Transfer readiness requirements
- Metadata best practices
- Reduce ad hoc burdens on researchers by centralizing compliance preparation.
Essential Skills & Experience
- Education: BSc/MSc or equivalent in life sciences, bioinformatics or data governance (preferred).
- Experience: 4+ years in pharmaceutical/biotech R&D data environments.
- Core expertise in:
- Data stewardship, governance, or regulatory data operations
- Cross-border transfers, U.S. export controls (preferably DOJ EO 14117)
- Privacy or compliance preparation before data processing
- Technical & Regulatory Depth:
- Understands DOJ bulk Sensitive Personal Data rules at working level.
- Fluency with structural/biomolecular data formats (e.g., PDB, GDB).
- Works across biologics, small molecules, clinical, omics, and safety data.
- Employs strong analytical rigour for threshold calculations and jurisdiction mapping.
- Soft Skills:
- Stakeholder management across AI, scientific, legal, and compliance teams.
- Structured documentation and audit mindset.
- Comfort with ambiguity (navigating evolving regulatory frameworks).
- Enablement mindset—prioritizing creative solutions over barriers.
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Desirable Skills & Experience
- PhD in a relevant scientific or data field.
- Experience in both discovery-stage and later-stage R&D data environments.
- Exposure to Chinese data laws (DSL framework, trade controls).
- Hands-on experience with:
- DOJ EO 14117 frameworks
- Privacy-enhancing tech (e.g., anonymization, differential privacy)
- Secure research solutions (e.g., federated learning, APIs)
- Past involvement in China-focused R&D operations or global data access coordination.
Mindset (What Drives Us)
- "Comfortable with ambiguity"—fragmented frameworks are the norm.
- "Do the right work before the big decisions"—prep thorough documentation.
- "Bring comfort to confusion"—build clarity, repeatable processes.
- "Think globally, act locally"—Coordinate across time zones and disciplines.
Call to Action
If you enjoy bridging complex regulations into practical pathways and want to shape an AI-powered future of drug discovery, we want to hear how you would tackle this challenge.
🚀 Location: Residential reassignment to Beijing, China (role eligible for relocation). ⏳ Posting Date: 01 July 2026 ⏰ Closing Date: 15 July 2026
Our Commitment: AstraZeneca foster inclusivity, equity, and accessibility in recruitment. Reasonable accommodations are provided during the application process—please disclose your needs during submission.
Join us in transforming data complexity into strategic clarity for a richer scientific future in China.
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