Director, Human Resources

Are you ready to shape a high-performing manufacturing site by turning enterprise people strategy into local impact? Do you thrive in complex, fast-moving environments where your judgment and leadership directly influence how medicines reach patients and how teams succeed?

As the Site HR Lead for the Frederick Manufacturing Center (FMC), you will partner closely with the Vice President and General Manager and the Site Senior Leadership Team to set and deliver the site’s people strategy. This role will also have a dotted line to the Regional HR Lead, acting as a collaborative enterprise leader with a balanced, enterprise and “One HR” perspective.  You will translate enterprise priorities into pragmatic plans that protect continuity, build capability, and accelerate performance—ensuring the right people, in the right roles, with the right skills, at the right time.

This role calls for a strategic leader who can coach, challenge, and convene. You will balance near-term operational needs with mid-term capability building, bring data and digital tools into decisions, and lead your team to drive change that sticks. Your work will build trust on site, strengthen the talent pipeline, and enhance the site’s reputation with local partners.
 

Accountabilities:

• Site People Strategy and Delivery: Define the site’s people strategy and execution plan; own core people processes, standards, and operational plans that enable growth, productivity, innovation, capability, and organizational health.
• Workforce Planning and Resilience: Lead site workforce planning across staffing demand, shift coverage, attrition risks, critical roles, capability gaps, and business continuity; convert insights into practical actions that stabilize and strengthen operations.
• Organization Effectiveness: Diagnose operating challenges and design solutions across structure, manager spans, shift design, governance, role clarity, and ways of working; simplify and improve methods to deliver priorities efficiently and accountably.
• Data-Enabled Decision Making: Use people data on staffing, engagement, attrition, absenteeism, capability, and succession to shape site-level interventions; role-model responsible use of digital tools and emerging technologies to improve outcomes.
• Talent and Succession: Lead talent and succession processes for local leadership and site-critical roles; foster an enterprise-wide view of talent, enabling mobility, development, and retention for today’s needs and tomorrow’s pipeline.
• Transformation and Change Leadership: Drive the people agenda for transformation, including new ways of working, organizational changes, automation impacts, culture shifts, and change adoption; align stakeholders and build manager readiness—even when concepts are new or challenging.
• External Representation and Community Partnerships: Represent the company with government officials, community leaders, educational institutions, and workforce development partners to strengthen the site’s reputation and talent pipeline.
• Leadership Coaching and Governance: Act as a trusted advisor to the Site Leadership Team on leadership effectiveness, team dynamics, manager capability, performance culture, and organizational health; ensure people decisions align with legal, policy, conduct, fairness, and risk standards.
• Team Leadership: Lead, coach, and develop a high-performing team across HR Business Partnering, Communications, and Learning & Development; set direction, build capability, and ensure delivery against strategic priorities.
• One HR Integration: Collaborate across the global HR community; integrate specialist expertise across reward, talent, learning, employee relations, organization design, analytics, and culture; balance site needs with enterprise priorities to deliver coordinated HR support.
• As Needed Delivery: Step in to lead capability building and learning delivery, or provide People Services support where services are not fully available, ensuring seamless employee and manager experience.
   

Essential Skills/Experience:

• Bachelor's degree is required.
• Minimum of 10+ years of progressive Human Resources experience in a large, fast-growth global organization, including experience working in a complex, matrixed environment.
• In office attendance 5 days per week
• Senior HR leadership experience acting as a strategic partner to site leadership, defining and executing a site-level people strategy and owning people processes and standards.
• Demonstrated expertise in site workforce planning, including staffing demand, shift coverage, attrition risk assessment, identification of critical roles and capability gaps, and business continuity planning.
• Proven ability to diagnose and improve organization effectiveness across structure, spans of control, shift design, governance, role clarity, and operating methods.
• Experience leading in a data-rich, AI-enabled environment, using analytics and digital tools to support sound decisions, strengthen workforce outcomes, and promote responsible innovation.
• Track record of leading talent and succession processes for local leadership and site-critical roles, facilitating talent reviews, succession planning, development actions, internal mobility, and retention.
• Demonstrated success leading people aspects of transformation and change, including workforce transitions, automation impacts, culture change, and adoption of new practices; ability to influence skeptical stakeholders.
• Experience representing the company with external stakeholders such as government officials, community leaders, educational institutions, and workforce development partners.
• Strength in people analytics and insight translation, using data on engagement, attrition, absenteeism, capability, and succession to shape site-level priorities and actions.
• Commitment to monitoring employee sentiment and wellbeing, and delivering site-level plans aligned to the broader culture agenda.
• Credibility coaching and influencing senior leaders on leadership effectiveness, team dynamics, manager capability, and performance culture.
• Expertise in people risk and governance, ensuring decisions align with legal requirements, company policies, conduct expectations, fairness principles, and risk standards.
• Outstanding communication, client service, and collaboration skills with a high degree of integrity and accountability.
   

Desirable Skills/Experience:

• Master's degree preferred.
• SHRM-CP / SHRM-SCP certified preferred.
• Proven leadership of a multi-disciplinary HR team (7+), with emphasis on capability building, engagement, accountability, and succession for the HR function.
• HR leadership experience in a manufacturing or 24/7 site environment with shift-based operations.
• Familiarity with Lean and continuous improvement principles and their application to workforce practices.
• Experience deploying digital HR technologies, analytics, and AI-enabled tools to enhance decision-making and manager effectiveness.
• Proven success building external partnerships that strengthen local workforce pipelines and community relationships.
• Evidence of balancing local priorities with enterprise-wide standards and strategies in a matrixed environment.
   

Why AstraZeneca:

Here, your leadership fuels real-world impact. You will help a site that thrives on new ideas and practical problem-solving, where cross-functional teams gather in the same room to test bold thinking, reduce waste, and improve how we deliver medicines. Every day brings variety and challenge, and you will have the support of a collaborative community that values kindness alongside ambition. With a clear commitment to sustainability and a culture where every voice is heard, you will shape a resilient workforce and enable changes that directly benefit patients and the planet.
 

If you are ready to lead the people agenda for a dynamic manufacturing site and turn enterprise strategy into measurable outcomes for our teams and patients, step forward and shape what’s next today.

Date Posted

Closing Date

Our mission is to build an inclusive environment where equal employment opportunities are available to all applicants and employees. In furtherance of that mission, we welcome and consider applications from all qualified candidates, regardless of their protected characteristics. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please complete the corresponding section in the application form.