【Alexion Japan】CRM Platform Lead

Job purpose

Alexion's mission is to transform the lives of people affected by rare diseases and devastating conditions through science, innovation, and deep customer understanding. As part of AstraZeneca, Alexion Japan is advancing this mission by strengthening commercial and medical capabilities, improving the quality of customer engagement, and enabling field teams with reliable, compliant, and insight-driven digital platforms.

The Customer Experience & IT function partners with Alexion Japan business, medical, regional/global IT, and external partners to shape and operate CRM capabilities that support Alexion's strategic priorities in Japan. The role holder will maximize the business value of Alexion Japan by ensuring that CRM platforms and related digital capabilities are aligned with business needs, global standards, local compliance requirements, and sustainable operational practices.

The CRM Platform Lead for Alexion, Alexion Japan will serve as the focal point for Alexion CRM and customer engagement platform needs. The role will partner with business and medical stakeholders to understand strategic, market, and operational needs, translate them into effective processes and technical solutions, and maintain accountability for platform roadmaps, implementation planning, technical delivery, production support, vendor management, and continuous improvement.

This platform is used primarily by Alexion Japan field-facing teams, including Sales, Medical, and related customer-facing roles, and must support high-quality engagement with healthcare professionals and other relevant stakeholders while meeting AstraZeneca and Alexion governance, quality, security, privacy, and compliance expectations.

Role and Responsibilities

Maximize business value through CRM strategy, platform leadership, and delivery of Alexion Japan customer engagement capabilities.

Lead projects aligned with AstraZeneca and Alexion's future CRM strategy, including new platform introduction, platform migration, operating model evolution, and the advancement of AI-enabled CRM capabilities where applicable.

Act as the primary IT partner for Alexion Japan CRM-related needs, working closely with business, medical, local CX & IT, regional/global commercial IT, and relevant governance teams.

Lead the IT planning process for accountable systems and new business requirements, ensuring strong business cases, clear prioritization, and alignment with Alexion Japan business strategy.

Analyze business requirements and translate them into improved processes, technical solutions, platform enhancements, and delivery plans that support business transformation and operational excellence.

Develop service transition plans to ensure delivered solutions are sustainable in the production environment, including controlled handover to operational support teams.

Initiate, lead, and support IT projects in accordance with project objectives, timelines, budget expectations, risk management, and quality requirements.

Ensure adherence to AstraZeneca and Alexion global IT policies, standards, SOPs, quality, privacy, security, compliance, defined technical capabilities, and best practices.

Platform Management

Oversee day-to-day operations of the CRM platform, including Veeva CRM, Salesforce platform components, and relevant Veeva Vault integrations or services used by Alexion Japan Commercial and Medical teams.

Ensure platform availability, performance, reliability, data quality, and operational stability in partnership with operational support teams and vendors.

Implement standard methodologies for platform maintenance, release management, optimization, and continuous improvement from a technical perspective.

Collaborate with Alexion Japan business units, medical teams, CRM managers, and local/global stakeholders to understand needs and prioritize platform enhancements.

Ensure adherence to best practices in platform configuration, development, customization, testing, documentation, and deployment.

Manage and document platform changes, ensuring appropriate impact assessment, testing, approval, communication, and release control to avoid disruption to ongoing operations.

Implement and carry out organizational change processes and policies, including user adoption, stakeholder communication, and operational readiness activities.

Create, maintain, and execute CRM platform roadmaps that support Alexion Japan business priorities and AstraZeneca global direction.

Vendor Management

Maintain vendor engagement ownership for CRM platform strategy, vendor roadmaps, delivery quality, and alignment with Alexion Japan Commercial and Medical business needs.

Maintain accountability for third-party supplier performance, issue resolution, service improvement, and impact assessment to drive better outcomes from external delivery sources.

Partner with procurement, finance, legal, privacy, security, and governance stakeholders where required for contracts, changes, renewals, compliance reviews, and service performance management.

Education, Qualifications and Experiences

Graduate degree and relevant work experience in computer science, information systems, business technology, or a related discipline.

10+ years of experience in a similar or related role, with a proven track record of delivering results and connecting technology capabilities with business benefit and value.

Proven experience in IT projects, deployment, operation, and maintenance related to commercial or medical field systems in global companies.

Experience applying business analysis techniques to enable business change, process improvement, or complex system operations.

Experience in business demand intake, solution selection, implementation, platform operation, and continuous Kaizen.

CRM platform management and development experience, preferably in life sciences, specialty care, rare disease, or similarly regulated environments.

Veeva CRM and Veeva Vault certification or equivalent hands-on experience with large-scale implementation, configuration, integration, and support.

Salesforce Platform certification or equivalent expertise in advanced custom solutions, platform architecture, and new capability design.

Expertise in web and mobile application engineering, integration, release management, and production support.

Project management experience with internal IT teams, business stakeholders, medical stakeholders, regional/global teams, and external vendors.

Strong engagement, communication, facilitation, and stakeholder management skills, including executive-level presentation capability.

Native or business-level Japanese.

Business-level English, including meeting facilitation and collaboration with regional/global teams.

Growth mindset, strong team orientation, and commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and cross-functional collaboration.

Preferred Skills and Capabilities

Fundamental knowledge of budgetary control, activity planning/control, commercial operations, and medical engagement processes.

Business acumen, business process management, customer focus, stakeholder management, and ability to translate strategic needs into practical technology outcomes.

Experience with cloud-based services, data platforms, integration services, analytics, and AI-enabled digital capabilities.

Understanding of pharmaceutical, specialty care, rare disease, or highly regulated customer engagement models is preferred.

Ability to work effectively in cross-functional and matrix environments, while also working independently with limited supervision.

Ability to perform successfully under pressure in a fast-paced environment with tight timelines and evolving priorities.

ITIL certification or equivalent experience in service management, incident/problem/change management, and operational excellence.

Key Relationships to reach solutions

Alexion Japan