Process Analysis & Adoption Lead

Role DescriptionSenior Principal Scientist - Process Analysis & Adoption (PAA) Lead - VMRD Automation & Data SciencesZoetis is the global leader in animal health, manufacturing innovative pharmaceutical products across the full spectrum of veterinary care. To secure our future and accelerate innovation, we are advancing bold, enterprise-wide data and digital transformation, empowering faster decisions, and better solutions for animals worldwide.Within Veterinary Medicine Research & Development (VMRD), we are reimagining how science is done in a digital-first world. By executing our data and digital strategy, we will unlock new value for our colleagues, Zoetis, and our customers. It is an exciting time to join the Automation and Data Sciences (ADS) group in VMRD to lead this transformation.Position SummaryIn close partnership with scientific, clinical, and regulatory stakeholders, this role will lead a team that evaluates, optimizes, and drives adoption of cross-functional R&D processes to accelerate discovery through development and serve as the connection between scientists, ADS technical teams, Zoetis Tech & Digital (ZTD), and external services.The role owns the end-to-end process improvement and change adoption portfolio, from discovery and analysis through solution definition, delivery readiness, training, and benefits realization, ensuring solutions are business-led, user-centered, and measurably improve cycle time, quality, compliance, and reuse of scientific data. The ideal candidate blends process excellence and change leadership with business analysis rigor, translating lab and study needs into actionable requirements and adoption plans at scale.This role emphasizes leadership in collaboration, change management, and cross-functional innovation to enhance Zoetis' ability to deliver innovative therapeutics, vaccines, biodevices, and diagnostics.Essential Duties and ResponsibilitiesEvolve and lead the PAA team (process analysts, change/adoption specialists, and business analysts), fostering a culture of curiosity, delivery excellence, and continuous improvement.Define team operating norms, roles, responsibilities, and quality standards; manage PAA capacity, assignments, and workload across initiatives.Own the VMRD process analysis and adoption portfolio: prioritize opportunities with scientific leaders; define scope, success metrics, and sequencing; manage benefits tracking and reporting.Lead structured process discovery and optimization with an Agile methodology focus:Define epics and user stories, mapping current/future states, quantifying constraints, and designing right-sized interventions.Ensure relevant source materials (e.g., SOPs, templates, worksheets, reports, system references) are gathered before workshops and discovery sessions; distinguish what can be learned from documentation vs. direct stakeholder engagement.Establish a practical adoption planning approach aligned with product discovery, delivery, release, and post-launch support; ensure post-launch feedback is captured and used to improve adoption and future iterations.Identify impacted stakeholder groups, readiness concerns, adoption barriers, training needs, and communication needs early enough to influence product and delivery decisions.Drive cross-use-case pattern recognition so process learnings and adoption insights are reusable across products and future workstreams.Drive business analysis for digital and lab automation initiatives:Elicit, synthesize, and validate user stories and acceptance criteria. Ensure that acceptance criteria align with FAIR principles, where pertinent. Partner with internal ADS product owners, data/automation engineers, ZTD, and external implementation partners (technical consultants and product leads) to shape feasible, scalable solutions and ensure clear delineation of responsibilities between internal teams and vendor resources. Partner with business leads to define Key Performance Indicators to quantify, where practical, the benefits of digital investments.Orchestrate adoption and change management:Create stakeholder analyses, communications, training curricula, and hypercare plans.Establish and run communities of practice and role-based enablement.Monitor adoption KPIs (e.g., activation, engagement, task success) and remove barriers to usage.Establish and maintain standard PAA templates, methods, and deliverables (e.g., stakeholder maps, data source capture templates, process documentation, adoption plans, readiness assessments, risk logs, feedback summaries); ensure consistent use and storage in the agreed source of truth.Define and implement success metrics and measurement plans for each initiative (e.g., cycle time deltas, documentation touch time, error/redo rates, compliance conformance, data completeness/lineage).In coordination with Quality and Compliance, ensure processes and supporting digital solutions meet relevant regulatory and quality expectations (e.g., GxP contexts, data integrity) where applicable.Partner with program management to align dependencies, risks, and milestones; ensure readiness for deployment (process, people, and data) and smooth handoffs to operations.Maintain a living library of instructional materials supporting digital initiatives in the appropriate location to ensure access, continuity and audit compliance. Scan industry trends and benchmark best practices in lab digitalization, data capture/visualization, and scientific workflow optimization; pilot and scale high-ROI innovations.Coach and mentor PAA specialists and cross-functional colleagues; elevate organizational capabilities in process thinking, requirements discipline, and adoption planning.RequirementsEducation: Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field (e.g., life sciences, engineering, operations research, information systems, or related). Advanced degree preferred.Experience:10+ years in process analysis/improvement and adoption within life sciences or adjacent regulated R&D environments; 3+ years in a people-leadership role.5+ years applying Agile methodologies in an R&D product/platform context, including defining epics and user stories, writing acceptance criteria, partnering with product owners, and maintaining backlog hygiene to drive iterative delivery.Demonstrated delivery of multi-team process/digital transformations from discovery through adoption with quantifiable business outcomes.Hands-on business analysis experience - requirements elicitation, process/data modeling, and backlog refinement; proficient in defining epics, user stories, and acceptance criteria.Methodologies and Skills:Strong command of Agile/Scrum (user stories, backlog refinement, acceptance criteria), familiarity with Waterfall/SDLC, proficiency in requirements elicitation and documentation (BRDs/FRDs, BPMN/UML, use cases), process mapping , stakeholder management and facilitation (workshops, interviews), testing support (UAT planning/execution, defect triage).Exceptional stakeholder engagement, facilitation, and communication skills; able to translate between scientific and technical domains and influence without authority.Strong change management toolkit (e.g., PROSCI/ADKAR or equivalent) and learning design principles for training and enablement.Experience using facilitation and documentation tools (e.g., Miro, structured discovery templates, process maps, stakeholder maps, journey maps, adoption plans, shared documentation repositories).Familiarity with scientific workflows and tools (e.g., material registration, ELN/LIMS, instrument data capture, data analysis lab automation) and FAIR data practices supporting use of these workflows and tools. Analytical rigor with comfort in defining practical KPIs, baselines, and benefits realization based on available data; fluency with process mapping and requirements tools.Experience with Lean/Six Sigma; certification preferred.Familiarity with data products, analytics/reporting workflows, source system discovery, data capture templates, metadata, data quality and lineage, and source-of-truth concepts.Work style:Organized, resilient, and delivery-focused; adept at navigating ambiguity, managing multiple initiatives, and operating across matrixed teams.Full timeRegularColleagueAny unsolicited resumes sent to Zoetis from a third party, such as an Agency recruiter, including unsolicited resumes sent to a Zoetis mailing address, fax machine or email address, directly to Zoetis employees, or to Zoetis resume database will be considered Zoetis property. Zoetis will NOT pay a fee for any placement resulting from the receipt of an unsolicited resume.Zoetis will consider any candidate for whom an Agency has submitted an unsolicited resume to have been referred by the Agency free of any charges or fees. This includes any Agency that is an approved/engaged vendor but does not have the appropriate approvals to be engaged on a search.Notice: Zoetis Recruiters will contact candidates via email from an address ending in @zoetis.com and may also initially connect with candidates through LinkedIn, including LinkedIn InMail. Zoetis does not use Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, or other web-based/generic email domains to communicate about job opportunities, interviews, or offers of employment. If you receive a recruitment-related email message claiming to be from Zoetis that does not come from @zoetis.com, please treat it as suspicious. For your security, do not reply, click links, open attachments, share personal or financial information, or send money in response to unexpected or questionable recruitment communications.Zoetis is committed to equal opportunity in the terms and conditions of employment for all employees and job applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, gender identity or gender expression, national origin, disability or veteran status or any other protected classification. Disabled individuals are given an equal opportunity to use our online application system. We offer reasonable accommodations as an alternative if requested by an individual with a disability. Please contact Zoetis Colleague Services at View email address on click.appcast.io to request an accommodation. Zoetis also complies with all applicable national, state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment as well as employment eligibility verification requirements of the Immigration and Nationality Act. All applicants must possess or obtain authorization to work in the US for Zoetis. Zoetis retains sole and exclusive discretion to pursue sponsorship for the acquisition or maintenance of nonimmigrant status and employment eligibility, considering factors such as availability of qualified US workers. Individuals requiring sponsorship must disclose this fact. Please note that Zoetis seeks information related to job applications from candidates for jobs in the U.S. solely via the following: (1) our company website at site, or (2) via email to/from addresses using only the Zoetis domain of “@zoetis.com”. In addition, Zoetis does not use Google Hangout for any recruitment related activities. Any solicitation or request for information related to job applications with Zoetis via any other means and/or utilizing email addresses with any other domain should be disregarded. In addition, Zoetis will never ask candidates to make any type of personal financial investment related to gaining employment with Zoetis.SummaryLocation: Kalamazoo - Downtown Portage Street; US MI RemoteType: Full time