Senior Manager, NPI Finance & Strategic Initiatives (Greater Chicago Area)

Senior Manager, NPI Finance & Strategic Initiatives

Intepros' valued client in the Chicago, IL area is in need of a talented Senior Manager, NPI Finance & Strategic Initiatives, this is a great, fulltime role with a true leading in the Pharma Manufacturing industry!

Position Summary

The Senior Manager, NPI Finance & Strategic Initiatives is a Finance Operations leader responsible for providing financial governance, decision support and performance visibility across selected New Product Introductions (NPI), major customer awards and other high-priority strategic initiatives .

Reporting to the Director, Business Performance, this role partners across Segment Finance, Commercial, Operations, Technical Operations, Quality, Supply Chain, Accounting, IT and program teams to connect business-case assumptions with execution and financial results.

The Senior Manager will provide visibility from initial award and investment decision through implementation, launch, revenue realization and sustainable profitability. While operational and program teams retain execution ownership, this position provides the financial rigor, cross-functional coordination, challenge and executive insight needed to ensure the client's most important growth initiatives deliver against their approved economics.

An important initial priority will be establishing standardized project coding, accounting methodologies, ERP requirements and reporting processes that enable reliable program-level P&L and profitability visibility across the organization.

Success in this role will be measured by stronger program economics, improved accountability, earlier identification of risks, better award-to-revenue conversion and transparent delivery against approved business cases.

Core Accountabilities

1. NPI Financial Leadership & Governance — 35%

Lead financial governance and performance management for selected NPI programs across the client's businesses.

• Partner with program and operational leaders from award through launch and stabilization, ensuring financial requirements are incorporated into program plans.
• Establish appropriate project coding, accounting treatment, financial baselines and reporting requirements at program inception.
• Create visibility into key milestones, resource requirements, investment needs, revenue timing, margin development and cash implications.
• Monitor performance against approved business cases and identify delays, scope changes, cost under-recovery and other emerging risks.
• Quantify the financial impact of program risks and changes and support corrective actions and escalation as needed.
• Constructively challenge assumptions and ensure financial implications are understood before key decisions are made.
• Prepare concise executive-level NPI reviews highlighting performance, risks, decisions, ownership and required actions.

Primary objective: Ensure priority NPI programs move from award to launch with strong financial discipline, transparency and accountability.

2. Strategic Initiatives & Value Realization — 25%

Provide financial leadership for major customer awards, integrated cross-segment programs and other enterprise strategic initiatives.

• Develop and challenge business cases, scenario models and investment evaluations.
• Assess assumptions, sensitivities, risks, returns and alternative scenarios.
• Establish financial and operational benefit baselines and track performance against approved business cases.
• Monitor costs, timing, revenue, margin and expected value realization.
• Identify value leakage, performance gaps and changes to expected economics.
• Ensure risks and corrective actions are visible to accountable business leaders.
• Support prioritization decisions based on strategic importance, customer commitments, execution capacity and financial return.
• Partner with Finance Operations leadership on broader value-creation and long-range planning priorities.

Primary objective: Ensure strategic initiatives deliver their expected financial and business outcomes.

3. Award-to-Revenue & Program Profitability — 25%

Create financial transparency from commercial award through revenue realization and targeted profitability.

• Maintain visibility into major customer awards, implementation status, expected revenue phasing and critical dependencies.
• Partner with Segment Finance Leads to assess revenue, contribution margin, capital, working-capital, capacity and resource implications.
• Connect commercial assumptions with operational readiness to identify risks to launch timing, revenue conversion and profitability.
• Identify opportunities to accelerate revenue realization and improve award-to-revenue conversion.
• Support recovery of agreed customer costs and protection of program economics.
• Establish consistent program-level reporting that connects operational milestones with financial performance.
• Surface risks to revenue, margin and cash early enough to enable corrective action.

Primary objective: Improve the speed, predictability and profitability of converting awarded business into sustainable revenue.

4. NPI Finance Capability, Systems & Change Management — 15%

Build a scalable financial framework for NPI and strategic initiatives.

• Establish standardized NPI coding, project structures and data requirements across segments and ERP environments.
• Partner with Accounting and Finance leaders to align methodologies for revenue recognition, cost accounting, capitalization, accruals and NPI-related fees.
• Define requirements for program-level revenue, cost, margin, profitability and P&L reporting.
• Partner with Accounting, Segment Finance, Corporate FP&A, Business Process Optimization and IT to implement required ERP configurations, reporting solutions and process controls.
• Establish practical interim reporting solutions while progressing toward a scalable, system-enabled reporting model.
• Lead Finance Operations change management, including process adoption, training, governance and consistent use of new standards.
• Drive adoption of common definitions and reporting practices across the organization.

Primary objective: Build the accounting, data, process and systems foundation required for reliable NPI profitability reporting and decision support.

Measures of Success

Success in this position will be demonstrated through:

• Improved financial visibility and predictability across priority NPI and strategic programs.
• Earlier identification and resolution of financial, commercial and operational risks.
• Improved conversion of awarded business into revenue and targeted profitability.
• Clear tracking of actual performance against approved business cases.
• Greater transparency into program costs, investment, margins and value realization.
• Consistent, decision-oriented executive reporting.
• Strong collaboration and accountability across Finance, Commercial, Operations and program teams.
• Successful implementation and adoption of standardized NPI finance and reporting processes.

Professional Experience & Qualifications

Required Qualifications

• 8+ years of progressive experience in operational finance, commercial finance, FP&A, strategic finance, program finance or a comparable discipline.
• Experience supporting complex, cross-functional programs within an international, multi-site or matrixed organization.
• Strong financial modeling, business-case development and scenario-analysis capabilities.
• Demonstrated ability to connect operational milestones and business risks with revenue, margin, cash flow, capital requirements and investment returns .
• Experience evaluating program performance against financial commitments and identifying risks to expected economics.
• Strong executive communication and presentation skills, with the ability to translate complex financial and operational information into clear decisions and actions.
• Demonstrated ability to influence senior stakeholders, challenge assumptions constructively and drive accountability without direct authority.
• Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, Business, Engineering, Life Sciences or a related field.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience within a pharmaceutical CDMO, pharmaceutical manufacturing, life sciences or another complex, capital-intensive and regulated manufacturing environment.
• Experience supporting New Product Introductions, technology transfers, major customer programs, capital investments, project governance or enterprise transformation initiatives .
• Experience defining Finance requirements for ERP systems, project coding, program-level P&L reporting and financial process changes .
• Understanding of revenue recognition, cost accounting, capitalization, accruals and project/program accounting concepts.
• Professional finance certification, advanced degree or relevant program/project-management qualification.

Leadership Profile

The successful candidate will be:

• Enterprise-minded: Connects Commercial, Operations, Finance and program teams around common business and financial outcomes.
• Financially rigorous: