Associate Director, R&D Project Finance

Role Description

The Associate Director, R&D Project Finance is accountable for the integrated financial management of the R&D project portfolio, providing a single, coherent financial view across the full project lifecycle, including early development, clinical trials, CMC, and enabling activities. The role combines financial control, structured planning, and forward-looking insight, ensuring that R&D project financials are both accurate and governed, while also enabling clear, decision-ready analysis to support portfolio-level investment decisions.

Operating at the centre of R&D finance, the role drives alignment, consistency, and quality of financial outputs across project finance activities. This includes delivering robust forecasting, scenario analysis, and financial interpretation to support R&D Leadership, Project Teams, and Global Finance in understanding cost drivers, risks, and trade-offs. This position has direct line-management accountability for Clinical Trial Finance and Early Development Project Finance teams.

Qualifications

• Substantial experience in accounting and/or finance related positions.
• Experience in pharmaceutical or biotech is essential.
• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, or a related field. MBA or advanced degree is a plus.
• Advanced financial modeling and analytical skills.
• Ability to work independently with minimal supervision.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Excel and applicable financial systems and software applications. Knowledge of Oracle is a plus.
• In-depth knowledge of accounting principles, financial statement analysis, and management reporting.
• Excellent communication, presentation, and interpersonal skills.
• Strong stakeholder relationship management skills.
• Strong attention to detail, problem-solving abilities, and a results-driven mindset.

Requirements

• Ensure consistent and integrated financial management across R&D projects, spanning early development through clinical execution.
• Drive alignment and integration of financial planning and reporting across R&D projects into a single, coherent project and portfolio-level financial view.
• Provide portfolio-level oversight of financial control across R&D projects, ensuring alignment of spend with contracts, policies, and accounting standards.
• Ensure the accuracy, completeness, and integrity of financial outputs, including oversight of accruals and allocations, actuals reporting and close processes, and alignment between actuals, forecast, and budget.
• Maintain a robust control environment, ensuring consistency, compliance, and audit readiness across R&D Project Finance.
• Deliver clear, decision-ready financial insights across R&D projects, including forecasts and full lifecycle cost views, key cost drivers and trends, and risks and opportunities.
• Support scenario modelling and financial analysis by providing accurate, integrated project-level financial data and assumptions.
• Ensure modelling inputs are robust, consistent, and aligned to underlying financial drivers, enabling effective portfolio-level decision-making by R&I and Finance Business Partnering teams.
• Contribute to the interpretation of modelling outputs, ensuring alignment with financial actuals, forecasts, and project-level realities.
• Ensure financial alignment across the full R&D lifecycle, connecting early development, clinical trials, CMC, and enabling activities.
• Provide a single, integrated financial perspective across the R&D portfolio, supporting consistent planning, prioritisation, and decision-making.
• Act as subject matter expert for R&D Project Finance systems (e.g. Oracle), ensuring effective use of structured financial data as the primary source of truth.
• Interpret and challenge system-generated outputs, ensuring alignment between operational activity and financial reporting.
• Translate system-based planning and reporting into meaningful financial insight and decision support.
• Drive standardisation and continuous improvement of project finance processes across the R&D organisation.
• Enhance consistency, transparency, and scalability of financial management practices, supporting efficient and reliable delivery of outputs.
• Identify opportunities to improve processes and ways of working, reducing manual effort and increasing consistency across projects and teams.
• Support the evolution of R&D project finance through improved use of financial systems, automation, advanced analytics and emerging AI capabilities.
• Apply these capabilities in practical ways to improve forecasting accuracy and consistency, enhance identification of risks, trends, and anomalies and strengthen the quality and timeliness of financial insight.
• Ensure that technology and AI are used to support better financial management and decision-making, rather than as standalone initiatives.
• Act as senior Finance lead across R&D project governance forums, ensuring financial alignment to portfolio decisions and priorities.
• Provide leadership across Clinical Trial Finance and Early Development Project Finance teams, ensuring consistency of approach, visibility of performance, and high-quality financial support across the full project lifecycle.
• Lead and develop the R&D Project Finance team, ensuring high-quality, consistent, and structured outputs.
• Ensure alignment to enterprise standards and continuous development of team capability.
• Other duties as assigned.

Benefits

• Medical, dental and vision insurance.
• Retirement savings plan.
• Flexible paid vacation.