Senior Manager, Financial Planning & Analysis

Position Title: Senior Manager, FP&A 

Department: Finance 

Reports To: Director, FP&A 

Location: South San Francisco, CA or Princeton, NJ (preferred) – On-site 4 days per week (Mon to Thurs) 

Job Overview  

The Senior Manager, FP&A will play a critical leadership role in driving the company’s financial planning, forecasting, reporting, and performance management activities. This position serves as a strategic business partner to cross-functional leaders, providing financial insights and recommendations that support decision-making, resource allocation, and achievement of business objectives. The role is responsible for leading the budgeting and forecasting processes, overseeing financial performance analysis, ensuring the integrity of financial reporting and planning activities, and continuously enhancing FP&A processes and tools to improve the quality, reliability, and relevance of financial information across the organization.  

Essential Duties and Responsibilities  

• Own and lead the end-to-end budgeting and forecasting processes   

• Lead financial performance tracking, including variance analysis and business metric reporting  

• Provide clear, concise, and insight-driven commentary on financial results  

• Identify key drivers of performance and recommend corrective actions where needed  

• Own FP&A aspects of the close process, ensuring completeness & accuracy of expenses  

• Partner with accounting teams to ensure alignment between reporting and planning  

• Ensure adherence to financial calendars and reporting timelines  

• Improve existing processes to improve reliability and relevance of financial information  

• Own and lead the end-to-end annual budgeting, quarterly forecasting, and long-range planning processes, ensuring alignment with corporate objectives, business strategies, and financial targets.   

• Lead financial performance tracking and reporting activities, including detailed variance analysis, KPI monitoring, trend analysis, and development of business performance dashboards to support management decision-making.   

• Provide clear, concise, and insight-driven commentary on financial results, highlighting key trends, risks, opportunities, and business implications for senior leadership and stakeholders.   

• Analyze and identify key drivers of financial and operational performance, assess underlying causes of variances, and recommend corrective actions or strategic initiatives to improve business outcomes.   

• Own FP&A-related aspects of the monthly, quarterly, and annual close processes, ensuring the completeness, accuracy, and proper accrual of operating expenses while maintaining consistency between actual results and forecasts.   

• Partner closely with Accounting, Finance, and business functional teams to ensure alignment between financial reporting, planning assumptions, and performance management processes.   

• Ensure adherence to established financial calendars, reporting timelines, governance requirements, and internal controls while maintaining high standards of accuracy and data integrity.   

• Drive continuous improvement initiatives across FP&A processes, systems, and reporting frameworks to enhance efficiency, scalability, reliability, and the overall relevance of financial information provided to stakeholders.  

Qualifications and Preferred Skills  

• Master’s Degree with a major in Finance or related field   

• 5+ years of professional experience in Finance, Pharmaceutical or biotech industry  

• Strong expertise in financial planning, forecasting, and performance management  

• Proven ability to translate financial data into actionable business insights  

• Strong business partnering and stakeholder management capabilities  

• Strong financial modeling and analytical skills  

• Master’s Degree in Finance or a related field.   

• 5+ years of progressive finance experience within the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, or life sciences industry.   

• Strong expertise in financial planning and analysis, budgeting, forecasting, long-range planning, and performance management.   

• Demonstrated ability to analyze complex financial data, identify business trends, and translate insights into actionable recommendations that drive performance.   

• Proven experience partnering with senior leaders and cross-functional stakeholders, with strong communication, influence, and relationship-management skills.   

• Advanced financial modeling, analytical, and problem-solving capabilities, with strong attention to detail and a commitment to accuracy.   

• Experience supporting monthly and quarterly close processes and collaborating effectively with accounting teams.   

• Strong proficiency with financial planning systems, ERP platforms, and advanced Excel-based modeling and reporting tools.   

• Ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment while consistently meeting deadlines and delivering high-quality work.   

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to present complex financial concepts clearly to both finance and non-finance audiences.