Manager / Senior Manager, R&D Finance

Position Overview

We are seeking an experienced and versatile Manager / Senior Manager to join our R&D Finance team, which serves as the primary finance business partner to R&D teams across the organization. The primary focus of this role is clinical trial finance—owning the accruals, forecasting, reporting, and business partnership for an assigned portfolio of clinical studies—while also flexing to support additional areas across the R&D organization as the pipeline grows and matures.

This individual will serve as the primary finance point of contact for the functions and processes within their areas of ownership, providing a single point of communication that reduces redundancy by owning the information, knowledge, and relationships tied to those areas. In practice, that means bringing operational intelligence to financial data and financial perspective to operational discussions.

Success in this role requires a multi-tool player who thrives in a fast-paced, high-growth, startup-stage environment; someone who gets up to speed quickly, is comfortable operating amid ambiguity and change, and is eager to take on new responsibilities and continuously improve how the team works.

Responsibilities

Clinical Trial Finance

• Own the monthly accrual process for an assigned portfolio of clinical trials, developing a deep understanding of how ongoing study activity is tracked and translating that activity into accurate, well-supported accruals—recognizing the significant overlap between building accruals and clinical trial modeling.

• Develop and maintain detailed clinical trial forecasts and budgets that incorporate evolving study circumstances, including enrollment rates, site activations, protocol amendments, vendor activity, and other pivots common in clinical development.

• Analyze clinical trial expense variances against study operational metrics to determine whether variances are temporary in nature or reflect permanent, structural changes to a study's cost profile; prepare clear variance commentary and study-level financial summaries that contextualize expenses against study status.

• Partner with Clinical Operations study managers and Development leaders to understand study plan pivots, enrollment challenges, and vendor performance, and proactively flag operational developments likely to carry near- or long-term financial implications.

• Manage purchase orders, contract reconciliation, and resolution of vendor invoice issues for assigned studies; partner with the Controllership organization and Procurement to ensure accurate spend tracking and correct coding.

R&D Accounting & Monthly Close

• Serve as the preparer for month-end close activities in areas of ownership, including preparation of accruals, journal entries, account reconciliations, and supporting documentation.

• Perform flux and variance analysis and respond to accounting-related questions on actuals for owned areas, ensuring activity is recorded in accordance with US GAAP and internal accounting policies.

• Track department-level purchase orders and expenses as part of the close to ensure accurate and complete spend capture.

• Partner with Accounting to support timely, accurate close processes; close deliverables are reviewed by accounting-side leadership.

• Support external audit and reporting activities by providing documentation, analysis, and commentary for owned areas.

Budgeting, Forecasting & Internal Reporting

• Prepare monthly internal reporting and analysis for areas of ownership, contextualizing expenses against operational dynamics rather than reviewing them in isolation.

• Provide inputs into the budgeting, forecasting, and long-range planning processes for owned areas, forecasting at the purchase-order and activity level.

• Develop models, metrics, reporting templates, and internal benchmarks that streamline the team's ability to communicate financial performance and tell the story behind the numbers.

• Prepare financial reports and materials for senior leadership that highlight key expense trends, risks, and study-level dynamics.

Business Partnership & Additional R&D Support

• Serve as the primary finance business partner and single point of contact for the R&D functions and processes within areas of ownership.

• Support additional R&D functional areas as assigned as the pipeline and organization grow, which may include Discovery, Translational Science, and IND-enabling program accruals and forecasting.

• Support departments within the R&D organization with department operating expense tracking and reporting.

• Provide support on broader corporate FP&A and reporting deliverables as needed, such as budget roll-ups, company reporting, and executive- and Board-level materials.

Process Improvement & Continuous Optimization

• Build on the team's existing processes and methodologies—coming up to speed on current approaches and identifying opportunities to improve functionality, efficiency, and consistency over time.

• Contribute to the development of best practices for accrual preparation, clinical financial analysis, variance commentary, and cross-functional reporting.

• Identify opportunities to leverage the team's budgeting and reporting systems, automation, and AI or other tools to streamline processes and enhance reporting.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, or a related field. CPA and/or MBA a plus.

• A minimum of 5-8+ years of progressive experience in finance and/or accounting, with meaningful experience supporting R&D organizations in the life sciences or biotechnology industry, or equivalent.

• 3+ years in clinical trial finance, clinical accounting, or clinical business operations, with hands-on experience in clinical trial accruals and forecasting, strongly preferred.

Knowledge and Skills

• Hands-on expertise in clinical trial accruals, forecasting, and financial analysis, with a working knowledge of the drug development process, including study start-up, site management, data management, safety reporting, and biometrics.

• Familiarity with the clinical vendor landscape and outsourcing models (CROs, central labs, imaging vendors, EDC/DM providers); understanding of the RFx process a plus.

• Strong understanding of US GAAP in relation to R&D accounting, accruals, and complex vendor and clinical trial contracts, including the ability to understand and report on financial information under both GAAP and cash methodologies.

• Advanced Excel and financial modeling skills.

• Public company experience, familiarity or experience with SOX controls and close documentation.

• Strong business partnering and communication skills, with the ability to engage and influence stakeholders at all levels across Finance, Clinical Operations, Development, and external vendors.

• A multi-tool, adaptable skill set, with the ability to flex across areas, get up to speed quickly on new responsibilities, and thrive in a fast-paced, high-growth, and ever-changing startup-stage environment.

• High attention to detail, strong problem-solving skills, and sound judgment when escalating financial risks; ability to manage multiple workstreams simultaneously amid ambiguity.

• Experience building and working within budgeting and reporting/planning systems (e.g., Vena), including building and managing reports, models, and system functionality is a strong differentiator for this role.

• Experience with ERP systems (e.g., NetSuite) preferred.

• Experience developing tooling and process improvements, including leveraging automation or AI to enhance reporting, budgeting and forecasting, and close processes.