Senior Vice President, Corporate Finance

Job description

Today, Lonza is a global leader in life sciences operating across five continents. While we work in science, there’s no magic formula to how we do it. Our greatest scientific solution is talented people working together, devising ideas that help businesses to help people. In exchange, we let our people own their careers. Their ideas, big and small, genuinely improve the world. And that’s the kind of work we want to be part of. At Lonza, we are looking for a Senior Vice President, Corporate Finance to provide enterprise-wide leadership across Global Business Services, Corporate Accounting & External Reporting, Group Tax, Group Treasury, and Process Excellence. Reporting directly to the Group CFO, this highly influential leadership role will bring these critical capabilities under unified leadership, strengthening strategic alignment, financial governance, and responsiveness to the evolving needs of the business. Leading a global organization of approximately 360 employees, including a senior leadership team of Vice Presidents, you will shape and execute major finance transformation initiatives, strengthen financial compliance and standardization, and support strategic M&A and business priorities. You will combine deep corporate finance expertise with enterprise leadership to drive operational excellence, enable scalable ways of working, and help shape Lonza's long-term financial strategy and performance. Key Responsibilities: Provide strategic leadership across Global Business Services, Corporate Accounting & External Reporting, Group Tax, Group Treasury, and Process Excellence, ensuring strong alignment and performance across the Corporate Finance organization Lead and develop a senior leadership team of experienced Vice Presidents and their organizations, fostering collaboration, accountability, functional excellence, and enterprise-wide impact Drive the transformation and evolution of Lonza's global service delivery model, including further offshoring and nearshoring opportunities across Finance and other functions Strengthen financial governance, compliance, controls, and standardization, including the continued development of Global Process Ownership across functions Oversee Group accounting and external reporting, ensuring accurate, timely, and compliant financial reporting and effective engagement with auditors and regulatory stakeholders Provide strategic leadership across Group Tax and Treasury, including tax efficiency, transfer pricing, Pillar 2 requirements, liquidity, funding, debt management, foreign exchange, and broader financial risk management Support acquisitions, divestitures, and other strategic transactions, shaping carve-out, purchase price allocation, financing, and tax structures to optimize transaction outcomes Drive the development of integrated end-to-end commercial offerings, partnering across Finance and Key Account Management on pricing, revenue recognition, invoicing, and trade compliance for cross-platform opportunities Play a key leadership role in major enterprise transformation initiatives, including SAP S/4HANA implementation and other cross-functional Finance programmes requiring significant organizational alignment Act as a trusted advisor to the Group CFO and senior leadership, providing strategic insight and clear recommendations while representing Corporate Finance with the Executive Committee, Audit and Compliance Committee, and key external stakeholders Required qualifications: 10+ years of senior Finance leadership experience, with significant responsibility across corporate finance, accounting, treasury, tax, global business services, or related enterprise finance functions 5–10 years of relevant strategy and M&A transaction experience, including exposure to acquisitions, divestitures, carve-outs, financing structures, or other complex corporate transactions Proven experience leading large, global Finance organizations and senior executive teams within complex, matrixed multinational environments Deep expertise in corporate finance, strategic financial management, financial reporting, governance, compliance, controls, and risk management Demonstrated success leading large-scale Finance transformation, process standardization, shared services, offshoring/nearshoring, or enterprise-wide change initiatives Strong understanding of major ERP and Finance transformation programmes, with experience supporting complex SAP S/4HANA or comparable implementations highly desirable Exceptional strategic and commercial acumen, with the ability to connect deep business understanding with functional expertise and translate complex issues into actionable decisions Strong executive presence and communication skills, with demonstrated ability to influence, build consensus, and partner effectively with C-suite executives, Boards/Committees, auditors, banks, regulators, and other senior stakeholders Master's degree in Business or a related discipline required; ACCA, CPA, or comparable professional Finance qualification is preferred Fluency in English is required; German is an advantage. Experience operating across global and culturally diverse organizations is essential Every day, Lonza's products and services have a positive impact on millions of people. For us, this is not only a great privilege, but also a great responsibility. How we achieve our business results is just as important as the achievements themselves. At Lonza, we respect and protect our people and our environment. Any success we achieve is no success at all if not achieved ethically. People come to Lonza for the challenge and creativity of solving complex problems and developing new ideas in life sciences. In return, we offer the satisfaction that comes with improving lives all around the world — the satisfaction that comes with making a meaningful difference. Lonza is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, status as a qualified individual with disability, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.