Cost & Budget Lead

WISE Campaign; Irvine; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

A global biopharma company is seeking a Cost & Budget Lead in Irvine, responsible for managing Capex and Opex budgets for large-scale projects. The ideal candidate will ensure financial accuracy, perform thorough forecasting, and engage with stakeholders to present cost performance updates. Applicants should have over 8 years of experience in cost controlling, with a bachelor's in finance or a related field. Strong skills in SAP and advanced Excel are essential for success in this role.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in Cost Controlling, preferably in pharma or energy sector.
• Experience as Finance controller or Business Controller required.
• Leadership experience in budget management and reporting.

Responsibilities

• Lead development and consolidation of budgets for GCP initiatives.
• Manage operational expenditure budgets for GCP activities.
• Implement cost control systems and prepare monthly forecasts.

Skills

Cost control systems

Budget management

Financial forecasting

Stakeholder management

Advanced Excel

Education

Bachelor's degree in Finance or related field

Tools

SAP

Oracle

PM software

Job description

Job description Site Name: USA - Pennsylvania - King of Prussia, Belgium-Wavre, Field Worker - SWE, France - Evreux, UK London New Oxford Street, UK - North Ayrshire - Irvine, USA - Pennsylvania - Marietta Posted Date: Dec 19 2025

The Cost & Budget Lead in Capital Projects is responsible for designing, implementing, and overseeing cost control and budgeting frameworks across large-scale capital project portfolios. This role ensures financial accuracy, thorough forecasting, strategic risk management, and informed decision-making throughout the project life cycle—from planning through execution and closure.

This includes oversight of both Capex and Opex budgets within the GCP portfolio, ensuring financial accuracy, proactive forecasting, and strategic cost governance throughout the project lifecycle.

This role will directly report to Director Cost & Risk Management within Project Controls Department, Global Capital Projects.

Responsibilities

Global Capital Project Budget Management

• Lead the development and consolidation of budgets for all GCP initiatives.
• Ensure alignment of project budgets with corporate financial objectives and governance standards.

Opex Budget Oversight

• Manage operational expenditure budgets related to GCP activities (e.g., maintenance, sustaining capital, project support costs).
• Track and report Opex performance against forecasts, identifying optimization opportunities.

Cost Control & Forecasting

• Implement cost control systems and processes for global.
• Prepare monthly forecasts, variance analysis, and financial reports for Capex and Opex.

Develop and implement cost control systems

• Create and maintain cost control tools, procedures, and documentation to support robust budget management across the project.

Budget planning and estimates

• Lead the creation of initial cost estimates and project budgets, including building detailed WBS breakdowns.

Monitor and forecast

• Track actuals versus budget, drive accruals and periodic forecast updates, prepare monthly and weekly forecasts, and report variances.

Change Control & Risk Management

• Maintain cost risk registers and manage change requests impacting budgets.
• Support contingency planning and scenario analysis for global projects.

Stakeholder Engagement

• Collaborate with project managers, finance, procurement, and regional teams to ensure accurate reporting and compliance.
• Present cost performance updates to senior leadership and governance boards.

Tools & Systems

• Cost control & forecasting software (e.g., SAP, Oracle).
• Advanced Excel (pivot tables, macros, data modeling).
• ERP, Procurement systems (Ariba, Coupa, etc).

Basic Qualifications & Skills

• Bachelor's degree in Finance, Engineering, Project Management or related field.
• 8+ years of experience in Cost Controlling, with at least 3 years in a leadership role within the pharmaceutical/life sciences industry or similar industries (Oil & Gas, Power/Energy sector).
• Experience as Finance controller or Business Controller for Business budgeting and OPEX tracking.
• Experience in Cost control & forecasting software (e.g., SAP, Oracle).
• Advanced Excel (pivot tables, macros, data modeling).
• Senior stakeholder management and project reporting experience.

Preferred Qualifications & Skills

• MSc or other Chartered / Professional Qualification in a relevant discipline.
• Good pharma background or working experience from capital projects. Not mandatory.
• Solid knowledge of GSK project process, User requirement management, quality and compliance requirement, site project completion and pre-start processes, and how these impact engineering and design, construction, commissioning, and qualification contracts.
• Familiar with the GCP Project Management Framework (PMF), relevant engineering standards and compliance requirement as well as Quality Management Systems.
• PMP (Project Management Professional) or CCP (Certified Cost Professional) or PMI-SP (Scheduling Professional) or Lean Six Sigma or similar process improvement credentials.

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Why GSK?

Uniting science, technology and talent to get ahead of disease together.

GSK is a global biopharma company with a purpose to unite science, technology and talent to get ahead of disease together. We aim to positively impact the health of 2.5 billion people by the end of the decade, as a successful, growing company where people can thrive. We get ahead of disease by preventing and treating it with innovation in specialty medicines and vaccines. We focus on four therapeutic areas: respiratory, immunology and inflammation; oncology; HIV; and infectious diseases to impact health at scale.

People and patients around the world count on the medicines and vaccines we make, so we're committed to creating an environment where our people can thrive and focus on what matters most. Our culture of being ambitious for patients, accountable for impact and doing the right thing is the foundation for how, together, we deliver for patients, shareholders and our people.

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