Director, Business Operations

GSK; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 110,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

GSK in the United Kingdom seeks a senior finance leader to own the DPTF budget, forecast cycle, and cost-to-serve metrics across the technology function. You will ensure data accuracy, drive value-based decisions, and align reporting with enterprise finance timetables.

You will lead cost transparency, central standards, and partner with enterprise finance while guiding the Business Operations team. Expect hybrid work and strong leadership requirements.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Finance, Business, Accounting, Technology Management, or a related field, or equivalent experience.
• Deep experience in technology finance, business operations, commercial management or a comparable discipline, including line leadership of professional teams.
• Proven experience owning the budget and forecast for a large technology function or business unit.
• Experience building cost transparency, including unit cost or FinOps reporting, and using it to change spending behaviour.
• Experience running the operating rhythm and management reporting of a function, not only its finances.
• Experience managing a funded establishment, including budgeted positions, vacancy tracking and permanent and contractor cost mix.
• Experience setting central financial standards applied by teams outside direct control.
• Experience partnering with an enterprise finance function on budgeting, forecasting and financial control.

Responsibilities

• Own the DPTF budget and forecast cycle, ensuring the function’s cost base is planned, tracked and reported accurately and to the enterprise finance timetable.
• Own enterprise unit economics and cost-to-serve for DPTF - cost per product, service and capability - supported by a maturity roadmap, enabling value-based decision making.
• Own the DPTF cost and allocation model, taxonomy and business-operations tooling strategy, so that financial, portfolio, performance and value reporting reconcile to one source of truth.
• Own the domain technology finance standard that the federated Tech Finance Managers apply, including the required central submissions, their cadence, and the escalation where a domain’s data falls below standard.
• Lead the operational governance of DPTF as a function, including the operating cycle, the business planning cycle and the management reporting that keep the function running.
• Partner with Finance Business Partners and the enterprise Finance function on budgeting, forecasting, accruals and financial control, representing DPTF in those forums.
• Challenge spend against plan across the domains, bringing variance, risk and opportunity to leadership with supporting evidence, with the spend decisions themselves owned in the domains.
• Own the funded establishment for DPTF, tracking budgeted positions, vacancies and the permanent and contractor mix as a cost position, with the shape of the organisation and its skills owned by the Workforce Strategy & Talent Manager.
• Provide operational and financial insight to the DPTF Leadership Team, covering cost, headcount, contractor and vendor spend, and the operational health of the function.
• Work with the Director, Planning & Performance so that financial information reconciles with the investment, value and performance picture and leadership sees one consistent view.
• Ensure DPTF operates within GSK financial policy and control requirements, including approval routes, purchase governance and audit readiness.
• Drive process automation and simplification across business operations, embedding AI and analytics to accelerate forecasting, cost analysis and management reporting and to cut manual effort in financial and operational administration.
• Lead and develop the business operations team, including the Business Operations Manager, and build capability across the federated technology finance community.

Skills

Agile Methodology

Budget Ownership

Business Operations

Commercial Management

Cost Management

Cost Modeling

Cross-Functional Teamwork

Data Analysis

Design Thinking

DevOps

Financial Governance

Financial Operations

FinOps

Forecasting

Management Reporting

Prioritization

Project Management

Tech Business Mgmt

Technology Finance

UX

Education

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Finance/Business/Accounting/Technology Management

Equivalent experience in finance or related field

Job description

Key Responsibilities

• Own the DPTF budget and forecast cycle, ensuring the function’s cost base is planned, tracked and reported accurately and to the enterprise finance timetable.

• Own enterprise unit economics and cost-to-serve for DPTF - cost per product, service and capability - supported by a maturity roadmap, enabling value-based decision making. Own the DPTF cost and allocation model, taxonomy and business-operations tooling strategy, so that financial, portfolio, performance and value reporting reconcile to one source of truth.

• Own the domain technology finance standard that the federated Tech Finance Managers apply, including the required central submissions, their cadence, and the escalation where a domain’s data falls below standard. so budget, forecast and cost data is consistent and comparable across domains.

• Lead the operational governance of DPTF as a function, including the operating cycle, the business planning cycle and the management reporting that keep the function running.

• Partner with Finance Business Partners and the enterprise Finance function on budgeting, forecasting, accruals and financial control, representing DPTF in those forums.

• Challenge spend against plan across the domains, bringing variance, risk and opportunity to leadership with supporting evidence, with the spend decisions themselves owned in the domains.

• Own the funded establishment for DPTF, tracking budgeted positions, vacancies and the permanent and contractor mix as a cost position, with the shape of the organisation and its skills owned by the Workforce Strategy & Talent Manager.

• Provide operational and financial insight to the DPTF Leadership Team, covering cost, headcount, contractor and vendor spend, and the operational health of the function.

• Work with the Director, Planning & Performance so that financial information reconciles with the investment, value and performance picture and leadership sees one consistent view.

• Ensure DPTF operates within GSK financial policy and control requirements, including approval routes, purchase governance and audit readiness.

• Drive process automation and simplification across business operations, embedding AI and analytics to accelerate forecasting, cost analysis and management reporting and to cut manual effort in financial and operational administration.

• Lead and develop the business operations team, including the Business Operations Manager, and build capability across the federated technology finance community.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Finance, Business, Accounting, Technology Management, or a related field, or equivalent experience.

• Deep experience in technology finance, business operations, commercial management or a comparable discipline, including line leadership of professional teams.

• Proven experience owning the budget and forecast for a large technology function or business unit.

• Experience building cost transparency, including unit cost or FinOps reporting, and using it to change spending behaviour.

• Experience running the operating rhythm and management reporting of a function, not only its finances.

• Experience managing a funded establishment, including budgeted positions, vacancy tracking and permanent and contractor cost mix.

• Experience setting central financial standards applied by teams outside direct control.

• Experience partnering with an enterprise finance function on budgeting, forecasting and financial control.

Preferred Qualifications

• Professional certifications desirable (e.g., a recognised accounting or financial management qualification, Technology Business Management, FinOps, Lean Six Sigma).

• Experience driving automation and simplification of financial and operational processes.

• Familiarity with technology business management practice and with AI enabled analytics applied to forecasting and reporting.

• Strong financial acumen, able to own a large cost base and explain it clearly to audiences without a finance background.

• Excellent executive communication skills, able to present a financial position candidly.

• Ability to lead and develop a distributed team and a federated professional community.

• Ability to challenge spend and forecasting quality constructively across domains without direct authority.

• Strong organisational skills, able to run concurrent financial and operational cycles to an external timetable.

Work Arrangements

This role offers a hybrid working model, with a mix of on-site and remote work. Fully remote or home-working arrangements are not available for this role.

Closing Date for Applications – 01 November 2026 EOD

#LI-Hybrid

#AGTech

Skills

Agile Methodology, Budget Ownership, Business Operations, Commercial Management, Cost Management, Cost Modeling, Cross-Functional Teamwork, Data Analysis, Design Thinking, DevOps, Financial Governance, Financial Operations, FinOps Operating Model, Forecasting, Management Reporting, Prioritization, Project Management, Strategy Deployment, Technology Business Management, Technology Finance, User Experience (UX)

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.

GSK is an Equal Opportunity Employer. This ensures that all qualified applicants will receive equal consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, gender identity, and sexual orientation), parental status, national origin, age, disability, genetic information (including family medical history), military service or any basis prohibited under federal, state or local law.

We believe in an agile working culture for all our roles. If flexibility is important to you, we encourage you to explore with our hiring team what the opportunities are.

Should you require any adjustments to our process to assist you in demonstrating your strengths and capabilities contact us at [e-mail] where you can also request a call.

Please note should your enquiry not relate to adjustments, we will not be able to support you through these channels. However, we have created a Recruitment FAQ guide. Click the link where you will find answers to multiple questions we receive