Associate Director Controlling R&D

Biopharma Careers; Billerica (MA); Hybrid; USD 119,000 - 179,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Paid time off

Retirement contributions

Job summary

EMD Serono is seeking an Associate Director of Healthcare R&D Controlling to partner with two R&D functions and manage a 90 million euro budget for 400 employees. This role drives forecasting, cost control, and operational improvements while aligning with pipeline goals.

You will collaborate with HR to improve personnel cost transparency and support local US initiatives, reporting to the Head of Healthcare R&D Function Controlling.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Economics or Finance.
• 8+ years in Controlling in the pharmaceutical industry in a business partner role.
• Business-fluent English skills.

Responsibilities

• Be an active part of the respective functional R&D Leadership Teams and influence decision making.
• Manage the Healthcare R&D IT budget in collaboration with IT committees.
• Drive process improvements and efficiency initiatives with the business and HR.
• Lead Controlling processes (Forecast, Financial Steering, Year-end close) for the indirect budget.
• Provide financial insights to optimize strategic and operational decisions.

Skills

Finance partnering

Stakeholder management

Business fluency in English

Education

Bachelor's degree in Economics/Finance

Tools

SAP

SAC Mcloud

TM1

MS Office

Job description

Work Your Magic with us! Start your next chapter and join EMD Serono.

Ready to explore, break barriers, and discover more? We know you've got big plans - so do we! Our colleagues across the globe love innovating with science and technology to enrich people's lives with our solutions in Healthcare, Life Science, and Electronics. Together, we dream big and are passionate about caring for our rich mix of people, customers, patients, and planet. That's why we are always looking for curious minds that see themselves imagining the unimaginable with us.

United As One for Patients, our purpose in Healthcare is to help create, improve and prolong lives. We develop medicines, intelligent devices and innovative technologies in therapeutic areas such as Oncology, Neurology and Fertility. Our teams work together across 6 continents with passion and relentless curiosity in order to help patients at every stage of life. Joining our Healthcare team is becoming part of a diverse, inclusive and flexible working culture, presenting great opportunities for personal development and career advancement across the globe.

This role does not offer sponsorship for work authorization. External applicants must be eligible to work in the US.

Your Role:

As Associate Director of Healthcare R&D Controlling Functions you will work as senior business partner for two Healthcare R&D Functions. You will be responsible for the management of functional spending (90m€) with 400 employees in business. This involves partnering with and supporting your business in achieving their key strategic objectives such as efficient organizational setup, delivering on the pipeline and improving operations.

You will drive key finance-related processes like Operating Plan & Forecasting for all indirect costs within your responsibility and advance personnel cost transparency together with Human Resources and Business to improve forecasting accuracy. You will also drive decisions and support implementation of organizational as well as local US initiatives. You report to the Head of Healthcare R&D Function Controlling.

Your main responsibilities will include:

• Be an active part of the respective functional R&D Leadership Teams, understand functional business needs, have an influencer voice within R&D Controlling team and towards the functional Leadership Team
• Manage and control the Healthcare R&D IT budget in close collaboration with R&D IT Committee
• Identify and drive functional efficiencies, aligned with longer term functional strategy, together with Business and Human Resources
• Strive to improve existing processes and drive efficiency initiatives with your business
• Represent Controlling within local US investment initiatives and strategic local functional R&D projects (e.g. Business cases creation, CAPEX project valuations...)
• Provide regular valuable management business performance insights for your functions
• Lead and handle all Controlling processes (Forecast, Financial Steering, Year-end close) for the respective Functions / Indirect Budget (Cost center => Personnel cost controlling)
• Act as a financial business partner for two L2 function(s), provide financial advice and analysis to optimize strategic/ operational decisions both short and long-term

Who You Are

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Economics and/or Finance
• Minimum 8 years' experience in Controlling in pharmaceutical industry in a business partner role (ideally within Research & Development)
• Business-fluent English skills

Preferred Qualifications:

• Finance Business Partner experience in global setup with proven senior stakeholder management experience
• Analytical approach combined with strong service attitude
• Excellent communication and presentation skills to all levels of the organization and ability to interact with senior management in matrix organization
• Strong work ethic, structured approach, good interpersonal skills, and a collaborative spirit
• Resilient with ability to work under pressure, keeping deadlines and delivering high quality
• Sophisticated proficiency with SAP reporting systems (SAC Mcloud, TM1 & MS-Office)
• Openness to leveraging Generative AI tools to drive efficiency and business impact.

Location:

Billerica, MA; Hybrid (2-3 days per week onsite)

Pay Range for this position:

Pay Range for this position: $119,100.00 - $178,700.00

The offer range represents the anticipated low and high end of the base pay compensation for this position. The actual compensation offered will be determined by factors such as location, level of experience, education, skills, and other job-related factors. Position may be eligible for sales or performance-based bonuses. Benefits offered by the Company include health insurance, paid time off (PTO), retirement contributions, and other perquisites. For more information.

What we offer:

We are curious minds that come from a broad range of backgrounds, perspectives, and life experiences. We believe that this variety drives excellence and innovation, strengthening our ability to lead in science and technology. We are committed to creating access and opportunities for all to develop and grow at your own pace. Join us in building a culture of inclusion and belonging that impacts millions and empowers everyone to work their magic and champion human progress!