R&D Operations Senior Manager

Biopharma Careers; Thousand Oaks (CA); Hybrid; USD 137,000 - 186,000; Full time

Job summary

Amgen is seeking a Senior Manager, R&D Budget Management & Execution, to lead end-to-end budget planning, forecasting, and close activities for designated R&D units. You will serve as the primary Budget Management & Execution partner to functional leadership and R&D Finance, translating strategy into accurate projections.

You will develop financial reporting, drive process improvements, and coach a team to deliver high-quality insights, governance, and execution across capital and operating

Qualifications

• Doctorate or Master’s degree with biotech/pharma operations/financial analytics experience.
• Strong budget management, forecasting and leadership capabilities.
• Experience translating business priorities into financial forecasts and actionable insights.

Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end budget management and execution for assigned R&D organizations.
• Partner with functional leadership and R&D Finance to align forecasts with priorities.
• Translate baseline spend changes into clear financial implications, risks and actions.
• Develop leadership-ready financial reporting and narratives for executives.

Skills

Budget management

Forecasting

Financial analytics

Leadership

Education

Doctorate/Master/Bachelor in related field

Tools

Tableau

Smartsheet

Microsoft Teams

SAP

Ariba

Anaplan

Job description

Career Category

Project Management

Job Description

Join Amgen’s Mission of Serving Patients

At Amgen, if you feel like you’re part of something bigger, it’s because you are. Our shared mission, to serve patients living with serious illnesses, drives all that we do.

Since 1980, we’ve helped pioneer the world of biotech in our fight against the world’s toughest diseases. With our focus on four therapeutic areas –Oncology, Inflammation, General Medicine, and Rare Disease– we reach millions of patients each year. Amgen is advancing a broad and deep pipeline of medicines to treat cancer, heart disease, inflammatory conditions, rare diseases, and obesity and obesity-related conditions. As a member of the Amgen team, you’ll help make a lasting impact on the lives of patients as we research, manufacture, and deliver innovative medicines to help people live longer, fuller happier lives.

Our award-winning culture is collaborative, innovative, and science based. If you have a passion for challenges and the opportunities that lay within them, you’ll thrive as part of the Amgen team. Join us and transform the lives of patients while transforming your career.

Senior Manager, R&D Business Operations, Budget Management & Execution

What You Will Do

Let’s do this. Let’s change the world. In this vital role, the Senior Manager, R&D Business Operations, Budget Management & Execution will lead the end-to-end budget execution process for assigned R&D organizations and serve as a trusted partner to functional leadership and R&D Finance.

The Senior Manager is accountable for the timely and high-quality delivery of annual budget planning, quarterly forecast updates and close activities, leadership reporting, and forward-looking financial insights. This role translates business priorities and changes in functional strategy into accurate budget projections and financial forecasts, helping leaders understand spending trends, risks, opportunities, and potential trade-offs.

The Senior Manager will also manage and develop members of the Budget Management & Execution team, establish consistent ways of working within the supported organization, contribute to capability standards and process improvements, and independently determine the operational approach required to meet financial and business objectives.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the end-to-end budget management and execution process for assigned R&D organization(s), including annual budget planning, quarterly forecast updates, close activities, leadership updates, and other periodic financial deliverables.
• Serve as the primary Budget Management & Execution partner for functional leadership and R&D Finance, ensuring financial forecasts reflect business priorities, evolving strategy, and the prioritization of activities.
• Translate changes in baseline spend, portfolio or operational assumptions, resource needs, and business priorities into clear financial implications, forecasts, risks, and recommended actions.
• Maintain disciplined governance of budget plans, including reconciliation of actuals and commitments to plan and identification of meaningful forecast variances and emerging spending trends.
• Lead the collection, challenge, validation, and synthesis of planning assumptions and long-range spend drivers supporting annual budget and long-range planning activities.
• Develop leadership-ready financial reporting, analyses, and narratives that clearly communicate budget status, drivers of change, risks and opportunities, resource utilization, and decision points.
• Provide analytical support for functional initiatives, productivity opportunities, scenario development, and business case generation, including measurement of expected and realized benefits where appropriate.
• Enable execution of capital and operating expense plans through forecasting, funding alignment, financial tracking, and partnership with relevant functional and finance stakeholders to improve execution and controls.
• Provide expert budget execution support across the procure-to-pay process, resolving escalated issues and partnering with transactional finance, sourcing, and other business partners to improve execution and controls.
• Lead and coordinate finance-driven periodic activities such as accruals, purchase order maintenance, forecast updates, and ad hoc financial exercises.
• Serve as an advanced user of financial planning, reporting, and collaboration systems and promote consistent application of tools, processes, and data standards across the supported organization.
• Advance self-service and data-driven decision making by improving dashboards, reporting products, analytics, and other tools that provide leaders with timely and actionable financial insights.
• Contribute to the development and continuous improvement of Budget Management & Execution processes, standards, tools, and operating practices, identifying opportunities to simplify work, strengthen controls, improve cycle time, and increase scalability.
• Contribute business-partner perspective to R&D Finance, Corporate Finance, and other cross-functional initiatives affecting budget management and execution.
• Build and maintain strong partnerships across R&D functions, R&D Finance and FP&A, Global Strategic Sourcing, transactional finance, Supplier Management & Performance Analytics, and other business and corporate partners.

People Leadership

Manage the day-to-day activities and priorities of assigned Budget Management & Execution team members, ensuring high-quality and consistent delivery across supported functions.

Translate business plans and objectives into clear priorities, assignments, timelines, and expectations for the team.

Provide coaching, feedback, training, and development to direct reports and other team members, helping build financial, analytical, business-partnering, and leadership capabilities.

Allocate resources and adjust team priorities as business needs evolve while maintaining delivery of core financial commitments.

Foster a collaborative, inclusive, customer-focused environment that encourages continuous improvement, strong judgment, and accountability for results.

What We Expect of You

We are all different, yet we all use our unique contributions to serve patients. The professional we seek is a future-ready leader who brings financial and business acumen, operational rigor, strong people leadership, and a continuous‑improvement mindset, someone who can simplify complexity, elevate insights, and influence across a matrix to drive outcomes.

Basic Qualifications

• Doctorate degree and 2 years of biotech/pharma business operations and/or financial analytics experience
• Master’s degree and 4 years of biotech/pharma business operations and/or financial analytics experience
• Bachelor’s degree and 6 years of biotech/pharma business operations and/or financial analytics experience
• Associate’s degree and 10 years of biotech/pharma business operations and/or financial analytics experience
• High school diploma / GED and 12 years of biotech/pharma business operations and/or financial analytics experience

Preferred Qualifications

• Advanced degree in business, finance, life sciences, or a related field.
• Demonstrated experience in budget management, financial planning, forecasting, reporting, and variance/root‑cause analysis.
• Experience leading professional employees and/or demonstrated leadership of teams, projects, programs, or financial resources.
• Strong project and operational management experience, including the ability to establish priorities, manage competing deliverables, and drive high-quality execution.
• Working knowledge of the drug development process and how R&D organizations translate scientific and business strategy into portfolios, operating plans, and investment decisions.
• Demonstrated ability to partner effectively with functional leaders and finance stakeholders and translate business priorities into financial forecasts and actionable insights.
• Experience developing executive‑or leadership‑level financial narratives, presentations, analyses, and decision‑support materials.
• Ability to work with detailed and complex information while identifying trends, implications, risks, and actions.
• Demonstrated proficiency with data visualization and collaboration tools such as Tableau, Smartsheet, and Microsoft Teams.
• Advanced Excel skills and strong command of the Microsoft Office suite.
• Experience with enterprise financial planning and procurement platforms such as SAP, Ariba, and Anaplan.
• Demonstrated ability to leverage automation, digital tools, and AI‑enabled solutions to streamline workflows, improve controls, and elevate financial insights.
• Experience driving continuous improvement and change within business processes, tools, or operating models.
• Ability to thrive in a complex, matrixed environment; collaborate across organizational levels; influence without direct authority; and exercise sound judgment across multiple priorities.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to distill nuanced financial and business information into clear, concise, decision‑ready messages.
• Strong relationship‑building skills and a customer‑service orientation, with a bias toward collaborative problem solving and solution delivery.
• Curious, proactive leader who learns quickly, takes initiative, develops others, and continuously raises the quality of team execution.

What you can expect of us

As we work to develop treatments that take care of others, we also work to care for your professional and personal growth and well‑being. From our competitive benefits to our collaborative culture, we’ll support your journey every step of the way.

The expected annual salary range for this role in the U.S. (excluding Puerto Rico) is posted. Actual salary will vary based on several factors including but not limited to, relevant skills, experience, and qualifications.

A comprehensive employee benefits package, including a Retirement and Savings Plan with generous company contributions, group medical, dental and vision coverage, life and disability insurance, and flexible spending accounts

A discretionary annual bonus program, or for field sales representatives, a sales‑based incentive plan

Stock‑based long‑term incentives

Award‑winning time‑off plans

Flexible work models where possible. Refer to the Work Location Type in the job posting to see if this applies.

Application deadline

External/Internal postings:

Amgen does not have an application deadline for this position; we will continue accepting applications until we receive a sufficient number or select a candidate for the position.

Internal only posting (or Pre-ID candidate):

Amgen anticipates accepting applications until 1 week before the posting; however, we may continue accepting applications beyond this date if we do not receive a sufficient number of candidates.

Sponsorship

Sponsorship for this role is not guaranteed.

In any materials you submit

In any materials you submit, you may redact or remove age‑identifying information such as age, date of birth, or dates of school attendance or graduation. You will not be penalized for redacting or removing this information.

Equality and diversity

As an organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for people around the world, Amgen fosters an inclusive environment of diverse, ethical, committed and highly accomplished people who respect each other and live the Amgen values to continue advancing science to serve patients. Together, we compete in the fight against serious disease.

Amgen is an Equal Opportunity employer and will consider all qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, disability status, or any other basis protected by applicable law.

We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation.

Salary Range

137,365.95USD -185,848.05 USD