R&D Procurement & Finance Operations Lead

Planet Pharma; Menlo Park (CA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Planet Pharma in Menlo Park, CA is seeking a Procurement & Finance Operations Manager to build and scale the procurement, inventory, and operational finance infrastructure for a fast-growing R&D organization.

This role sits at the intersection of science, supply chain, and finance. You will own end-to-end purchasing, supplier management, budgeting, forecasting, spend analytics, and cost modeling while collaborating with scientists and engineers to enable experimentation with financial discipline.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in procurement, supply chain, operational finance, or related roles.
• Experience supporting scientific, technical, or R&D-focused organizations.
• Strong budgeting, forecasting, financial planning, spend management, and analytics.
• Experience with purchasing operations, vendor relationships, and sourcing strategies.
• Experience working with POs, accounting, ERP, or spend management systems.
• Ability to build or improve operational processes and systems.
• Strong analytical skills to forecast requirements and support financial decisions.
• Excellent communication and collaboration with technically minded stakeholders.
• Highly organized with attention to detail; able to adapt in a fast-paced environment.

Responsibilities

• Lead procurement operations across lab consumables, materials, chemicals, and equipment.
• Develop strategic sourcing initiatives and supplier solutions for evolving needs.
• Build inventory forecasting and material planning for increasing throughput.
• Manage supplier relationships, pricing negotiations, lead times, and agreements.
• Own purchasing workflows, POs, invoices, approvals, and controls.
• Partner with finance to develop budgets, forecasts, and long-range planning.
• Track expenditures vs. budget and provide spend analytics and reporting.
• Develop systems to assess true cost of experimentation across resources.
• Design scalable procurement, inventory, and operational finance processes.
• Identify automation opportunities and improve dashboards and workflows.
• Collaborate with scientists, engineers, and leadership to meet needs efficiently.
• Identify bottlenecks and implement solutions to improve reliability and scalability.
• Support growth, including potential management of procurement and operations staff.

Skills

Budgeting

Forecasting

Spend management

Operational analytics

ERP systems

Vendor relationships

Process improvement

Communication

Organization

Stare decisis (fast-paced)

Education

Bachelor's Degree

Tools

ERP systems

Job description

Planet Pharma in Menlo Park, CA is seeking a Procurement & Finance Operations Manager to build and scale the procurement, inventory, and operational finance infrastructure for a fast-growing R&D organization.

This role sits at the intersection of science, supply chain, and finance. You will own end-to-end purchasing, supplier management, budgeting, forecasting, spend analytics, and cost modeling while collaborating with scientists and engineers to enable experimentation with financial discipline.