Sr. Associate, Internal Audit

BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc.; San Rafael (CA); On-site; USD 85,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. is seeking a Sr. Associate for Internal Audit in San Rafael, California. This role involves supporting audit planning, execution, and reporting in a biotech environment. The position requires strong analytical skills and a commitment to detail while working closely with cross-functional teams.

The ideal candidate will have experience in internal audit, data analytics, and relevant certifications. BioMarin is dedicated to transforming patients' lives through innovative therapies.

Qualifications

• 3-5 years in internal audit or compliance in biotechnology or pharmaceutical sectors.
• Proficiency in data analytics and visualization platforms.
• Strong analytical skills and attention to detail.

Responsibilities

• Support audit planning, execution, and reporting.
• Conduct audits to evaluate internal controls.
• Analyze data to identify trends and control weaknesses.

Skills

Data analytics

Critical thinking

Problem-solving

Communication skills

Experience with ERP systems

Self-motivated

Education

Bachelor’s degree

CPA or equivalent certification

Tools

Power BI

SAP

AI tools (e.g., Claude, ChatGPT)

Job description

Sr. Associate, Internal Audit

BioMarin is the world leader in delivering therapeutics that provide meaningful advances to patients who live with serious and life‑threatening rare genetic diseases. We target diseases that lack effective therapies and affect relatively small numbers of patients, many of whom are children. These conditions are often inherited, difficult to diagnose, progressively debilitating and have few, if any, treatment options. BioMarin will continue to focus on advancing therapies that are the first or best of their kind.

BioMarin Internal Audit is committed to helping BioMarin achieve its full potential in transforming patient’s lives by minimizing overall company risk. We pride ourselves in being objective and independent of the areas we assess, while maintaining our commitment to advance the organization. We provide independent assurance to the board of directors and management. Our disciplined approach evaluates the effectiveness of BioMarin’s risk management, control and governance processes. We also assist with proactive advisory projects. An open and transparent partnership helps us develop the appropriate context and understanding of the issues at hand, minimize surprises, and drive greater value in the outcomes.

In carrying out our mission, we pledge to:

• Be a trusted partner
• Lead with integrity & enthusiasm
• Focus on what matters
• Share industry practices

As part of our mission, we also aim to provide valuable business insights (covering governance, risk, and control, and beyond), using data analytics to identify potential indicators for non‑compliance, fraud and waste.

This role reports to the Head of Internal Audit[SH1.1], and the Sr. Associate will be instrumental in building a world‑class internal audit function, a function that provides both assurance and advisory services regarding BioMarin’s governance, risk and control effectiveness, as well as a function that generates actionable business insights.

This role partners with other members of the Internal Audit team and is responsible for performing audits to evaluate the design and effectiveness of internal controls, to identify instances of non‑compliance, ineffective or inefficient operations, potential fraud, waste, and abuse. In carrying out this role, you must demonstrate good business acumen and robust experience with assessing risk and conducting internal audits. You serve as a trusted partner to the business, continually staying abreast of enterprise‑wide initiatives and functional strategies, to ultimately ensure that the Internal Audit portfolio of audits is aligned with key business risks.

Responsibilities

The position of Sr. Associate reports to the Head of Internal Audit. The key responsibility of this position is to support audit planning, execution, and reporting by leveraging data to perform robust analysis aimed at identifying trends, anomalies, and control weaknesses across the process/system/organization, with a focus on effectiveness, compliance and operational integrity.

Planning the audit

• Participate in audit scoping discussions with cross‑functional teams (e.g., Finance, Operations, IT) and Audit Leadership to understand relevant risk, controls, and associated data sources supporting audit areas
• Conduct research and reference available documentation to develop the risk and control matrix to inform the audit scope.
• Develop audit planning memos memorializing the audit scope, objective and approach
• Manage the collection, review, and storage of all supporting audit documentation within the audit system

Conducting the Audit

• Coordinate audit interviews and process walkthrough, including the agenda, leading the discussion, and memorializing the outcomes/notes
• Creates the initial audit testing workbook detailing the key risks and controls in the process and the subsequent testing plan (and testing attributes) required to provide reasonable assurance over the design and operating effectiveness of management's controls or insights needed for decisionmakers.
• Manages outreach to stakeholders to request relevant data / system reports, and or other to support detailed analysis of control effectiveness, including the collection and review for completeness.
• Perform audit testing, analyzing available datasets to identify patterns, outliers, and potential issues related to internal policies and business processes.
• Documents conclusions from testing, including a summary of the control effectiveness, and any identified instances of non‑compliance / exceptions
• Communicates results of audit testing with the Audit Leadership and respective auditees to validate the accuracy of findings by confirming no additional data /documents exist that would explain any exceptions identified
• quality self‑review for accuracy, clarity, completeness, and adherence to program and audit techniques employed
• Escalate any critical audit issues appropriate management

Reporting Results

• Communicate issues and root causes with Audit Leadership and management of the area under audit and gain consensus on the path forward
• Draft initial materials to socialize results with auditees and department leadership

Other

• Participate in enterprise risk assessment activities, and conduct other audit engagements, including advisory engagements
• Maintain existing certifications and seek further certification where appropriate
• Develop and maintain dashboards and reports to monitor operational & other metrics and key risk indicators and support the development of continuous auditing and monitoring tools to proactively detect non‑compliance.

Education

• Bachelor’s degree required
• One or more of: CPA, Certified Internal Auditor, Certified Information Systems Auditor, or Certified Fraud Examiner designation preferred

Relevant Experience

• 3-5 years in internal audit, Compliance, advisory or global corporation, or a combination hereof.
• Biotech/Pharmaceutical/Life Science experience preferred.
• A strong candidate will be our “go to person” to solve problems, and get work done. Attention to quality and details, data‑driven, critical thinking, and good analytical skills are essential to this role.

Essential Skills

• Fluent & self‑starter in the use of AI tools (Claude, ChatGPT, etc.)
• Highly self‑motivated and able to work independently
• Proactively seeks knowledge, new tasks, and responsibilities.
• Ability to organize projects and work responsibilities.
• Prioritize effectively, and meet deadlines
• Proficiency in data analytics and visualization platforms (e.g., Databricks, Power BI).
• Experience working with ERP systems (e.g., SAP) and audit management tools.
• Excellent analytical, problem‑solving, and communication skills.
• Ability to work with ambiguity, and respond to a rapidly changing, highly innovative environment
• Exhibit professional savvy and ability to interact with various levels of management
• Excellent in developing high quality presentations, Excelformulas and data analytics

Note: This description is not intended to be all‑inclusive, or a limitation of the duties of the position. It is intended to describe the general nature of the job that may include other duties as assumed or assigned.

We are an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.