Director of Financial Planning and Analysis

Position Summary

The Director of Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A) leads the financial planning, forecasting, budgeting, and strategic analysis functions across the CDMO's development services and commercial manufacturing operations. This role serves as a key business partner to the CFO, Chief Operating Officer, Site Heads, Program Management, Business Development, and Operations leaders, providing financial insight that drives capacity planning, program profitability, capital investment decisions, and long-term strategic growth.

The successful candidate brings deep expertise in cost accounting and operational finance within a regulated pharmaceutical, biologics, or cell and gene therapy manufacturing environment, and is comfortable translating complex production economics into clear, actionable recommendations for executive leadership and clients.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Financial Planning & Forecasting

• Lead the annual operating plan, long-range plan (3–5 year), quarterly forecasts, and monthly outlook processes across all CDMO sites and business units.
• Build and maintain integrated financial models that capture revenue by program, suite/line utilization, batch economics, cost of goods sold (COGS), gross margin, EBITDA, and free cash flow.
• Translate the commercial pipeline, signed contracts, and committed backlog into a rolling demand and revenue forecast, working closely with Business Development and Program Management.
• Model the financial impact of new modalities, new service offerings, capacity expansions, and technology transfers.

Operational & Manufacturing Finance

• Cost accounting: Oversee standard costing, variance analysis (purchase price, yield, labor, overhead absorption), and inventory valuation across raw materials, WIP, and finished goods in compliance with GMP and US GAAP.
• Capacity & utilization analytics: Develop and maintain suite-level utilization, throughput, and cost-per-batch dashboards. Identify under-absorbed overhead, idle capacity, and bottlenecks, and partner with Operations on mitigation plans.
• Program profitability: Own client/program-level P&Ls. Analyze margin by service line (process development, drug substance, drug product, fill-finish, analytical, packaging) and recommend pricing or scope adjustments.
• Pricing support: Partner with Business Development to build proposal models, quote-to-cash economics, and change-order financials. Validate assumptions on batch yield, FTE loading, materials, and pass-through costs.

Business Partnership & Decision Support

• Serve as the lead finance partner to Site Heads, Heads of Manufacturing, Quality, Supply Chain, and Engineering, providing the financial lens on operational decisions.
• Lead capital expenditure (CapEx) planning and post-investment reviews for facility expansions, equipment, single-use vs. stainless decisions, and digital/automation initiatives. Build IRR, NPV, and payback analyses.
• Support make-vs-buy, insourcing-vs-outsourcing, and site rationalization analyses.
• Provide ad-hoc financial analysis to support M&A, due diligence, integration planning, and strategic partnerships.

Reporting, Controls & Governance

• Own monthly close support from an FP&A perspective: variance commentary, flux analysis, and executive reporting packages for the CEO, CFO, and Board of Directors.
• Drive continuous improvement of financial systems (ERP, planning, BI), data hierarchies, and KPI definitions to improve forecast accuracy and transparency.
• Ensure compliance with internal controls (SOX where applicable), audit requirements, and revenue recognition standards (ASC 606), including milestone, time-and-materials, and percentage-of-completion arrangements common in CDMO contracts.
• Partner with the Controller and accounting team on revenue accruals, deferred revenue, and contract asset/liability balances.

Team Leadership

• Build, lead, mentor, and develop a high-performing FP&A team across corporate and site finance.
• Establish standards for analytical rigor, presentation quality, and business-partner orientation.
• Champion a culture of accountability, intellectual honesty, and continuous improvement.

Qualifications

Required Experience & Education

• 10+ years of progressive finance experience, with at least 5 years in a senior FP&A or operational finance role within a pharmaceutical, biologics, CDMO, CMO, or comparable regulated manufacturing environment.
• Demonstrated experience with manufacturing cost accounting, standard costing, and variance analysis in a GMP setting.
• Track record of building and managing complex financial models tied to production capacity, batch economics, and multi-site operations.
• Experience supporting commercial proposals, client pricing, and contract economics in a service-based or fee-for-service business.
• Proven people leadership experience, including building and developing FP&A teams.

Preferred Qualifications

• MBA, CPA, CMA, or CFA.
• Experience with biologics, sterile injectables, cell and gene therapy, oligonucleotides, or advanced therapy modalities.
• Hands-on experience with ERP systems (SAP, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics) and EPM/planning tools (Hyperion, Anaplan, OneStream, Adaptive, Vena).
• Familiarity with BI and analytics tools (Power BI, Tableau, Alteryx) and advanced Excel/SQL.
• Exposure to revenue recognition under ASC 606 for service-based contracts and milestone-based development agreements.
• Experience supporting a private equity-backed, IPO-track, or publicly listed company.