Associate Director, R&D Financial Planning and Analysis

About Us

About the Role

As Associate Director, R&D Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A) you will have a direct impact on the execution of critical development activities across multiple programs at Dianthus.

Reporting to the Senior Director, FP&A, you will lead strategic budgeting and planning for the Technical Operations and Discovery functions. This is a pivotal strategic role, working closely with key stakeholders within a growing, fast-paced organization. The role involves supporting strategic and operational initiatives, delivering financial and business insights, and creating and improving existing forecasting and functional financial reporting processes. You must have experience in managing budgets for large, complex clinical-stage development programs and a strong understanding of manufacturing, clinical and discovery activities to be successful in this role.

This is an exciting opportunity to support multiple development programs within a dynamic, growing organization. We are building a culture of individuals who hold our core principles at the center of our operations, with the goal to elevate the care of our patients’ lives. We are open to you working remotely.

Key Responsibilities

• Serve as a trusted business partner to the Technical Operations and Discovery leadership teams and deliver financial insights and analysis in support of strategic decision-making and execution of corporate goals and objectives.
• Lead the process for annual operating budgets, quarterly reforecasts, as well as the long-range plan for the functions, including development of executive-level presentation materials that communicate all critical aspects of budgeted spend and impact to clinical development goals and timelines across various programs.
• Provide strong partnership to the business to understand and track critical workstreams.
• Communicate both financial and operational performance to leadership teams and ensure proper alignment of planned spend to help drive the execution of development timelines and objectives.
• Support the process of developing detailed global clinical and commercial supply demand forecasts to support the long-range manufacturing and supply forecasts across multiple development programs.
• Help drive enhancements of current financial models and FP&A solution to support expansion of new programs and activities within the organization.
• Provide detailed variance analysis of actual vs. budget/forecast to help budget owners manage spending; understand and clearly communicate drivers of variances to leadership and provide actionable insights that strengthen accuracy of cashflow management.
• Partner closely with the accounting team on key processes including the monthly accrual process across Technical Operations and Discovery activities; review and track PO/Contract requests for assigned departments to ensure adequate control over operating budgets and the impact to technical accounting and accurate forecasting of budgeted spend.
• Actively collaborate with functional leaders, ensuring timelines, activities, and assumptions are aligned across workstreams; assist key business leaders in developing and refining a high-quality forecast, budget, and long-range plan.

Experience

• Bachelor’s degree (B.A.) or equivalent required; advanced degrees in business or finance preferred.
• Biotechnology/Pharmaceutical industry experience required.
• Must have direct experience in business partnering with the Technical Operations function, with strong knowledge of expense recognition criteria for clinical development, CMC, device development and supply chain activities; preferable to have experience in Discovery/Research business partnering as well.
• Advanced skillset in financial modeling; experience working with ERP systems and financial planning and budgeting software required.
• Proven experience building strong cross-functional relationships to better support strategic financial planning.
• Proficiency in developing executive presentations with excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Versatility, flexibility, and a willingness to work within constantly changing priorities with enthusiasm.
• Strong knowledge of US GAAP and SOX compliance for public companies.