Sr. Director, R&D Finance FP&A and Portfolio

Legend Biotech US • Bridgewater, NJ

9h • Hybrid

About The Position

This role is for a Sr. Director, R&D Finance FP&A and Portfolio at Legend Biotech, a global biotechnology company dedicated to treating and curing life-threatening diseases. Headquartered in Somerset, New Jersey, Legend Biotech develops advanced cell therapies across diverse technology platforms and has a global collaboration agreement with Janssen. The position is based in Bridgewater, NJ, and is a key member of the Pipeline Finance team, reporting directly to the Pipeline Finance Head. The role serves as the dedicated financial partner for the Pipeline functions, leading Finance Analysts in data management, reporting, dashboarding, and analytics to support senior management decision-making. It involves end-to-end financial planning, budgeting, forecasting, and analysis in the R&D field, supporting the establishment and optimization of a standardized FP&A system. The Sr. Director will provide professional financial support for the implementation of R&D strategies, optimal allocation of resources, and investment decisions, collaborating effectively with cross-functional teams to ensure alignment with the overall financial strategy of Legend and Pipeline BU. The ideal candidate should possess pharmaceutical/biotech FP&A experience with R&D familiarity, strong strategic thinking, data analysis, and independent work abilities, and must be US-based, capable of cross-functional collaboration in a matrix environment, and able to support R&D Finance strategy execution. Strong leadership is essential to support business decision-making and ensure smart resource allocation across the R&D pipeline.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, Business Administration, or a related field.
• 15+ years of progressive FP&A experience, preferably in the biotech/pharmaceutical industry, with specific experience supporting R&D functions.
• Demonstrates expertise in financial modeling, budgeting, and forecasting.
• Advanced proficiency in Excel (Pivot tables, macros, data modeling).
• Expertise in Anaplan (as the SME) and familiarity with ERP systems (e.g., SAP).
• Experience with data visualization tools (e.g., Tableau, Power BI).

Nice To Haves

• MBA, CPA, or CMA is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Support RD Finance Head in defining the financial strategy for Pipeline BU, as well as the overall development portfolio, including resource allocation across the pipeline.
• Align Pipeline Finance strategy with Pipeline needs, support FP&A process optimization and standardize best practices across projects and therapeutic areas.
• Provide strategic financial input into the Pipeline Strategy and business plan, enhancing transparency of cost, value, and return on investment.
• Develop operating plans and budgets that support timely and high-quality delivery of business objectives, including benchmarking and tracking efficiency improvements.
• Take charge of budget preparation, review, consolidation and variance analysis, ensuring alignment with R&D strategy and Pipeline priorities.
• Regularly report budget execution, forecast deviations and performance to the RD Finance Head with targeted insights.
• Leading RD Finance consolidation, data management, reporting and analytics.
• Conduct RD-focused financial analysis (cost, ROI, resource efficiency) and apply advanced financial skills to address early development uncertainty.
• Partner with Pipeline leadership team to support project prioritization, resource allocation and investment decisions, maximizing portfolio value.
• Track Pipeline financial KPIs, establish performance measurement frameworks, analyze deviations and propose improvement measures to drive continuous improvement.
• Ensure high-quality financial evaluations for investment decisions and prepare robust financial materials for Senior Executive Team review.
• Manage budget execution, warn of risks, coordinate corrective actions and control costs to ensure operational plans remain within established budgets.
• Identify cost optimization opportunities and support implementation to enhance resource utilization efficiency.
• Maintain accountability for SOX and FCF controls, ensure FP&A compliance with Finance Standards, policies and relevant global clinical trial accounting policies.
• Collaborate with the Pipeline team to understand business needs and resolve financial collaboration issues.
• Coordinate with other FP&A colleagues and RD Finance Analysts for data/report support, aligning ways of working.
• Identify and support partnership opportunities and external collaborations to enable portfolio growth.
• Develop and optimize FP&A processes that effectively support evolving R&D and Pipeline business needs, contributing to global policy/program implementation

Benefits

• Medical insurance
• Dental insurance
• Vision insurance
• 401(k) retirement plan with a company match that vests fully on day one
• Eight (8) weeks of paid parental leave after just three (3) months of employment
• Paid time off policy that includes vacation time
• Personal time
• Sick time
• Floating holidays
• Eleven (11) company holidays
• Flexible spending accounts
• Health savings accounts
• Life insurance
• AD&D insurance
• Short-term disability coverage
• Long-term disability coverage
• Legal assistance
• Supplemental plans such as pet insurance
• Critical illness insurance
• Accident insurance
• Hospital indemnity insurance
• Voluntary commuter benefits
• Family planning and care resources
• Well-being initiatives
• Peer-to-peer recognition programs

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Number of Employees: 501-1,000 employees