Senior Finance Partner Translational & Developmental Sciences in London

The posting period will end on the 22nd of May in 2025.

Background: The Senior Finance Partner will provide financial leadership to the newly established Translation & Developmental Science ("TDS") organisation in R&D, partnering with three R&D senior leaders across Translation Sciences, Developmental Sciences and Asia R&D, including the new Translational Hub. TDS integrates translational science, development sciences, human biology, and real‑world data to accelerate and de‑risk pipeline decisions. It provides decision‑shaping insight across discovery and development to improve the probability of technical success, optimise portfolio allocation and speed medicines to patients.

Job purpose: The Senior Finance Partner is a senior, independent business partner providing strategic financial leadership, insight, and challenge to TDS. As the primary finance interface for senior stakeholders, the role shapes strategy and investment choices, drives R&D productivity and resource allocation, and ensures disciplined financial stewardship to maximise value creation in line with GSK’s strategy and priorities.

Operating with a high degree of autonomy and judgement, the role partners closely with business leaders to frame the critical questions, quantify trade‑offs, and guide decisions across the full strategy, planning and delivery lifecycle—balancing scientific ambition, delivery feasibility and financial value.

Key responsibilities: Key accountabilities focus on shaping strategy, accelerating R&D productivity, and enabling high‑quality, value‑based decisions across TDS. Responsibilities include:

• Strategic Finance Partnering
  • Act as the lead Senior Finance Partner for TDS, providing forward‑looking financial leadership, insight, and constructive challenge to senior business stakeholders to shape priorities and portfolio choices.
  • Influence strategic choices by translating complex financial and operational data into clear, decision‑oriented insights—including value, opportunity cost, timing, and risk.
  • Partner across Finance, Commercial, R&D, Manufacturing, Portfolio and Corporate functions to ensure enterprise alignment, coherent narratives, and transparent trade‑offs in value and data‑based decisions.
  • Provide finance leadership for the Translational Hub, including resource model and ramp‑up plan, and ongoing performance insights to ensure productivity and value delivery.
• Investment, Business Cases & R&D Productivity
  • Lead the financial evaluation of investments, business cases, and scenarios with a portfolio lens, ensuring assumptions are robust, risks are understood, and trade‑offs/opportunity costs are explicit.
  • Partner with TDS leaders to define, measure, and improve R&D productivity (e.g., resource utilisation, throughput, cycle times, cost to deliver, and value per FTE), using insight to drive prioritisation, stop/start decisions, and reinvestment.
  • Ensure financial commitments and expected benefits are clearly articulated, tracked, and communicated in real time, enabling course‑correction and value realisation.
• Planning, Forecasting & Performance Management
  • Own and lead planning, budgeting, and forecasting for the area of responsibility, translating strategy into resourcing and financial plans while balancing robustness with pragmatism.
  • Drive performance management through root‑cause and driver analysis, leading indicators, and forward‑looking outlooks—linking insights to clear actions and decisions.
  • Provide stakeholders with an integrated view of performance, future risks and opportunities, and practical options to protect or enhance value.
• Financial Stewardship & Reporting
  • Be accountable for the integrity, accuracy, and transparency of financial reporting, forecasts, and valuations—ensuring decision makers have a trusted fact base.
  • Maintain strong control and compliance standards—applying pragmatic risk management and fit‑for‑purpose processes that enable pace while protecting value and reputation in line with GSK policies and Finance Ways of Working.
  • Understand balance sheet, P&L, and cash flow impacts of strategic choices, including capital allocation implications, valuation sensitivities, and risk of impairments where relevant.
• Value Creation & Continuous Improvement
  • Lead identification of opportunities to optimise spend, improve productivity, and reallocate resources to the highest‑value priorities; quantify benefits and track delivery.
  • Champion continuous improvement, simplification, and automation of finance insights and processes (including analytics and self‑serve reporting), enabling Finance to focus on higher‑value strategic work.
• Leadership & Collaboration
  • Build strong, trusted relationships with senior stakeholders through credibility, curiosity and strategic storytelling; influence without authority to drive alignment and action.
  • Line manager responsibilities for a small team, focused on coaching, capability building, and building a high‑performing culture.

Basic Qualifications: We are seeking professionals with the following required skills and qualifications to help us achieve our goals:

• Bachelor’s degree in finance or accounting (or qualified by experience).
• Experience as a Finance Partner in a business unit environment – ideally in R&D.
• Track record of driving sound business decision making in relation to complex problems based on robust, impartial financial analysis.
• Track record of setting and delivering financial plans.
• Strong skills in modelling, analysis, forecasting, strategic / scenario planning, and decision making. Some project management skills.
• Understanding of financial systems and processes (e.g., SAP, CERPS, SAC).
• Ability to work in a complex and fast-moving environment with multiple priorities.
• Ability to connect with and influence business stakeholders at all levels in a technical environment and to establish a high level of credibility with senior internal and third-party stakeholders.