Finance Director - Discovery

The Role

Are you a finance leader with a proven track record in business partnering and of actively and engagingly supporting organisational performance? 

Do you want be part of a highly regarded, global company that improves health and lives?

Have you got the desire to join a team of global Finance Leaders that drive value creation, support growth and future strategy?

Charles River Laboratories are excited to have an opportunity for a  Finance Director - Discovery  to become an integral part of our global finance team!

You will be a key member of the operational Divisional Leadership working alongside our Site Leaders and Heads of Departments, providing financial and business guidance to facilitate business decision making.

You are also a key member of the Global Finance leadership team than spans across the globe and multiple continents.

You will be proactively leading financial communication down and up the organisation and determining future strategy and outlook.

You are comfortable with empowerment, making decisions and leading a diverse team.

You are both hands on and strategic!

You can be agile and transition between the “helicopter view” and the details at the same time.

 
Based at our flagship site in Saffron Walden, Essex, this role is hybrid with a 3 core days per week on-site with optional remote on other days.

What You'll Be Doing

Forecasting Accuracy and Plan Definition

Analyse complex financial data and extracts and defines relevant information; interprets data for the purpose of determining past financial performance and/or to project a financial probability.
Coordinate together with project coordination team, planning, client service and operation the good level of meetings to correctly estimate revenue on projects, slippage level, risks factored in projects, opportunities and risks to mitigate forecast results.
Develop financial reports for forecasting, trending and results analysis on both top line, expenses and capital.
Budget preparation and presentation
Assess capital expenditure opportunities for go / no-go.
Prepare & present monthly reporting deck to leadership team.

Company Performance Management

Put in place reporting tools and dashboard out of existing systems (SAP, Power BI, BPC, SAC) to provide leadership (local / external) with financial information and guidance.
Report KPI to the group and analyse with operations, the financial impacts and plan for improvements.
Perform complex statistical, cost and financial analysis of data.
Provide to site management the appropriate level of judgment thanks to a good sense of the business insight.
Plan and conduct complex studies to determine cost / profitability of business activities or opportunities. Recommends budget adjustments, and other cost improvement measures.
Drive cross functional projects, process improvements, and improve value creation. 
Drive the execution of the strategic planning and forecasting process. Provide the appropriate comments of variances to plan, forecast and adjust accordingly.
Collaborate with client service in defining pricing analysis, profitability analysis by projects in conjunction with sales group.
Develop, implement and analyse commercial and cost analytics, such as standard costings for performance of the business, customers, service line profitability of the site. 
Perform analyses including year-to-year comparisons and margins on new services for forecasting and pricing purposes.  
Develop new approaches, processes or methods to solve new business problems, act as an agent of change and continuously reevaluating process to achieve expecting earnings growth of the site.

Corporate Reporting

Prepare materials for site presentation, Business reviews.
Set the right tools to gather the operational and financial information for monthly commentaries and translate financial variance explanations into business actions for improvement with site management.

...

Compliance with Corporate Governance

Working with Corporate Accounting, EU Shared Service and Internal Audit staff to ensure site adherence to corporate governance standards (e.g., Sarbanes-Oxley), pertinent regulatory requirements and to corporate finance/accounting policies, practices and procedures.

Finance Leadership

Serve as a member of the Discovery finance leadership team and DSA finance leadership team.
Assist with developing local strategic business plans for the business segment consistent with the established corporate goals and objectives.
Work and communicate effectively with staff at all levels of the business unit in order to understand the full function of the business and provide accurate forecast information, financial guidance and leadership.  
Educate local leaders on budget management to support good understanding of their accountability and ownership.
Develop and oversee the implementation of training programs, including orientation, and, as appropriate, education to non-finance staff.

Team Management

Supervise a small team of direct staff direct and also play a key mentor/leader role to indirect team members. 

Collaborate with Shared Services (partially remote organisation in Edinburgh) and Centres of Excellence.

What We Offer You

A very comprehensive benefits package from day one, including a generous pension contribution, private medical, bonus,flexible private dental & critical illness cover. 
Access to great discounts via our CREDS discount scheme.
Parental leave.
Group Life Assurance and Group Income Protection.
Remote GP access 24/7.
Well-being support and initiatives.
Global opportunities and strong career progression.
The chance to work on several varied projects and liaise globally and nationally with other business areas.
To be able make a difference to health and wellbeing of people and more! 

Skills and Experience

Degree in accounting or other similar related qualification.
Certification in ACCA / ACMA or equivalent.
Experience within a CRO or pharmaceutical organisation is desirable.
Excellent IT system skills required.
Ability to work on team mode, cross function or cross country.
Ability to lead by influence and drive changes, build values on the new formed team and develop them.
Ability to work on a changing environment and constantly adapt to new organisations.
Ability to be ‘hands on’, undertaking the fundamental business partnering aspect of the role, whilst managing and overseeing the accounting elements.
Business partnering experience is essential.