Senior Finance Business Partner (Drug Design and Development), London, UK

Your impact 

As our Senior Finance Business Partner (Drug Design and Development), you will serve as the dedicated partner to our drug discovery organisation for both strategic and operational finance. You will be a critical contributor to the success of this team and will be responsible for financial management of all drug development-related work from discovery to preclinical testing. 

This is a new role supporting our team based in London. You will have the opportunity to bring financial thought leadership and rigor to key stakeholders as Iso builds its drug portfolio and march towards its mission to Solve All Disease. 

About you

• Collaborative Partner: Someone who builds trusting relationships across all levels, acts as a strategic thought partner and bridges between science and finance.
• Proactive Problem Solver: A curious, resourceful mindset with the drive to resolve issues proactively and pragmatically, and to optimise our playbook and processes for future success.
• Detail and Process Oriented: Highly organized and meticulous with budgets, forecasts, and reporting. Able to balance multiple workflows whilst maintaining high standards.
• Independent and Growth-Oriented: A self-starter, always looking for ways to streamline processes and leverage technology (particularly AI) to increase efficiency.

What you will do 

• Business & Financial Partnering: Serve as the primary finance partner for the Drug Design and Development team. Provide strategic thought partnership to support delivery of portfolio objectives. 
• Budgeting and forecasting: Lead end-to-end budgeting, forecasting, and resource planning.
• Program and asset economics: 
• Provide financial decision support for the Portfolio Steering Team. Build project-level NPV and risk-adjusted valuation models for pipeline assets to support portfolio prioritization. 
• Partner with Business Development to model economics for biopharma partnerships and licensing deals, research collaborations and milestones.
• Research Oversight & Advisory: Partner with our External Research team and Procurement during RFP processes to evaluate, benchmark, and negotiate budgets with vendors.
• Reporting & Process Improvement: Deliver regular variance analysis and continuously enhance financial reporting and workflows to support portfolio growth. Oversee robust and efficient accruals processes.

Skills and qualifications

Essential:

• Drug Development Finance Expertise: Direct experience managing R&D / drug development finance and FP&A/partnering within biotech, pharma, or life sciences. 
• Finance modeling: Deep experience building and maintaining robust financial models for portfolio prioritisation and project NPV.
• Education & Analytical Skills: Degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics or other quantitative field.
• Communication & Rigor: Clear executive-level communicator for both technical and non-technical audiences. Strong attention to detail and ability to manage competing priorities in a fast-paced environment.
• Teamwork and collaboration: Proven track record in business partnering, influencing senior leadership, and excellence in stakeholder management.
• AI to drive efficiency: Experience in utilizing LLMs and other AI to drive efficiency

Nice to have:

• Professional accounting qualification (e.g., ACA, ACCA, CIMA, CPA, or equivalent).
• Life sciences background/experience highly desirable
• Experience using Google Workspace (Sheets, Slides etc) .
• Experience implementing or managing financial systems (e.g. ERP, procurement).