Director, R&D Finance Operations

Company Overview:

Protara Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biotechnology company committed to advancing transformative therapies for people with cancer and rare diseases. Protara’s portfolio includes its lead candidate, TARA-002, an investigational cell-based therapy in development for the treatment of non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) and lymphatic malformations (LMs). The Company is evaluating TARA-002 in an ongoing Phase 2 trial in NMIBC patients with carcinoma in situ (CIS) who are unresponsive or naïve to treatment with Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG), as well as a Phase 2 trial in pediatric patients with LMs. Additionally, Protara is developing IV Choline Chloride, an investigational phospholipid substrate replacement for patients on parenteral support who are otherwise unable to meet their choline needs via oral or enteral routes.                                                         

Job Overview:  

The Director, R&D Finance Operations, will function as a “thought and business partner” and reports to the Chief Scientific Operations Officer.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities include the following (Other duties may be assigned):

• Lead the development and implementation of business and financial processes to support and drive operating effectiveness and efficiency.
• Support the development of models to track and forecast patient enrollment and financial metrics to support decision-making and reporting to ELT and the Board.
• Implement procurement and contracting procedures and processes to ensure that we strive to obtain competitive pricing and adherence to internal vendor requirements (e.g., data privacy, cyber risk assessment, etc.).
• Support contract negotiations with the CRO for new business and change orders and drive improved reporting from CROs to monitor costs and improve spending forecasts.
• Lead the budget and long-range planning process for R&D and provide reports and explanations for monthly/quarterly results vs. the financial plan.
• Partner with Finance & Accounting, Legal, HR, and IT on organizational efficiency and process improvement initiatives to improve resource allocation transparency and drive organizational cost.

Education and/or Experience:

 Bachelor's degree in business, finance, science/technology, or related field; MBA.

• 10+ years in Finance or Accounting with R&D Finance experience working in Pharmaceutical and Biotech preferred.
• Strong business acumen with financial and resource management.

Supervisory Responsibilities: None

Qualifications:

 Excellent interpersonal skills with high emotional intelligence to influence and work across a matrix with multiple and diverse internal and external stakeholders.

• A strong understanding of the people, processes, and infrastructure involved in the drug development lifecycle.
• Consistent attention to detail, focus on continuous improvement, and ability to deliver on demanding deadlines of the highest quality.
• Project management and change management experience working on multiple priority projects and strategies.
• Strong logistics and organization skills and the ability to operate independently and multitask, dealing with information at a variety of levels on many projects. 
• Knowledge of Program and Portfolio planning methods and techniques. 
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills; strong communicator and doer within all levels of the organization.
• Advanced skills with Excel and PowerPoint are required. 

Physical Demands:

The physical demands here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job.

This position requires a moderate amount of travel; average travel for this position is 15-20% with some variation based upon the demands of the business imperatives. Travel is for attendance at meetings and conferences.

Work Environment:

The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job.

 No specific work

*To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed above are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required.  Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

*Salary Requirements are between $195,000 - $210,000 based on experience and qualifications.

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