Director, Strategic Finance (San Diego/Foster City/Hybrid)

What if the work you did every day could impact the lives of people you know? Or all of humanity?

At Illumina, we are expanding access to genomic technology to realize health equity for billions of people around the world. Our efforts enable life-changing discoveries that are transforming human health through the early detection and diagnosis of diseases and new treatment options for patients.

Working at Illumina means being part of something bigger than yourself. Every person, in every role, has the opportunity to make a difference. Surrounded by extraordinary people, inspiring leaders, and world changing projects, you will do more and become more than you ever thought possible.

Position Title: Director, Strategic Finance

Location: San Diego, CA (Hybrid – 2–3 days onsite weekly) Will consider Northern CA / Foster City

Reports To: VP, Strategic & Bioinsight Finance

Position Summary:

The Director, Strategic Finance is a senior finance leader responsible for shaping and advancing Illumina’s enterprise growth agenda through financial leadership across mergers and acquisitions, strategic investments, partnerships, alliances, joint ventures, divestitures, licensing arrangements, and new venture formation. The role serves as a trusted advisor to senior Finance and Executive Leadership, bringing rigorous financial analysis, strategic insight, and sound judgment to complex decisions that have meaningful enterprise impact.

This role operates in a highly matrixed, global environment and requires strong partnership across Finance, Corporate Development, Accounting, Tax, Treasury, Legal, Commercial, R&D, Operations, and other cross-functional stakeholders. The Director is expected to translate complex financial and strategic issues into clear recommendations, drive alignment among senior leaders, and lead a team responsible for supporting a dynamic portfolio of high-priority corporate initiatives.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

• Lead enterprise-level financial support for inorganic and strategic growth initiatives, including mergers and acquisitions, minority investments, partnerships, alliances, joint ventures, divestitures, licensing arrangements, and new business or venture creation efforts.
• Direct complex financial modeling, valuation, business case development, and scenario analyses to assess opportunities, risks, return profiles, and strategic alternatives.
• Partner closely with the Head of Strategic Finance and senior Finance leadership to evaluate, recommend, and help structure transactions and other strategic initiatives in support of corporate priorities.
• Provide strategic insight on capital-intensive initiatives and enterprise investment decisions, including capital deployment trade-offs, downside risk considerations, and long-term value creation opportunities.
• Serve as a trusted advisor to executive stakeholders by synthesizing financial, operational, and market information into clear, actionable recommendations and decision-ready materials.
• Lead or coordinate financial diligence workstreams for potential transactions, partnering with Accounting, Tax, Treasury, Legal, M&A, Corporate Development, Commercial, R&D, Operations, and other stakeholders to evaluate risk, synergy assumptions, integration considerations, and financial implications.
• Drive routine assessment, governance, and reporting of active and completed strategic transactions, including tracking performance against investment theses, expected returns, key milestones, and value realization.
• Oversee, prioritize, and manage the active deal pipeline for the Strategic Finance team, ensuring appropriate pacing, resource allocation, issue escalation, and stakeholder communication across concurrent initiatives.
• Partner with Finance leadership to ensure clear line-of-sight to the enterprise, functional, and accounting implications of various proposals, structures, and strategic alternatives.
• Support transaction structuring considerations by providing financial input on key terms, valuation approaches, funding implications, accounting considerations, and potential deal mechanics.
• Develop and improve strategic finance tools, templates, reporting mechanisms, and analytical frameworks to increase rigor, consistency, and speed of evaluation across opportunities.
• Monitor relevant market, competitive, healthcare, life sciences, and diagnostics trends to provide informed perspective on strategic direction, external opportunities, and potential threats.
• Lead the preparation of materials for senior Finance leaders and Executive Leadership, including concise summaries, presentations, board-level inputs, and decision frameworks.
• Build, lead, and develop a high-pe