Director/Senior Director FP&A - R&D

About Acadia Pharmaceuticals

Acadia is advancing breakthroughs in neuroscience to elevate life. For 30 years we have been working at the forefront of healthcare to bring vital solutions to people who need them most. We developed and commercialized the first and only FDA-approved drug to treat hallucinations and delusions associated with Parkinson’s disease psychosis and the first and only FDA-approved drug for the treatment of Rett syndrome. Our clinical-stage development efforts are focused on Prader-Willi syndrome, Alzheimer’s disease psychosis and multiple other programs targeting neuropsychiatric symptoms in central nervous system disorders. For more information, visit us at Acadia.com and follow us on LinkedIn and X.

Please note that this position is based in Princeton, NJ or San Diego, CA. Acadia's hybrid model requires this role to work in our office three days per week on average.

Position Summary:  

Reporting to the Vice President of Strategic Finance, this position will serve as the finance leader supporting all Research & Development activities. The role will oversee all research programs from preclinical through late clinical stage as well as clinical manufacturing. Responsible for generating meaningful reporting and analytics and effectively communicating those findings across all levels of the organization to drive strong financial decision making. Key areas will include maintaining and deeply understanding the clinical trial costing, periodic reporting and communicating performance, executing recurring planning processes, interacting with functional leadership, and having proficiency in corporate financial systems.  

Primary Duties and Responsibilities: 

• Act as financial business partner with R&D organization, providing thought leadership and analysis for ongoing business initiatives (go/no go decisions, scenario analysis, project post mortems, etc.)
• Develop, maintain, and deliver financial reporting to R&D leadership team, driving continuous improvement in forecasting and reporting
• Own the clinical trial cost forecast for all ongoing and planned studies working closely with clinical team, utilizing a deep understanding of activity based cost drivers
• Manage financial commitments for ongoing research collaboration agreements and contractual obligations
• Develop rolling multi-year program level forecast, supporting R&D prioritization
• Support clinical outsourcing team to proactively highlight vendor risks and opportunities and partake in CRO selection process and governance meetings
• Collaborate with Accounting to ensure GAAP compliance and adherence to company policies and procedures as well as reasonableness of accruals
• Understand corporate financial systems in order to effectively perform planning and analysis 

Education/Experience/Skills: 

• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting or Finance with CPA/CFA/MBA preferred.
• Director level: Targeting 10 plus years of experience / Senior Director level: Targeting 12 plus years of experience in corporate finance, banking, or consulting with pharma experience in a clinical stage organization required. An equivalent combination of relevant education and applicable job experience may be considered. 
• Understanding of R&D operations and clinical cost drivers
• High level of intellectual curiosity, with ability to identify business issues and proactively develop solutions
• Excellent financial analysis skills and ability to translate analyses into sound strategic recommendations
• Ability to think strategically and communicate effectively across all levels of the organization
• Ability to work in a results-oriented, project-driven, real-time team en