Head of Business FP&A

About this role

Responsibilities

• Lead Group business performance management across business platforms and key functions, translating commercial and operational developments into clear financial implications, insights, and management actions.
• Own and continuously improve core FP&A cycles, including target setting, strategic and long-range planning, forecasting, outlooks, performance reviews, and executive reporting.
• Provide independent challenge and insight on key value drivers, including sales growth, business mix, Core EBITDA margin, Free Cash Flow, CapEx execution, inventory, and trade working capital.
• Deliver high-quality analysis, performance narratives, and decision materials for the CFO, CEO, Executive Committee, Board, and Audit Committee, ensuring transparency on results, risks, mitigations, and outlook.
• Partner with business platform leadership and Finance teams to strengthen forecast quality, risk and opportunity transparency, milestone tracking, and execution discipline across critical business priorities.
• Connect financial forecasts with operational execution by partnering across Operations, Supply Chain, Program Management, Commercial, and Quality on capacity, customer demand, campaign timing, batch releases, and key milestones.
• Support Investor Relations and Corporate Communications with fact-based performance narratives, ensuring consistency between internal performance expectations and external messaging.
• Lead strategic and operational Finance initiatives spanning business steering, cash and working capital, KPI governance, reporting simplification, process standardization, digitalization, and automation.
• Act as a trusted advisor and analytical thought partner to senior leadership, anticipating risks and opportunities, framing strategic options, recommending actions, and ensuring timely escalation of material performance deviations.
• Lead, coach, and develop a high-performing team of senior Business Partners while strengthening analytical quality, business partnering, accountability, collaboration, and talent across the broader FP&A community.
• Required qualifications:
• 12+ years of progressive Finance experience, with significant expertise in enterprise FP&A, corporate finance, business performance management, planning, and forecasting within high-profile multinational organizations.
• Proven experience steering financial performance in a large, global, matrixed, and operationally complex business, ideally within life sciences, pharmaceuticals, CDMO, manufacturing, or a similarly complex industry.
• Deep business and commercial acumen, with a strong understanding of the drivers of growth, margin, cash, CapEx, inventory, working capital, capacity utilization, productivity, and business mix.
• Strong understanding of manufacturing and operational economics, with the ability to connect customer demand, capacity, campaign timing, operational milestones, and execution performance to financial outcomes.
• Advanced analytical, financial modelling, and scenario-planning capabilities, with the ability to translate complex information into clear insights, recommendations, and executive-level narratives.
• Demonstrated experience leading planning, forecasting, performance management, KPI governance, process simplification, standardization, and digital or automation initiatives.
• Strong executive presence and communication skills, with the ability to independently challenge, influence, and advise C-suite executives and senior business and Finance leaders.
• Proven people leadership experience, including leading senior Finance professionals, developing talent, and building collaborative, high-performing teams across matrixed organizations.
• Demonstrated ability to operate with significant autonomy in dynamic and high-pressure environments, navigating ambiguity while maintaining delivery discipline, accountability, and a strong focus on results.
• Master's degree in Finance, Accounting, or a related discipline required; MBA or equivalent advanced qualification preferred. Business fluency in English is required.
• Every day, Lonza’s products and services have a positive impact on millions of people. For us, this is not only a great privilege, but also a great responsibility. How we achieve our business results is just as important as the achievements themselves. At Lonza, we respect and protect our people and our environment. Any success we achieve is no success at all if not achieved ethically.
• People come to Lonza for the challenge and creativity of solving complex problems and developing new ideas in life sciences. In return, we offer the satisfaction that comes with improving lives all around the world — the satisfaction that comes with making a meaningful difference.
• Lonza is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, status as a qualified individual with disability, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.