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

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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.

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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-performing team by providing coaching, prioritization, stretch opportunities, and clear performance expectations in a fast-paced and highly collaborative environment.
• Model strong partnership and matrix leadership by aligning diverse stakeholders, navigating ambiguity, and driving progress across global, cross-functional teams with differing priorities and perspectives.

Key Competencies:

Enterprise and Strategic Mindset: Ability to connect financial analysis to broader enterprise strategy, business priorities, market dynamics, and long-term value creation.

Advanced Financial Acumen: Deep expertise in financial modeling, valuation, transaction analysis, capital allocation, and interpreting complex financial drivers.

Executive Influence and Communication: Ability to distill complexity into clear recommendations and influence senior leaders through concise, credible, data-driven communication.

Cross-Functional and Matrix Leadership: Proven ability to operate effectively in a highly matrixed global environment, align stakeholders, and drive outcomes through partnership rather than formal authority alone.

Decision Quality and Judgment: Strong judgment in ambiguous, high-stakes situations, with the ability to balance strategic upside, risk, timing, and practical execution considerations.

Project and Pipeline Management: Ability to manage multiple complex workstreams simultaneously, establish priorities, and ensure disciplined execution against timelines.

Business Partnership: Demonstrated ability to build trusted relationships across Finance and the broader organization while bringing a balanced, solution-oriented perspective.

People Leadership and Talent Development: Ability to lead, coach, and develop high-performing teams; provide clear direction; and create an accountable, collaborative, and growth-oriented environment.

Industry and Market Insight: Understanding of the healthcare, life sciences, tools, and diagnostics landscape, including competitive, commercial, and technology considerations relevant to strategic decision-making.

Learning Agility and Adaptability: Comfort operating in dynamic environments with evolving priorities, incomplete information, and changing business needs.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Typically requires a Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, Business, or a related field and a minimum of 18 years of related experience, with 10+ years of management experience or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Significant experience in strategic finance, corporate finance, investment banking, management consulting, corporate development, business development, or another closely related field.
• Demonstrated experience leading complex financial analyses, valuation work, business case development, and transaction-related activities.
• Proven ability to operate effectively in a highly matrixed global environment and influence outcomes across senior stakeholders and cross-functional teams.
• Strong communication, interpersonal, and presentation skills, with the ability to tailor messaging for technical, business, and executive audiences.
• Demonstrated ability to manage multiple complex priorities, exercise sound judgment, and deliver high-quality work under tight timelines.

Preferred Credentials:

• MBA or other advanced business, finance, or scientific degree preferred.
• Relevant knowledge of life science tools, diagnostics, biotechnology, or healthcare industry, including companies, technologies, and market dynamics, strongly preferred.
• Experience supporting or leading mergers and acquisitions, strategic investments, partnerships, or venture formation activities in a corporate environment is highly preferred.
• Experience leading and developing teams in a global, matrixed organization preferred.

Other Requirements:

• Flexible working across multiple time zones as business demands require.
• Ability to travel domestically and internationally as required; anticipated travel is approximately 15% of the time.
• Additional onsite presence may be required for leadership meetings, transaction workstreams, or other business-critical activities.

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The estimated base salary range for the Director, Strategic Finance (San Diego/Foster City/Hybrid) role based in the United States of America is: $170,600 - $255,800. Should the level or location of the role change during the hiring process, the applicable base pay range may be updated accordingly. Compensation decisions are dependent on several factors including, but not limited to, an individual’s qualifications, location where the role is to be performed, internal equity, and alignment with market data. Additionally, all employees are eligible for one of our variable cash programs (bonus or commission) and eligible roles may receive equity as part of the compensation package. We offer a wide range of benefits as innovative as our work, including access to genomics sequencing, family planning, health/dental/vision, retirement benefits, and paid time off.

We are a company deeply rooted in belonging, promoting an inclusive environment where employees feel valued and empowered to contribute to our mission. Built on a strong foundation, Illumina has always prioritized openness, collaboration, and seeking alternative perspectives to propel innovation in genomics. We are proud to confirm a zero-net gap in pay, regardless of gender, ethnicity, or race. We also have several Employee Resource Groups (ERG) that deliver career development experiences, increase cultural awareness, and offer opportunities to engage in social responsibility. We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer committed to providing employment opportunity regardless of sex, race, creed, color, gender, religion, marital status, domestic partner status, age, national origin or ancestry, physical or mental disability, medical condition, sexual orientation, pregnancy, military or veteran status, citizenship status, and genetic information. Illumina conducts background checks on applicants for whom a conditional offer of employment has been made. Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with applicable local, state, and federal laws. Background check results may potentially result in the withdrawal of a conditional offer of employment. The background check process and any decisions made as a result shall be made in accordance with all applicable local, state, and federal laws. Illumina prohibits the use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in the application and interview process. If you require accommodation to complete the application or interview process, please contact [email protected]. To learn more, visit: https://www.dol.gov/ofccp/regs/compliance/posters/pdf/eeopost.pdf. The position will be posted until a final candidate is selected or the requisition has a sufficient number of qualified applicants. This role is not eligible for visa sponsorship.