ICON is a global healthcare intelligence and clinical research organisation united by a mission to bring new medicines and treatments to patients faster.
As a values-driven organisation, integrity, collaboration, agility, and inclusion are at the heart of how we work and interact with each other, customers, patients and suppliers.
As a senior leader within the Project Finance organisation, the Senior Manager is responsible for the financial governance, performance oversight and strategic financial management of a portfolio of client programmes and relationships. Serving as the lead finance partner for assigned clients, the role works closely with operational and commercial leadership to ensure strong financial performance, effective budget management and robust forecasting discipline.
What You Will Do:
The Senior Manager provides leadership across portfolio financial governance, ensuring financial risks are identified, understood and actively managed through robust analysis, reporting and accountability. The role plays a critical part in maintaining client confidence through effective stewardship of client budgets and resolution of complex financial matters.
In addition, lead strategic initiatives that strengthen Project Finance capabilities, including the design and implementation of governance frameworks, controls, systems and processes. Working across Finance, Operations and Technology functions, the role identifies opportunities to improve efficiency, enhance financial visibility and deliver scalable solutions that support the continued growth and maturity of the organisation.
Key responsibilities include:
- Portfolio Financial Leadership
- Provide financial leadership and oversight for a portfolio of client programmes and strategic customer relationships, ensuring strong financial performance, effective budget management and robust forecasting discipline.
- Deliver meaningful portfolio analysis and insights to operational leadership, highlighting emerging financial issues, challenging assumptions and driving actions that improve portfolio performance.
- Drive financial accountability across the portfolio through proactive review of study-level assumptions, risks and recovery plans.
- Lead financial governance across assigned portfolios, ensuring financial risks are escalated appropriately, recovery actions are clearly owned and progress is monitored through to resolution.
- Client & Business Partnership
- Act as the primary finance partner and escalation point for assigned strategic clients, coordinating the resolution of financial issues and working closely with Operations, Commercial, Revenue and other internal stakeholders.
- Support client governance meetings and business reviews through the preparation and presentation of financial insights, portfolio performance updates and value-added analysis that helps clients understand key trends and portfolio performance.
- Ensure the timely and accurate delivery of client financial reporting and governance materials, maintaining high standards of quality, consistency and responsiveness to client needs.
- Build strong relationships with client stakeholders and internal leadership teams to support effective financial management and client satisfaction.
- Transformation & Continuous Improvement
- Lead strategic initiatives that enhance Project Finance capabilities, governance frameworks, systems and processes, delivering scalable solutions that improve financial visibility, operational effectiveness and business decision-making.
- People Leadership
- Lead, coach and develop Project Finance colleagues, supporting both performance and long-term career growth.
- Foster a culture of accountability, collaboration and continuous improvement across the team and broader organisation.
- Support talent development, succession planning and capability building to ensure the continued growth and effectiveness of the Project Finance function.
Your Profile:
We are seeking a finance leader who combines strong technical expertise with commercial acumen, strategic thinking and excellent stakeholder management skills. The successful candidate will be comfortable partnering with senior leaders, influencing decision-making, leading change and driving strong financial performance across complex client portfolios.
Required qualifications and experience:
- Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, Business or a related discipline, together with a recognised professional accounting qualification (ACA, ACCA, CIMA or equivalent).
- Significant experience in Project Finance, financial management, business partnering or portfolio financial leadership within a complex, project-based environment.
- Proven experience partnering with senior operational leaders to influence business decisions, manage financial risk and improve portfolio performance.
- Demonstrated experience leading cross-functional initiatives that enhance financial processes, governance, systems, controls or reporting capabilities.
- Minimum of 2-3 years' people management experience, including coaching, performance management and talent development.
- Strong financial analysis, forecasting and financial modelling skills, with the ability to translate complex financial information into clear business insights.
- Exceptional communication and presentation skills, with the ability to distil complex financial information into clear, actionable insights and confidently influence executive, operational and client stakeholders.
- Strategic mindset with strong problem-solving skills and the ability to lead through change, ambiguity and organisational growth.
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Employment with ICON is contingent upon having the legal right to work in the country where the role is based.
Rewards & Benefits
ICON offers a competitive and comprehensive total rewards package designed to support your health, wellbeing, and career development.
Benefits may include:
- Competitive base salary and performance related incentives
- Health and wellbeing programmes including medical, dental, and vision coverage where applicable
- Retirement and pension plans
- Life assurance and disability coverage
- Employee assistance programmes and wellbeing resources
- Learning and development opportunities through structured training and career pathways
Benefits may vary depending on role and location.
Visit our careers site to read more about the benefits ICON offers.
Inclusion and Accessibility
ICON is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to building an inclusive and accessible workplace where everyone feels valued and supported.
If you require reasonable accommodations during the recruitment process, please let us know or submit a request here.
Are you a current ICON Employee? Please click here to apply
Skills Required
- Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, Business, or a related discipline
- Recognized professional accounting qualification such as ACA, ACCA, CIMA, or equivalent
- Significant experience in Project Finance, financial management, business partnering, or portfolio financial leadership in a complex project-based environment
- Experience partnering with senior operational leaders to influence decisions, manage financial risk, and improve portfolio performance
- Experience leading cross-functional initiatives that improve financial processes, governance, systems, controls, or reporting
- At least 2-3 years of people management experience, including coaching, performance management, and talent development
- Strong financial analysis, forecasting, and financial modeling skills
- Exceptional communication and presentation skills with the ability to influence executive, operational, and client stakeholders
- Strategic mindset, strong problem-solving skills, and ability to lead through change, ambiguity, and organizational growth
ICON plc Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about ICON plc and has not been reviewed or approved by ICON plc.
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Healthcare Strength — Benefits are described as comprehensive, with medical coverage and wellness initiatives highlighted. Larger sites are also associated with added wellness supports such as onsite fitness options and access to an employee assistance program.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Time-off and flexibility provisions are positioned as a meaningful part of the total package, including vacation/annual leave and flexible work scheduling. Flexibility is sometimes cited as helping offset long hours in certain roles.
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Retirement Support — Retirement and savings support is presented as a core component of the benefits package, including offerings such as pension arrangements in some locations and a U.S. 401(k) plan with company match. Financial planning resources are also emphasized as part of broader security benefits.
ICON plc Insights
What We Do
Since our foundation in Dublin, Ireland in 1990, our mission has been to help our clients to accelerate the development of drugs and devices that save lives and improve quality of life. We do this by delivering best in class information, solutions and performance, with an unyielding focus on quality at all times. We offer a full range of consulting, development and commercialisation services from a global network of offices in 53 countries. We focus our innovation on the factors that are critical to our clients – reducing time to market, reducing cost, and increasing quality – and our global team of experts has extensive experience in a broad range of therapeutic areas.







