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

About the role

The Associate Director, Strategic Finance is responsible for providing high-complexity, transaction-related finance support across Illumina’s most complex and consequential corporate and business development activities.

Responsibilities

• Partner with the Head of Strategic Finance and work directly with the CFO and other members of the Executive and Finance Leadership Teams, across all relevant financial analysis and modeling in support of assessing, recommending and structuring deals to support corporate initiatives and strategies.
• Independently lead financial workstreams on highly complex, non-standard transactions, including new business formation, joint ventures, structured equity and debt arrangements, multi-party commercial partnerships, services-for-value exchanges, and contra-R&D and unconsolidated funding structures.
• Architect and stress-test deal structures across complex GAAP accounting regimes, partnering with Technical Accounting, Tax, Treasury, and outside advisors to ensure intended revenue recognition, balance sheet, and consolidation outcomes.
• Manage the design and execution of strategic review initiatives related to capital-intensive activities.
• Orchestrate analysis along prescribed timelines and socialize appropriately across Finance and Executive Leadership.
• Drive the routine assessment and reporting of previously completed mergers, acquisitions, partnerships, alliances, joint ventures, divestitures, and licensing agreements.

Requirements

The individual must reside in the San Diego or Foster City area and be able to commute to our corporate offices. Relocation assistance is available and should be completed within a six (6) month period or a mutually agreed upon time.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree and a minimum of 15 years of applicable experience in finance, investment banking, management consulting, business development, or a related field, with 7+ years of management experience.
• Direct experience negotiating commercial and financial terms with external counterparties, including the ability to lead opposite sophisticated outside counsel, banking, and corporate development teams.
• Demonstrated ability to complete quantitative and qualitative analysis and financial modeling; technical and corporate finance and valuation skills required.
• Demonstrated experience supporting mergers, acquisitions, partnerships, or other complex transaction-related activities.
• Demonstrated experience developing financial analyses to inform strategic or capital allocation decisions.

Skills

• Effectively plan and manage the scope and lifecycle of complex projects while balancing multiple constituencies and competing priorities.
• Align senior leaders and key stakeholders through strong interpersonal skills, high EQ, and the ability to influence outcomes.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to translate complex financial and strategic concepts into clear, actionable insights.
• Strong judgment and decision-making capability in ambiguous, high-stakes situations, with the ability to assess risk, trade-offs, and strategic implications.
• Ability to operate effectively in a highly matrixed, global environment and drive alignment across cross-functional stakeholders without direct authority.
• Deep understanding of financial, strategic, and operational drivers, with the ability to connect analysis to enterprise-level decision-making.

Benefits

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.

Pay

The estimated base salary range for the Associate Director, Strategic Finance (San Diego / Foster City) role based in the United States of America is: $155,600 - $233,400.

Schedule

The role is engaged directly and routinely by the CFO and other members of the Executive Leadership and Finance Leadership Team to drive financial analysis, structuring, and negotiation on transactions that fall outside the scope of standard corporate processes and that materially shape the company’s strategic trajectory. The work is characterized by ambiguity, executive-level scrutiny, and the need to partner with the VP Strategic Finance and financial accounting and legal teams to construct first-of-their-kind deal structures rather than execute against established templates.