Vice President, Finance & Treasurer

Zymeworks is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the discovery, development and commercialization of next-generation bispecific and multifunctional biotherapeutics.  Zymeworks’ suite of complementary therapeutic platforms and its fully-integrated drug development engine provide the flexibility and compatibility to precisely engineer and develop highly-differentiated product candidates.

About the Position

Zymeworks is currently seeking a Vice President, Finance & Treasurer to join our finance team. The successful candidate will be part of our Senior Management team reporting to the Chief Financial Officer, and will lead a highly motivated multidisciplinary group responsible for ensuring that the finance organization interfaces with business partners and stakeholders.

Reporting into the CFO, this role includes leading existing teams within our finance function, including senior reports within Financial Reporting, Financial Planning & Analysis, Tax and Clinical Finance. This position will also be responsible for providing oversight on capital programs as well as overseeing treasury and coordinating departmental resources on transactional matters.  

The successful candidate must have public-company experience in a senior accounting and finance role within the biopharmaceutical sector, including familiarity with cross-border and U.S. Securities matters. Effective communication, project leadership and collaboration with finance team members and other functional groups will be a critical component of daily activities, as well as the proven ability to interface with executive management and the board.

The Vice President, Finance & Treasurer will be based in Vancouver, BC, however, must have the flexibility for periodic travel to the United States.

Key Responsibilities:

• In collaboration with the senior management team, develops strategic and operational plans that support the company’s financial objectives. Contributes to the execution of strategic goals and objectives as well as the overall tactical management of the department.
• Provides leadership to the existing finance verticals including Financial Reporting, Financial Planning and Analysis, Tax and Clinical Finance, nurturing a culture of collaboration, engagement, respect and high performance within a team environment. Provides leadership, coaching and feedback; mentors and empowers personnel.
• Assumes treasury functional leadership, including coordination treasury policies, financial asset composition, and coordination with tax strategies related to domiciling and transfer pricing.
• Develops strong internal collaboration with stakeholders, including legal, corporate affairs and investor relations, human resources and operating departments.
• Develops, manages, implements and assumes overall responsibility for the consolidated finance departmental budgets, ensuring financial resources ae effectively allocated and managed to support achieve of the strategic objectives.
• Represents, or delegates to appropriate senior staff, finance representation on transactional committees.
• In conjunction with IT leadership, develops a financial systems roadmap to maintain and implement best-in-class financial systems that positions the Company for growth, and that meets the needs of company-wide stakeholders.
• Supports and implements appropriate system of policies, internal controls, accounting standards and procedures to improve operating effectiveness.  Coordinates finance department activities with corporate compliance and internal audit colleagues to ensure compliance with internal and external requirements.
• Develops and maintains relationships with the commercial arms of financial institutions.

Education and Experience:

University degree and CPA (or equivalent) and a minimum of 15+ years related experience including a senior finance role with direct biopharmaceutical experience or an equivalent combination of education and experience.

Skills and Abilities:

• Demonstrated ability to think holistically and long-term across a broad spectrum of industry trends and issues. Ability to envision, shape and communicate long term business objectives and priorities and be able to create competitive and break-through strategies and plans 
• Excellent analytical and conceptual thinking abilities, forward-looking. Out-of-the-box problem solving skills 
• Proven history of building relationships and fostering engagement across multiple stakeholders, including the board, senior management, operational levels, suppliers and business partners 
• Exceptional leadership skills and the ability to mentor and develop strong contributors. A track record of inspiring and aligning organizations around goals and contributing as an active role model in company values 
• Proven experience leading, building and expanding integrated finance teams in a fast-paced, rapidly changing environment which combines recurring deadlines with ad hoc project and transactional deadlines
• Strong experience in a U.S. securities environment, including quarterly and annual reporting, equity transactions, compliance with NYSE/NASDAQ market rules, and interactions with U.S./Global investment banking
• Excellent organizational skills and the ability to coordinate resources and maintain effective working relationships to achieve overlapping deadlines with a geographically diverse team
• Proven experience managing a diverse, functional finance team, including interacting with a high-functioning public company board on finance and accounting matters
• Comfort and familiarity working in a rapidly growing, multijurisdictional controls-based environment (SOX, NI 52-109), including working with compliance and internal audit to address control deficiencies and scale to fit the needs of the business
• Strong knowledge of the biopharmaceutical sector, including pre-clinical and clinical drug development process (Phase I-III), including cost-drivers and industry-standard factors impacting the deployment of capital
• Strong attention to detail and excellent project management skills
• Proven experience handling confidential and sensitive information with the ability to exercise discretion and show good judgment; honesty, integrity, and trust building behaviors in all dealings is essential and required
• Self-motivated, with initiative and the ability to take ownership of, and follow through with specific tasks, as well as the ability to work with limited direction
• Ability to multi-task and shift priorities quickly while working under tight deadlines
• Demonstrated high level of integrity and ethics

Why Work for Us?

Zymeworks’ employees are passionate, engaged and extremely motivated to succeed.  We are excited by the cutting-edge science and technology, the endless possibilities this union holds and the sheer opportunity to be a part of something big.  To learn more about Zymeworks Inc. and our current openings, please visit our website at www.zymeworks.com.

We offer challenging career opportunities, competitive benefits and an environment that recognizes and rewards performance.

How to Apply

Due to the high volume of applicants, only those selected for interviews will be contacted.