GlaxoSmithKline Services Unlimited Posted October 19, 2026

Director, Business Operations

UK – London – New Oxford Street, United Kingdom Full time
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GlaxoSmithKline Services Unlimited is the source of truth for this posting and owns the application process. We surface normalized context and market comparison you won't find on the original listing.

About this opportunity

At GSK, we unite science, technology and talent to get ahead of disease together. We are a global biopharma company with a special purpose – to unite science, technology and talent to get ahead of disease together. We’re proud to be leading a healthcare revolution, and we’re looking for people who can help us deliver on our ambition.

The Director, Business Operations leads the business and financial management of DPTF (Digital Platforms and Technology Foundations) as a function. The role owns the budget, cost transparency and operational governance through which DPTF runs itself, gives leadership an accurate view of spend, forecast and operational health, and keeps the function's own processes efficient and well controlled.

The role leads the central business operations team, including the Business Operations Manager, and sets the standards that the federated Tech Finance Managers apply within the platform domains. Components of the DPTF operating model are held across Technology Business Operations and integrated by the Head of Technology Business Operations. This role holds the financial and business administration components, covering the cost base, the funded establishment and how the function runs itself day to day.

Key Responsibilities

Own the DPTF budget and forecast cycle, ensuring the function's cost base is planned, tracked and reported accurately and to the enterprise finance timetable.

Own enterprise unit economics and cost-to-serve for DPTF - cost per product, service and capability -  supported by a maturity roadmap, enabling value-based decision making. Own the DPTF cost and allocation model, taxonomy and business-operations tooling strategy, so that financial, portfolio, performance and value reporting reconcile to one source of truth.

Own the domain technology finance standard that the federated Tech Finance Managers apply, including the required central submissions, their cadence, and the escalation where a domain’s data falls below standard. so budget, forecast and cost data is consistent and comparable across domains.

Lead the operational governance of DPTF as a function, including the operating cycle, the business planning cycle and the management reporting that keep the function running.

Partner with Finance Business Partners and the enterprise Finance function on budgeting, forecasting, accruals and financial control, representing DPTF in those forums.

Challenge spend against plan across the domains, bringing variance, risk and opportunity to leadership with supporting evidence, with the spend decisions themselves owned in the domains.

Own the funded establishment for DPTF, tracking budgeted positions, vacancies and the permanent and contractor mix as a cost position, with the shape of the organisation and its skills owned by the Workforce Strategy & Talent Manager.

Provide operational and financial insight to the DPTF Leadership Team, covering cost, headcount, contractor and vendor spend, and the operational health of the function.

Work with the Director, Planning & Performance so that financial information reconciles with the investment, value and performance picture and leadership sees one consistent view.

Ensure DPTF operates within GSK financial policy and control requirements, including approval routes, purchase governance and audit readiness.

Drive process automation and simplification across business operations, embedding AI and analytics to accelerate forecasting, cost analysis and management reporting and to cut manual effort in financial and operational administration.

Lead and develop the business operations team, including the Business Operations Manager, and build capability across the federated technology finance community.

Basic Qualifications

Bachelor's or Master's degree in Finance, Business, Accounting, Technology Management, or a related field, or equivalent experience.

Deep experience in technology finance, business operations, commercial management or a comparable discipline, including line leadership of professional teams.

Proven experience owning the budget and forecast for a large technology function or business unit.

Experience building cost transparency, including unit cost or FinOps reporting, and using it to change spending behaviour.

Experience running the operating rhythm and management reporting of a function, not only its finances.

Experience managing a funded establishment, including budgeted positions, vacancy tracking and permanent and contractor cost mix.

Experience setting central financial standards applied by teams outside direct control.

Experience partnering with an enterprise finance function on budgeting, forecasting and financial control.

Preferred Qualifications

Professional certifications desirable (e.g., a recognised accounting or financial management qualification, Technology Business Management, FinOps, Lean Six Sigma).

Experience driving automation and simplification of financial and operational processes.

Familiarity with technology business management practice and with AI enabled analytics applied to forecasting and reporting.

Strong financial acumen, able to own a large cost base and explain it clearly to audiences without a finance background.

Excellent executive communication skills, able to present a financial position candidly.

Ability to lead and develop a distributed team and a federated professional community.

Ability to challenge spend and forecasting quality constructively across domains without direct authority.

Strong organisational skills, able to run concurrent financial and operational cycles to an external timetable.

Work Arrangements:

This role offers a hybrid working model, with a mix of on-site and remote work. Fully remote or home-working arrangements are not available for this role.

Closing Date for Applications – 01 November 2026 EOD

Please take a copy of the Job Description, as this will not be available post closure of the advert.

When applying for this role, please use the ‘cover letter’ of the online application or your CV to describe how you meet the competencies for this role, as outlined in the job requirements above. The information that you have provided in your cover letter and CV will be used to assess your application.

#LI-Hybrid

#AGTech

Skills

Agile Methodology, Budget Ownership, Business Operations, Commercial Management, Cost Management, Cost Modeling, Cross-Functional Teamwork, Data Analysis, Design Thinking, DevOps, Financial Governance, Financial Operations, FinOps Operating Model, Forecasting, Management Reporting, Prioritization, Project Management, Strategy Deployment, Technology Business Management, Technology Finance, User Experience (UX)

Why GSK?

Uniting science, technology and talent to get ahead of disease together.

GSK is a global biopharma company with a purpose to unite science, technology and talent to get ahead of disease together. We aim to positively impact the health of 2.5 billion people by the end of the decade, as a successful, growing company where people can thrive. We get ahead of disease by preventing and treating it with innovation in specialty medicines and vaccines. We focus on four therapeutic areas: respiratory, immunology and inflammation; oncology; HIV; and infectious diseases – to impact health at scale.

People and patients around the world count on the medicines and vaccines we make, so we’re committed to creating an environment where our people can thrive and focus on what matters most. Our culture of being ambitious for patients, accountable for impact and doing the right thing is the foundation for how, together, we deliver for patients, shareholders and our people.

GSK is an Equal Opportunity Employer. This ensures that all qualified applicants will receive equal consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, gender identity, and sexual orientation), parental status, national origin, age, disability, genetic information (including family medical history), military service or any basis prohibited under federal, state or local law.

We believe in an agile working culture for all our roles. If flexibility is important to you, we encourage you to explore with our hiring team what the opportunities are.

Should you require any adjustments to our process to assist you in demonstrating your strengths and capabilities contact us at UKRecruitment.Adjustments@gsk.com where you can also request a call.

Please note should your enquiry not relate to adjustments, we will not be able to support you through these channels. However, we have created a  Recruitment FAQ guide. Click the link where you will find answers to multiple questions we receive

Important notice to Employment businesses/ Agencies

GSK does not accept referrals from employment businesses and/or employment agencies in respect of the vacancies posted on this site. All employment businesses/agencies are required to contact GSK's commercial and general procurement/human resources department to obtain prior written authorization before referring any candidates to GSK. The obtaining of prior written authorization is a condition precedent to any agreement (verbal or written) between the employment business/ agency and GSK. In the absence of such written authorization being obtained any actions undertaken by the employment business/agency shall be deemed to have been performed without the consent or contractual agreement of GSK. GSK shall therefore not be liable for any fees arising from such actions or any fees arising from any referrals by employment businesses/agencies in respect of the vacancies posted on this site.

Please note that if you are a US Licensed Healthcare Professional or Healthcare Professional as defined by the laws of the state issuing your license, GSK may be required to capture and report expenses GSK incurs, on your behalf, in the event you are afforded an interview for employment. This capture of applicable transfers of value is necessary to ensure GSK’s compliance to all federal and state US Transparency requirements. For more information, please visit the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) website at https://openpaymentsdata.cms.gov/

Job details

Seniority
Director
Function
Information Technology
Therapeutic area
Not listed
Location
UK – London – New Oxford Street, United Kingdom
Employment type
Full time

How this role compares

Computed from every other active Information Technology role in our database, not just this employer's listings.

We currently track 191 comparable Director Information Technology roles across 36 biopharma companies.

191Comparable roles tracked
178Currently active
36Companies hiring similar roles
21Countries represented

Salary context

69 of 191 peers report a salary range (USD, annualized)

Peers share this role's job function and a matching or adjacent seniority level -- not necessarily the same therapeutic area or country.

This roleSubject Not listed on this posting
Lowest disclosed · Principal SRE Engineer · Lilly $66,000/yr – $158,400/yr
Peer group range $112,200 – $328,000 (median $217,200)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 191 comparable roles

United States105
India41
United Kingdom14
Spain4
Argentina3
Poland3

+ 15 more countries

Seniority mix

191 of 191 peers have a known seniority level

Principal103
Director66
Senior Director22

Therapeutic area mix

3 of 191 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden

Oncology3

Similar opportunities

The closest matches from our peer group, ranked by how similar they are, not how well you'd qualify for them -- treat this as market context, not a guaranteed shortlist; a weak match is labeled as one below.

60%similar
Gilead Sciences Europe Ltd. Uxbridge, United Kingdom Director
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
GlaxoSmithKline Services Unlimited UK – London – New Oxford Street, United Kingdom Director
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60%similar
GlaxoSmithKline Services Unlimited UK – London – New Oxford Street, United Kingdom Director
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
GlaxoSmithKline Services Unlimited UK – London – New Oxford Street, United Kingdom Director
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
GlaxoSmithKline Services Unlimited UK – London – New Oxford Street, United Kingdom Director
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
GlaxoSmithKline Services Unlimited UK – London – New Oxford Street, United Kingdom Director
Same function Same seniority Same country

Notify me about similar jobs

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How we calculate "similar"

No black box, no LLM guesswork: a deterministic score built from four normalized attributes. Here's this role's own peer group at different match levels, so you can see the mechanism, not just the result.

Every comparison starts from the same 100-point budget: 25 for working in the same function, 40 for the same therapeutic area, 20 for the same or adjacent seniority, 15 for the same country. A dimension we can't confirm on both sides contributes nothing, never a guess, never a free pass.

60%
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Function Therapeutic area Adjacent seniority Country
Unmatched or unknown dimensions score exactly the same: 0 points, never a partial guess. A role we know almost nothing about beyond its function bottoms out at 25%; it never inflates to 100% just because there's little to compare against. Seniority uses a defined ladder (Associate → Manager → Associate Director → Senior → Principal → Director → Senior Director → Executive/VP) so "Director" and "Senior Director" count as adjacent, but "Director" and "Executive/VP" do not.