Sr. Manufacturing Financial Analyst

The Senior Manufacturing Plant Financial Analyst is the senior finance professional embedded at the plant. Reporting to a Plant Controller, this role owns the detailed analysis behind manufacturing cost performance — material variances, plant expenses, and budget and forecast variances — and carries delegated Plant Controller responsibility for assigned sites.

This is not a reporting-only job. The analyst is expected on the floor as much as in the ledger: reconciling what the system says against what actually happened at the line, tracing a variance back to a BOM, a routing, a scrap event, or a purchase price change, then working with operations, sourcing, and engineering to close the gap.

Success is not a variance report delivered on time. It is the plant understanding the variance and doing something about it. The role is the primary development path into Plant Controller.

Own material variance analysis end to end for the assigned sites — decomposition, root cause, and follow-through.

• Decompose total material variance into its components each period: purchase price variance, material usage and yield variance, scrap and rework, substitutions, and revaluation from standard cost changes.

• Analyze variances at the level where they are actionable — part number, commodity, supplier, work order, product family, and value stream — rather than stopping at a plant-level total.

• Trace significant variances to their source: BOM accuracy, routing and standard quantity errors, receipt and issue timing, inventory transaction errors, supplier price changes, or genuine operational performance.

• Distinguish real operational performance from data and timing noise, and correct the underlying master data rather than explaining the same error every month.

• Partner with sourcing on PPV drivers, quantify the impact of price changes and supplier moves, and validate that negotiated savings are reflected in standards and in the P&L.

• Support annual standard cost roll and interim standard updates: analyze proposed cost changes, quantify inventory revaluation impact, and explain year-over-year standard shifts by driver.

• Review scrap and yield reporting with operations, validate reported quantities against inventory movement, and quantify the cost of quality by line and part.

• Maintain and improve the recurring material variance reporting package, with commentary that identifies cause and owner, not just amount.

Own the analysis of plant operating expense — what was spent, why, and whether it was worth it.

• Analyze plant expense by department and cost center, covering direct and indirect labor, overtime and premium pay, supplies, maintenance and repair, utilities, freight, outside services, and other controllable spend.