Senior Financial Analyst – Manufacturing

Position Summary

A global manufatcuring company is seeking a Senior Financial Analyst. In this role, you will support an assigned group of manufacturing plants with a strong focus on financial accounting, GAAP/IFRS compliance, and month‑end close, while also providing analytical support for budgeting, forecasting, and management reporting. This role is ideal for a plant accountant or cost accountant with solid technical accounting skills who is looking to expand into a more analytical, forward‑looking finance role while remaining close to the financial statements and manufacturing operations.

The position serves as a key liaison between plant operations, accounting, and corporate finance, ensuring accurate financial results, strong controls, and clear financial insight into manufacturing performance.

Key Responsibilities

Financial Accounting & Month-End Close

• Support and/or lead month‑end close activities for assigned manufacturing plants in accordance with US GAAP and/or IFRS.
• Prepare, review, and analyze manufacturing P&Ls and key balance sheet accounts, including inventory, WIP, accruals, reserves, and prepaid expenses.
• Ensure accurate accounting for manufacturing activities, including inventory valuation, overhead absorption, labor capitalization, and cost variances.
• Review and support journal entries related to inventory, cost of goods sold, production variances, and plant-level accruals.
• Partner with corporate accounting to ensure consistent application of accounting policies and timely issue resolution.

Inventory & Cost Accounting

• Maintain and analyze inventory balances in compliance with GAAP/IFRS, including standard costing, lower of cost or net realizable value (LCNRV), and excess & obsolete reserves.
• Analyze and explain material, labor, and overhead variances, including volume, rate, usage, and absorption impacts.
• Support standard cost maintenance, including cost rolls, BOM and routing validation, and cost impact analysis.
• Assist with inventory controls, cycle counts, physical inventories, and audit support as needed.

Financial Analysis, Budgeting & Forecasting

• Prepare and analyze plant-level forecasts and budgets, ensuring alignment with accounting standards and operational assumptions.
• Bridge actual results to budget/forecast with clear explanations tied to both accounting and operational drivers.
• Develop financial models to translate production volumes, labor plans, and spending assumptions into P&L and inventory impacts.
• Support long-range planning and scenario analysis related to volume changes, margin improvement, and cost structure.

Reporting & Business Partnership

• Prepare monthly reporting packages and dashboards for plant leadership and corporate finance, emphasizing accuracy, clarity, and auditability.
• Communicate financial results and accounting impacts to non-finance partners in a clear, practical manner.
• Partner with operations, supply chain, and engineering to assess financial implications of process changes, capital projects, and productivity initiatives.
• Support internal and external audit requests related to manufacturing accounting and controls.

Controls & Process Improvement

• Support a strong internal control environment at the plant level, including documentation, reconciliations, and review procedures.
• Identify opportunities to improve close efficiency, data quality, and consistency across plants.
• Assist in system enhancements, ERP implementations, or reporting tool improvements related to manufacturing finance.

Qualifications

Required

• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting or Finance (Accounting strongly preferred).
• 4+ years of experience in a manufacturing accounting or plant finance role.
• Strong working knowledge of US GAAP and/or IFRS, particularly as it relates to inventory and cost accounting.
• Hands-on experience with month-end close, account reconciliations, and financial statement analysis.
• Solid understanding of standard costing, inventory valuation, absorption accounting, and manufacturing variances.
• Advanced Excel skills; ability to analyze large data sets and build clear financial analyses.

Preferred

• CPA, CMA, or progress toward certification.
• Experience supporting multiple manufacturing plants.
• ERP experience (e.g., SAP, Oracle, Dynamics, JD Edwards) and familiarity with reporting or BI tools (Power BI, Tableau, etc.).

Key Competencies

• Strong technical accounting foundation with an analytical mindset.
• Ability to balance detail-oriented accounting work with higher-level financial analysis.
• Clear communicator who can explain accounting impacts to operations and leadership.
• Ownership mentality with strong follow-through and accountability.
• Comfortable working cross-functionally in a plant environment.