Senior Director of Finance and Administration

Director of Finance & Administration

Our client is seeking a hands-on Director of Finance & Administration to lead the company's finance function and support the next stage of operational and commercial growth.

This role will own financial reporting, forecasting, budgeting, cash management, CAPEX tracking, business planning, and financial analysis. The role will also oversee company IT through a third-party IT provider.

This is not a corporate-only finance role. The right person must be willing to get into the details, work directly with operations, and help turn financial and business information into practical decisions.

The ideal candidate is a strong finance leader who can report the numbers, build the forecast, challenge assumptions, track performance, and help leadership make better decisions.

Key Responsibilities

Financial Leadership

• Own monthly financial reporting, variance analysis, and financial review process.
• Lead budgeting, forecasting, and financial planning.
• Provide clear reporting around revenue, margin, cash, backlog, shipments, working capital, and operating performance.
• Partner with leadership to translate financial data into operating priorities.
• Improve visibility into profitability by customer, part number, product family, and program.
• Support ownership and leadership with timely, accurate, and useful financial information.
• Help bring structure, discipline, and accountability to the finance function.

Forecasting & Planning

• Build and maintain revenue, shipment, backlog, margin, and cash forecasts.
• Support operational planning by tying financial forecasts to production capacity, labor, materials, and customer demand.
• Help develop short-term and mid-range operating plans.
• Identify financial risks and opportunities before they become surprises.
• Work directly with operations to understand what is happening on the floor and how it impacts the financial plan.
• Support leadership with scenario planning, staffing needs, capacity planning, and growth planning.

CAPEX / OPEX Control

• Own tracking of CAPEX and OPEX projects against approved plans.
• Support ROI analysis for equipment, facility, automation, maintenance, and process improvement investments.
• Work with operations to make sure spending is aligned with business priorities.
• Provide leadership with clean visibility into committed, planned, and actual spend.
• Help bring discipline and structure to capital planning.
• Track major projects from approval through completion.

Accounting & Controls

• Oversee day-to-day accounting activity and ensure timely, accurate financial close.
• Maintain strong internal controls, discipline, and documentation.
• Support AR, AP, payroll, cost accounting, inventory, and general ledger activity as needed.
• Improve finance processes where the business has outgrown informal systems or legacy practices.
• Ensure the finance function is accurate, organized, and accountable.
• Work with outside accounting, tax, audit, banking, insurance, and other professional partners as needed.

IT Oversight

This role will also own company IT through a third-party IT provider. The Director of Finance & Administration is not expected to personally perform technical IT work, but will be responsible for making sure IT support is reliable, secure, cost-effective, and accountable.

• Manage the relationship with the company's third-party IT provider.
• Oversee IT spending, service levels, and vendor accountability.
• Support basic technology planning for the business, including hardware, software, cybersecurity, phones, network, and ERP-related needs.
• Help prioritize IT projects based on business impact.
• Ensure IT issues are being resolved in a timely and practical manner.
• Coordinate with leadership on technology needs related to operations, finance, quality, and customer requirements.
• Support cybersecurity and IT readiness as needed for aerospace, customer, and insurance requirements.

Hands-On Business Support

• Work directly in spreadsheets, systems, schedules, and reports as needed.
• Help clean up data and build practical tools for the business.
• Support customer, pricing, quoting, inventory, backlog, and margin analysis.
• Partner closely with operations, quality, sales, and ownership.
• Be willing to step into the details when the business needs it.
• Help leadership turn business goals into measurable plans.

Ideal Candidate Profile

• A hands-on finance leader with strong manufacturing experience.
• Comfortable in a small-to-mid-size business where the role is both strategic and tactical.
• Strong in forecasting, budgeting, financial modeling, and variance analysis.
• Experienced with cost accounting, inventory, margin analysis, and working capital.
• Comfortable working with imperfect data while improving the process over time.
• Able to communicate clearly with operators, executives, ownership, and outside service providers.
• Practical, direct, accountable, and comfortable in a fast-moving environment.
• Capable of overseeing IT through a third-party provider without needing to be a technical IT expert.
• Strong enough to help build the function, not just maintain the current process.

Required Experience

• 7+ years of progressive finance, accounting, FP&A, controllership, or related experience.
• Manufacturing experience strongly preferred.
• Experience owning budgets, forecasts, financial reporting, and variance analysis.
• Strong Excel and financial modeling skills.
• ERP experience preferred.
• Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, Business, or related field preferred.

Preferred Experience

• Foundry, aerospace, machining, casting, fabrication, or industrial manufacturing experience.
• Experience supporting private equity ownership, board reporting, or investor reporting.
• Experience with CAPEX tracking and ROI analysis.
• Experience managing third-party service providers.
• Experience overseeing IT vendors or business systems.
• Experience improving finance processes in a business that is scaling, changing, or professionalizing.
• Experience partnering closely with operations in a manufacturing environment.

Compensation

They are open to different structures depending on the strength of the candidate. This could be:

• A hands-on finance leader who personally owns the full function.
• A more senior finance leader who can build the department, support planning, and oversee outside resources.
• A finance leader supported by part-time, outsourced, or shared-service resources.

The right candidate must be capable of owning finance, forecasting, budgeting, CAPEX tracking, business planning, and third-party IT oversight.

Success in This Role Looks Like

• Leadership has clear, reliable financial reporting.
• Forecasts are practical and tied to real operational activity.
• CAPEX and OPEX are tracked cleanly against plan.
• Backlog, shipments, revenue, cash, and margin are visible and understood.
• IT support is organized, responsive, and held accountable through the third-party provider.
• Finance becomes a decision-support partner, not just a reporting function.
• Operations and ownership have confidence in the numbers.
• The business has better visibility, better planning, and fewer financial surprises.