Site & Business Unit Controller (Manufacturing)

Job Description

Site & BU Controller (Flagship manufacturing site + warehouse network)

Position Summary

This is a key finance role in a well-established, $1B+ global manufacturing organization. It sits at the intersection of site-level execution and divisional / business-unit partnership .

The BU Controller owns the plant’s financial integrity — close, reporting, standard cost, inventory, labor and overhead — while also serving as the primary finance partner who can explain plant performance to leadership outside the four walls.

What the Role Does

Financial close, reporting, and control

\n
• Own monthly close for the site, including P&L and balance sheet account reconciliation (oversight and/or preparation).
\n
• Prepare internal monthly financial packages and leadership slide decks.
\n
• Serve as the primary finance contact for questions on plant performance and monthly results.
\n
• Maintain appropriate accruals and support accuracy of the financial statements.
\n
• Identify and implement internal control enhancements as needed.
\n
• Support capital project justification and analysis; proper expense vs. capital treatment; maintenance of capex and fixed asset records.
\n

Planning and analysis

\n
• Lead / support annual budget and quarterly forecasts for the site.
\n
• Analyze variances versus budget and forecast (labor, overhead, price, production/absorption, and operational drivers).
\n
• Provide forward-looking analysis — not only “what happened,” but what a change on the floor or in the product mix means for site and business-unit profitability.
\n

Costing, inventory, and product economics

\n
• Establish and maintain material, labor, and overhead standards; update standards and bills of materials as needed.
\n
• Own the integrity of standard costing as products are added, removed, or transferred into the site.
\n
• Inventory management and the financial impact of mix, volume, and process change.
\n
• Support cost estimates when volume or products move into the site (the Controller is a focal point for “what does this do to plant cost?”).
\n
• Customer / product profitability support as needed; gross-to-net mechanics exist in the business but are not the center of this role.
\n

Partnership and transformation

\n
• Regular presence on the plant floor: understand process, production changes, and projects, then translate those into numbers leadership can use.
\n
• Partner with plant leadership and with other controllers / business-unit finance on performance, mix, and supply-chain impact.
\n
• Bridge site results to business-unit leaders who do not sit at the plant — clear variance explanations, monthly story, and implications.
\n
• Support major site projects (new lines, layout/footprint changes, construction or warehouse projects, new-product qualification) from a finance standpoint.
\n
• Contribute a process-improvement mindset (yield, damage, cost of quality, operating discipline) rather than a purely accounting orientation.
\n

Ideal Background

\n
• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, or related field. MBA a plus.
\n
• Progressive manufacturing finance experience (typically 7–12+ years), including standard costing.
\n
• A mix of plant finance and FP&A / analytical work is often a better fit — early plant experience plus later analysis work, or the reverse — provided the person can operate on the floor and own costing.
\n
• Demonstrated experience explaining plant or operations results to non-finance and commercial stakeholders.
\n
• Experience in a site that has gone through change (new lines, product transfers, footprint or major capital projects) is highly relevant.
\n
• SAP experience is a strong plus (implementation / integration experience even more so); it is not framed as the sole gate.
\n
• Solid GAAP; IFRS familiarity is helpful in a global organization.
\n
• Process and system documentation experience valued; SOX familiarity a plus.
\n
• Strong communication and presentation skills. This person will be the site’s finance voice to a wider audience.
\n