Controller, Plant

Plant Controller

Location: Columbia, South Carolina

Reports to: Senior finance leader, with dotted accountability to operations leadership

Role summary

The Plant Controller will serve as the finance partner to operations and the owner of manufacturing cost integrity. This role will maintain accurate standard costs, inventory valuation, variance reporting, and plant financial controls while helping operations leaders understand and improve the financial impact of labor, overtime, material usage, scrap, yield, overhead, absorption, and production performance.

Key responsibilities

• Manufacturing cost accounting: Own standard cost maintenance, cost center rates, labor rates, overhead rates, BOM and routing financial review, production order settlement, and manufacturing variance analysis.
• Operations finance: Partner with plant leadership to explain labor efficiency, overtime, material usage, scrap, yield, absorption, and plant spending trends.
• Inventory control: Oversee inventory valuation, cycle count review, WIP analysis, finished goods accuracy, inventory reserves, slow moving inventory, and inventory adjustment controls.
• Close and reporting: Support month end close for plant related accounts, prepare reconciliations, review plant journal entries, and provide explanations for material variances.
• Budget and forecast support: Support plant budgets, cost center budgets, standard cost updates, capital tracking, and forecast inputs for Senior FP&A.
• Operating cadence: Lead the plant finance review cadence and maintain a variance action log with owners, due dates, and expected financial impact.
• Education and adoption: Train operations leaders on how plant activity flows through gross margin, EBITDA, inventory, and working capital.
• Systems and Improve ERP cost data, reporting accuracy, recurring files, documentation, and data handoffs between finance and operations.
• Controls: Maintain plant level financial controls over spending, inventory movement, production activity, capital projects, and accounting documentation.
• Business partnership: Work with operations, supply chain, engineering, maintenance, quality, commercial finance, and accounting to improve decision quality.

Required qualifications

• Bachelor degree in accounting, finance, or related field.
• At least ten years of accounting or finance experience, with meaningful manufacturing cost accounting experience.
• Strong knowledge of standard cost, inventory accounting, variance analysis, overhead absorption, and plant financial reporting.
• Experience working directly with plant operations, supply chain, engineering, or production leadership.
• Strong Excel capability and ERP experience. Epicor experience is preferred but not required.
• Ability to explain financial performance to non finance leaders in clear operating language.
• Ability to work inside the details while still connecting plant activity to EBITDA, cash, and forecast risk.

Preferred qualifications

• CPA, CMA, MBA, or equivalent advanced training.
• Experience with standard cost reset, ERP transition, Power BI, Prophix, or similar reporting tools.
• Experience in plastics, extrusion, engineered materials, assembly, or similar manufacturing environments.
• Experience leading process documentation, close improvement, inventory accuracy improvement, or plant finance education.

Success measures

• Plant finance package issued weekly with clear action ownership.
• Labor efficiency, overtime, scrap, yield, and standard margin reported with reliable drivers.
• Inventory reconciliations and cycle count issues are understood and acted on.
• Standards, BOMs, routings, and cost center rates are reviewed on a recurring schedule.
• Operations leaders can explain the financial impact of key operating misses.
• Forecast inputs from manufacturing are reliable and timely.
• Month end plant accounting is completed accurately and on schedule.

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