Senior Financial Planning & Analysis Analyst

Department - Finance Location - LaVergne, TN: Onsite, 5 days per week Employment Type - Full-time, Exempt Position Summary We are a light manufacturing business focused in the automotive maintenance sector seeking a Senior FP&A Analyst to serve as a trusted financial partner to leaders across operations, supply chain, and executive management. This is a high-visibility role for someone who is equally comfortable building a driver-based forecast model, walking the plant floor to understand a cost variance, and presenting findings to senior leadership. You will own core planning cycles, translate operational activity into financial insight, and continuously improve how our finance team gets to answers. If you enjoy working where the numbers connect to physical product - inventory, production, costing, freight, and margin - this role will keep you engaged. Key Responsibilities Planning, Budgeting & Forecasting Lead the annual budget and rolling forecast processes, including timeline management, template design, and consolidation across business units. Build and maintain driver-based financial models tied to operational inputs such as volume, unit cost, capacity utilization, and freight rates. Deliver monthly and quarterly variance analysis (actual vs. budget, forecast, and prior year) with clear explanation of root cause — not just the delta. Partner with accounting during close to ensure accruals, reclasses, and reporting assumptions are understood and reflected accurately. Business Partnering Act as the embedded finance contact for assigned functional leaders, providing decision support on make/buy, staffing, capital requests, and cost initiatives. Translate financial results into plain-language insight for non-financial stakeholders, and challenge assumptions constructively. Support operations and supply chain with analysis of standard cost, purchase price variance, manufacturing variances, inventory turns, and landed cost. Contribute to customer, product, and channel profitability reviews that inform commercial strategy. Modeling & Scenario Analysis Develop scenario and sensitivity models to quantify the financial impact of demand shifts, input cost inflation, tariffs, capacity changes, and footprint decisions. Build business cases and ROI/payback analysis for capital expenditures, automation projects ROI/payback, new product ROI analysis, facility optimization analysis, or facility investments. Prepare executive and board-level materials that present complex analysis clearly and defensibly. Support long-range planning, working capital analysis, and cash flow forecasting. Systems, Reporting & Process Improvement Own and enhance recurring management reporting packages, dashboards, and KPI reporting. Reduce manual effort by improving data flows between SAP, planning tools, and BI platform; replace spreadsheet-heavy processes where practical. Document processes and establish repeatable standards so analysis is consistent, auditable, and transferable. Assist in data collection, consolidation, and analysis for M&A activities. Qualifications Required Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, or a related field. 7+ years of progressive FP&A, corporate finance, or cost/financial analysis experience. Direct experience in light manufacturing (automotive aftermarket preferred), distribution, or other inventory-carrying environments. Advanced Excel skills, including complex modeling, large data sets, and model design that others can follow. Working with large data sets and reconciling financial and operational data. Strong understanding of GAAP fundamentals, cost accounting concepts, and the mechanics of the three financial statements. Demonstrated ability to communicate financial concepts to non-finance audiences and influence without direct authority. Preferred MBA, CPA, CMA, or CFA. SAP S4/HANA experience preferred, but not required Experience in AI prompt writing to quickly and efficiently leverage AI tools Proficiency with BI tools such as Power BI or Tableau. SQL, Python, or Power Query skills applied to finance data. Experience in a multi-site, multi-entity, or private equity-backed organization. Exposure to standard costing, bills of material, and routing structures. What Success Looks Like In the first 90 days: you understand our cost structure, reporting cadence, and data sources well enough to produce the monthly package independently. In the first six months: functional leaders come to you before making decisions, not after. In the first year: at least one significant reporting or planning process is faster, cleaner, and less manual because you rebuilt it. Work Environment & Physical Requirements This is an onsite role based in LaVergne, TN with regular presence on the production floor and in operational meetings. Occasional travel to other facilities may be required. Standard office environment. #J-18808-Ljbffr