Essential Principal Duties
- Oversee the preparation of budgets and financial forecasts for a large manufacturing unit
- Track and analyze actual expenditures against budgets to identify variances and recommend corrective actions
- Analyze financial data to identify trends, key performance indicators, and variances against forecast, budget, and actuals
- Prepare ad hoc financial analyses to support business performance evaluation and decisionâmaking
- Identify opportunities for improvement by researching variances and assessing costâsaving opportunities
- Monitor, analyze, and manage project and organizational costs to ensure alignment with financial and budgetary goals
- Develop and implement costâcontrol strategies to improve efficiency and reduce waste
- Collaborate with crossâfunctional teams to develop accurate budgets and forecasts and ensure financial alignment
- Review and validate cost estimates, pricing models, and purchase requisitions for accuracy and completeness
- Support the CFO in financial activities for the organization, units, or owners.
- Drive process improvements within accounting by identifying inefficiencies, standardizing workflows, strengthening internal controls, and supporting automation or system enhancements to improve accuracy, speed, and data quality using Alteryx, Microsoft Power Automate, or other data automation software.
- Support and execute key components of the monthly close for manufacturing operations, ensuring accurate cost recognition, variance explanations, and alignment between operational activity and financial results
- Manage key balance sheet areas, including capital expenditures, inventory, and manufacturing-related accruals, ensuring accuracy, proper classification, and alignment with operational activity.
- Clearly communicate financial results utilizing Power BI or Think-Cell to produce executive-level slide decks.
Essential Principal Skills and Abilities
- High emotional intelligence with the ability to influence, collaborate, and build trust across multiple functions and levels of the organization
- Strong learningâbyâdoing orientation supported by natural curiosity and a desire to ask questions, explore root causes, and continuously deepen understanding of processes, systems, and business challenges through hands-on engagement
- Deep understanding of manufacturing operations, including cost drivers, production flows, and operational constraints
- Solid foundation in cost accounting and business accounting principles, with the ability to apply them in a manufacturing environment
- Experience with automation, process improvement, and continuous improvement initiatives that enhan