Director, Commercial Finance

Motherson North America • Farmington Hills, MI

1d

About The Position

The Director, Commercial Finance will build, develop, and lead a stand-alone Commercial Finance organization, including tools, processes, and talent. This role will establish scalable commercial finance processes and systems to support growth and increasing complexity, and develop into a trusted financial advisor to commercial and operational leadership. The position involves partnering with Sales, Operations, Engineering, Procurement, Plant Controllers, and Accounting to drive data-backed decision-making, challenging assumptions, and advocating for profitability, value realization, and long-term returns. Key responsibilities include leading financial support for customer pricing and quoting activities, analyzing customer, product, and segment profitability, evaluating raw material exposure, and analyzing monthly and YTD performance. The role also involves developing commercial and special-project capital expenditure requests, supporting sales assumptions for budgeting and forecasting, and reviewing financial terms within customer contracts. Additionally, the Director will manage, coach, mentor, and develop Finance team members, fostering a culture of ownership and analytical excellence.

Requirements

• Minimum of 15 years of progressively responsible experience in accounting and finance roles within large, complex multinational organizations.
• Strong analytical and financial modeling capabilities
• High systems aptitude; experience building scalable tools and dashboards
• Proven experience developing pricing, cost‑to‑produce, and profitability models
• Experience supporting commercial strategy, negotiations, and customer decision‑making
• High integrity with strong financial judgment
• Ability to build trust and strong relationships across the organization
• Willingness to challenge the status quo and act as a constructive “devil’s advocate”
• Strategic thinker with the ability to operate deeply in execution and detail
• Comfortable influencing and communicating at all levels of the organization

Responsibilities

• Build, develop, and lead a stand‑alone Commercial Finance organization, including tools, processes, and talent
• Establish scalable commercial finance processes and systems to support growth and increasing complexity
• Develop into a trusted financial advisor to commercial and operational leadership
• Partner with Sales, Operations, Engineering, Procurement, Plant Controllers, and Accounting to drive data‑backed decision‑making
• Challenge assumptions and advocate for profitability, value realization, and long‑term returns
• Lead financial support of customer pricing and quoting activities, including preparation of pricing models, templates, and customer presentations, cost‑to‑produce analysis and full profitability modeling, development of customer “next‑best alternatives” / understanding market pricing and competitive analysis, and scenario modeling and sensitivity analysis
• Review, validate, track, and approve pricing changes
• Develop clear expectations for quote timing and deliverables based on project size and complexity
• Support win/loss analysis and capture commercial intelligence from quoting activity
• Analyze customer, product, and segment profitability to identify margin leakage and cost improvement opportunities
• Evaluate raw material exposure, material cost percentages, and timing/lag impacts between revenue and costs
• Analyze monthly and YTD performance (volume, price, and material) versus Budget / Prior Year
• Lead or support development of data models, profitability databases, and Power BI dashboards
• Support development of Customer Relationship Management tools (like Salesforce.com)
• Develop Commercial and special‑project capital expenditure requests (CERs)
• Build robust financial models evaluating project returns, risks, and alternatives
• Partner with operations and engineering on investment prioritization
• Support development of sales assumptions including volume, pricing, mix, and material costs
• Partner with Finance and Commercial teams through budgeting and forecasting cycles
• Prepare executive‑level presentation materials and management insights
• Review and advise on financial terms, pricing mechanisms, and commercial clauses within customer contracts
• Summarize key financial risks and opportunities in commercial agreements
• Assist with ongoing management and enforcement of critical contract terms (e.g., pricing adjustments, surcharges, volume commitments, etc.)
• Develop “gold standard” financial contract clauses
• Manage, coach, mentor, and develop Finance team members
• Provide timely, constructive, and high‑quality feedback
• Foster a culture of ownership, analytical excellence, continuous improvement and engagement

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Education Level: No Education Listed