Finance Director

International Automotive Components•Southfield, MI

About The Position

As the Business Finance Director, your main role is to ensure that the company acquires profitable new business and that we properly track such expected profitability from business award to program launch. This is not a passive reporting role; it is a technical costing leadership position. You will lead the Cost Estimating group, the Program Management Finance lead and the Commercial Finance lead. This is a key leadership role since it will have to bring to light with data those situations where we deviate from commercial, engineering or operational assumptions.

Requirements

10+ years in Tier 1 Automotive Finance or Cost Engineering (Interiors/Seating preferred).
Good track record on development and implementation of cost estimating / quoting / cost modelling tools.
Deep "shop-floor" understanding of manufacturing costs.
Ability to challenge a plant's cost assumptions with data-driven benchmarks.
Experience managing a distributed team.
Ability to negotiate with General Managers and Plant Controllers.
Advanced mastery of ECN impact tracking, PAR/CapEx management, and complex intercompany sales.

Responsibilities

Lead the Cost Estimating group, the Program Management Finance lead and the Commercial Finance lead.
Ensure the company acquires profitable new business and properly tracks expected profitability from business award to program launch.
Bring to light with data situations where we deviate from commercial, engineering or operational assumptions.
Keep the RFQ and ECN process on track.
Assess the workload of the costing team and recommend resource balancing to support fluctuating program demands.
Optimize and replace old Cost Estimating systems (QMS and CES) with more capable, less manual intensive technology.
Critically review plant-provided costs and develop concerted cost models that are realistic, achievable and do not cover inefficiencies.
Work directly with Commercial or Operations to troubleshoot and resolve price / costing discrepancies, ensuring the program remains at or above the awarded EBITDA.
Mentor staff to ensure they understand cost drivers in an automotive interior environment.
Support program managers financial needs.
Standardize Program Management financial templates to track key metrics of program profitability from award to post-launch.
Oversee funding for Capital, ED&T and launch costs to flag overspending and control governance of funding reallocation.
Partner with Sales to ensure customer-funded expenditures (Tooling/Price) are protected.
Support Business managers’ financial needs and commercial roadmaps for both commercial recoveries and secured revenue forecasting.
Determine pricing using best available information.
Use data for arbitrage when gaps between competitive pricing and costing arise, recommending resolution to the ELT.