Plant Controller (Manufacturing)
About The Position
Plant Controller Where finance meets the factory floor. You don’t sit in the office waiting for numbers to tell a story. You walk the plant, talk to operators, challenge assumptions, and connect what’s happening on the floor to what’s showing up in the P&L. If you’ve led accounting in a manufacturing environment and know that cost accuracy starts with operational reality, this role is built for you. We’re a progressive, growth-oriented manufacturing company looking for a Plant Controller who can own the financial heartbeat of the operation. This is a hands-on leadership role where you’ll drive accounting, costing, controls, and reporting, while partnering closely with Operations to improve performance.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s (or Master’s) in Accounting, Finance, or related field
- Proven experience as a Plant Controller or senior manufacturing finance leader
- Deep expertise in cost accounting within a process manufacturing environment
- Strong working knowledge of U.S. GAAP in manufacturing
- Experience working inside an ERP environment (Visual, SAP, Oracle, Epicor, D365, etc.)
- Advanced analytical skills. Comfortable pulling data from SQL and building models in Excel
- Ability to operate at both the strategic level and the transactional level
- Strong presence on the plant floor. You build relationships, ask questions, and influence outcomes
Nice To Haves
- CPA
- Experience with BI tools (QlikView, Power Query)
- ERP implementation or migration experience
Responsibilities
- Be the financial leader on the plant floor
- Act as a trusted advisor to Operations, not just a reporter of results
- Translate financial data into clear, actionable insights for plant leadership
- Connect production activity, labor, materials, and variances to real business outcomes
- Drive accurate, disciplined manufacturing accounting
- Lead all plant accounting activities in compliance with U.S. GAAP
- Own monthly close, financial statements, budgeting, forecasting, and audit coordination
- Ensure costing integrity across all systems, transactions, and SKUs
- Investigate and explain actual vs. standard variances with precision
- Own inventory, costing, and controls
- Lead cycle counting and physical inventories with operational alignment
- Ensure work orders are fully burdened and aligned to the corporate cost model
- Strengthen and continuously improve internal controls across inventory and manufacturing
- Conduct ongoing audits of transactions and master data for accuracy and impact
- Turn data into operational improvement
- Analyze cost of goods, run costing studies, and identify margin opportunities
- Lead process improvements using Lean tools (as-is / to-be flow mapping)
- Pull and analyze data from SQL and ERP systems to improve visibility and decision-making
- Partner cross-functionally to drive efficiency, cost reduction, and performance
- Lead systems and continuous improvement
- Work within ERP (Infor Visual Manufacturing) and support transition to MS Dynamics 365
- Recommend and implement system enhancements
- Develop and deliver ERP and process training to close gaps and elevate team capability
- Build and develop your team
- Lead and coach the Cycle Counter / Inventory Analyst
- Set clear goals, develop capability, and raise the bar on performance
- Establish best practices across accounting, warehousing, and operations support
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
