Plant Controller

RUPRECHT CO•Mundelein, IL

About The Position

The Plant Controller is the senior finance leader for a food manufacturing facility and a key business partner to plant leadership. The role is accountable for plant financial reporting, cost accounting, inventory controls, budgeting and forecasting, performance analysis, and financial controls. The Plant Controller translates operational activity into financial insight, helping leaders understand the effects of business decisions on cost, margin, labor, yield, waste, and productivity. Working closely with Operations, Supply Chain, Procurement, FSQA, Engineering/Maintenance, Human Resources, and corporate Finance, the Plant Controller supports profitability, effective controls, and safe, reliable, efficient production. The successful candidate combines accounting discipline with a hands-on understanding of plant operations, communicates financial information to non-financial leaders, and contributes to continuous improvement and cost-reduction initiatives.

Requirements

5–8+ years of progressive accounting and finance experience, including meaningful manufacturing experience.
Strong plant cost accounting experience, including standard costing, inventory, manufacturing variances, labor and overhead analysis, and margin analysis.
Demonstrated experience partnering directly with plant operations and influencing decisions through financial analysis.
Experience with annual budgeting, forecasting, month-end close, internal controls, and financial reporting.
Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, Business, or a closely related field.
Hands-on approach and comfort working in a fast-paced manufacturing environment.
Ability to turn complex plant data into a concise explanation of what happened, why it happened, its implications, and next steps.
Strong communication, analytical, collaboration, judgment, integrity, accountability, and continuous-improvement capabilities.

Nice To Haves

Food, beverage, consumer packaged goods, or other high-volume/process manufacturing experience.
Working knowledge of ERP and manufacturing systems; SAP, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics, JD Edwards, or similar platforms.
Advanced Excel and financial modeling skills; experience with business intelligence or reporting tools.
Experience in a regulated food manufacturing environment and familiarity with food safety, traceability, inventory controls, and production processes.
Experience with union shops.
Experience with multi-shift production.
Supervisory or team leadership experience.
CPA, CMA, MBA, or another relevant advanced credential.
Equivalent combinations of education and directly relevant manufacturing finance experience may be considered.

Responsibilities

Own plant-level financial reporting, month-end close, account reconciliations, journal entries, accruals, and variance analysis, ensuring timely and accurate results in accordance with company policy and applicable accounting standards.
Lead plant budgeting, forecasting, and periodic outlook processes for labor, overhead, materials, production volumes, capital spending, and operating expenses.
Maintain and improve standard costing, including bills of material, routings, labor and overhead rates, purchase price variance, material usage, yield, scrap, waste, and manufacturing variances.
Analyze plant performance and provide actionable insights to plant leadership, identifying trends, risks, root causes, and opportunities.
Partner with Operations to improve productivity, conversion cost, labor utilization, throughput, yield, waste reduction, and overall plant profitability.
Oversee inventory accounting and controls for raw materials, packaging, work-in-process, and finished goods, including cycle counts, physical inventories, reserves, adjustments, and inventory accuracy.
Establish and maintain internal controls over plant financial processes, assets, inventory, purchasing, capital expenditures, and other areas of financial risk.
Support capital expenditure requests and post-investment reviews through financial modeling, ROI and payback analysis, project tracking, and validation of expected benefits.
Prepare and communicate plant KPIs and management reporting, including cost per unit, pound, or case; labor efficiency; material usage; yield; waste; overhead absorption; inventory; and spending performance.
Partner with Procurement and Supply Chain on commodity, ingredient, packaging, freight, and supplier cost analysis and the financial implications of sourcing decisions.
Support new product introductions, customer and product profitability analysis, make-versus-buy decisions, pricing inputs, and other business cases.
Coordinate plant support for internal and external audits and ensure documentation, reconciliations, and controls are audit-ready.
Ensure appropriate segregation of duties and compliance with corporate policies, financial procedures, and approval authorities.
Develop finance capability within the plant, coach operational leaders in financial acumen, and supervise plant accounting staff where applicable.
Participate on the plant leadership team and contribute to continuous improvement, Lean, productivity, and cost-reduction initiatives.