Plant Controller

Maker's Pride Talent Acquisition Team•McComb, OH

19d•Onsite

About The Position

The Plant Controller serves as the financial leader of the manufacturing facility and is accountable for maximizing plant profitability through cost management, operational partnership, and leadership across the manufacturing organization. The role owns the plant P&L and partners closely with Operations, Maintenance, Supply Chain, Quality, Engineering, and Plant Leadership to improve labor productivity, material yield, overhead, and working capital. The position is highly visible on the production floor and influences plant decisions by identifying inefficiencies, challenging assumptions, and driving corrective actions. The Plant Controller leads financial planning, forecasting, budgeting, cost management, analysis, and controls for plant operations. The role translates operating metrics into financial outcomes, supports continuous improvement and operational excellence, and establishes accountability for plant profitability, productivity, spending, inventory accuracy, and working capital performance.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in finance, accounting, economics, engineering, or a related field.
At least 5 years of progressive finance experience in a manufacturing, consumer products, industrial, or supply chain environment.
Experience supporting Manufacturing, Engineering, or Operations functions.
Strong expertise in financial planning, business partnering, and cost management.
Financial modeling and data analytics capabilities.
Demonstrated ability to influence senior stakeholders and drive business decisions.

Nice To Haves

MBA, CPA, CMA, or equivalent advanced qualification.
Experience in a global Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) organization.
Experience with SAP, Business Warehouse, and BPC, or similar planning and analytics platforms.
Experience supporting capital investment projects.

Responsibilities

Serve as the primary financial leader and strategic business partner to the Plant Manager, providing financial leadership across operational decisions.
Own the complete plant P&L, including manufacturing costs, labor, materials, overhead, maintenance expenses, consumables, and inventory performance.
Deliver timely, accurate, actionable financial insights and lead monthly financial reviews, forecasting, budgeting, and strategic planning.
Promote a culture of financial accountability throughout the facility.
Support cost improvement initiatives focused on material utilization and yield, labor productivity, OEE, overhead management, and waste elimination.
Develop processes to identify, quantify, and eliminate manufacturing cost losses; translate manufacturing metrics into financial outcomes and measurable savings.
Establish cost controls, challenge spending against benchmarks and standards, and ensure recovery of customer-associated costs.
Maintain a visible presence on the manufacturing floor and work with production, maintenance, supply chain, and plant teams to identify cost-saving opportunities.
Drive accountability for labor efficiency, material usage variances, productivity, downtime costs, scrap reduction, and inventory performance using daily management systems.
Analyze labor costs, staffing and crewing levels, overtime, efficiency, and workforce productivity; identify labor deployment opportunities while supporting safety, quality, and service objectives.
Oversee material consumption and manufacturing yields; analyze variances in raw materials, packaging, ingredient utilization, scrap, waste, and rework.
Maintain controls over inventory consumption, production reporting, and loss tracking; lead financial reviews of yield opportunities and process improvements.
Manage plant overhead, including repair and maintenance expenses, supplies and consumables, indirect labor, utilities, and contract services.
Partner with Maintenance and Engineering to optimize preventive maintenance investments and control total maintenance costs.
Lead annual budgets, forecasts, monthly and weekly estimates, and plant standard cost development and maintenance.
Develop predictive financial models; ensure compliance with internal controls, accounting policies, and corporate reporting requirements.
Lead plant-operations month-end close activities and maintain audit-ready financial processes and controls.
Partner with Plant Leadership on productivity initiatives, support Continuous Improvement programs, quantify project benefits, and identify opportunities to improve profitability and efficiency.
Maintain financial control over inventory accuracy and working capital; ensure effective cycle counts, physical inventories, reconciliation, obsolescence management, and slow-moving inventory reduction.