Financial Analyst

Steel Craft•Hartford, WI

31d•Onsite

About The Position

The Senior Financial Analyst plays a key role in driving gross margin improvement across the organization. This position owns the development of gross margin reporting and analytics, partners closely with plant managers and operations leadership to translate data into operational action, and works cross-functionally to identify, quantify, and execute opportunities that improve profitability.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, or related field.
3+ years of experience in financial analysis, preferably in the manufacturing, sheet metal fabrication, or coatings industries.
Experience with ERP systems (e.g., SAP, Microsoft Dynamics, Epicor, or similar).
Familiarity with cost accounting, budgeting, forecasting, and financial modeling.
Knowledge of financial performance metrics (e.g., ROI, EBITDA, cash flow analysis).
Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Excel (financial modeling, pivot tables, VLOOKUP, and macros).
Strong analytical skills to interpret complex financial data and make actionable recommendations.
Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal, to present financial findings to non-financial stakeholders.
Strong attention to detail and ability to work under pressure to meet deadlines.
Ability to work collaboratively with cross-functional teams (sales, operations, accounting) to gather data and insights.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree in Finance, Business Administration (MBA), OR CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) or CPA (Certified Public Accountant)

Responsibilities

Leads the design and development of gross margin reporting across plants, product lines, and customers, ensuring consistency and accuracy of financial data.
Builds and maintains dashboards that break down margin performance by key drivers: material cost, labor, scrap/yield, freight, overhead absorption, and price/mix.
Conducts variance analysis comparing actual margin to standard/budgeted margin and identifies and communicates root causes.
Tracks margin trends over time and by SKU/customer to identify areas of erosion or improvement.
Automates recurring margin reporting to improve turnaround time and data reliability.
Partners directly with plant managers and operations leaders to translate margin data into concrete operational action items (scrap reduction, labor efficiency, throughput improvement).
Participates in production and operations reviews to connect shop-floor performance to financial outcomes.
Works with plant teams to validate cost inputs (standards, BOMs, routings) that drive margin calculations.
Helps plants prioritize which margin levers (yield, downtime, changeover time, material substitution) will have the greatest P&L impact.
Analyzes cost inputs (materials, labor, freight) and their impact on margin by product and customer.
Supports pricing decisions and quote reviews with margin impact analysis.
Identifies and quantifies margin leakage, including rebates, freight absorption, expedite fees, and warranty/scrap costs.
Monitors customer- and product-level profitability, flagging low-margin accounts or SKUs for review.
Converts findings into prioritized, quantified margin improvement opportunities, not just reporting.
Builds and maintains a margin bridge/waterfall to track the dollar impact of improvement initiatives.
Presents findings and recommendations to plant and commercial leadership.
Maintains a margin improvement tracker and follows up on action item ownership and status.
Works with finance and accounting to reconcile standard costs and actual results.
Collaborates with sales and commercial teams on customer profitability and pricing strategy.
Partners with engineering and operations on cost-reduction and process improvement projects.
Owns and maintains margin-related data models and queries across ERP, MES, and BI tools.
Ensures data accuracy and consistency of cost standards across plants.
Builds self-service reporting tools so plant managers can access margin data in real time.
This job description is not intended to be all-inclusive. The employee may be required to perform other related duties as assigned to meet the ongoing needs of the organization. Responsibilities and tasks may be modified, expanded, or adjusted to reflect business needs or management requests.