Regional Plant Controller

Watlow; Lunas; On-site; MYR 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

Watlow is seeking a senior Plant Finance Controller based in Kulim Hi-Tech Park, Kedah. The role partners with regional operations to drive budgeting, forecasting, and financial performance across manufacturing plants.

You will govern standard costing, BOMs, inventory valuation, and capital investments while leading plant controllers and finance teams. Ideal candidates bring 10+ years of manufacturing finance experience, strong ERP/Oracle skills, and proven leadership with excellent English

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, Business, or a related discipline; a professional accounting qualification such as CPA, CA, CMA, or ACCA is strongly preferred.
• Typically 10 or more years of progressive finance experience, including significant responsibility in manufacturing, plant controlling, cost accounting, or operations finance.
• Strong knowledge of standard costing, inventory accounting, manufacturing variances, budgeting, forecasting, financial analysis, internal controls, and capital investment evaluation.
• Proficiency in ERP, Oracle experience preferred; strong spreadsheet and data-analysis capability.
• Proven people-leadership and change-management experience, with the ability to influence across functions and cultures.
• Fluent business English; additional regional language capability is an advantage.

Responsibilities

• Business partnership with regional operations, plant managers, supply chain, procurement, and commercial teams to evaluate performance and support decisions.
• Planning and forecasting: lead plant budgeting, forecasting, long-range planning, and scenario analysis.
• Performance management: establish plant reporting routines for revenue, margin, and cash flow.
• Cost accounting: govern standard costing, BOMs, routings, overhead, and inventory valuation.
• Working capital: drive improvements in inventory and cash conversion with analytics and action plans.
• Capital investment: review business cases, track spend, and conduct post-investment reviews.
• Risk management: identify and mitigate financial and operational risks including FX impacts.
• Process improvement: standardize regional plant finance processes and improve ERP/reporting utilization.
• Team leadership: lead and develop plant controllers and finance teams.

Skills

Plant finance leadership

ERP experience

Cost accounting

Budgeting

Forecasting

Financial analysis

Internal controls

Leadership

English proficiency

Education

Bachelor's degree in Accounting/Finance

CPA/CA/CMA/ACCA qualification

Tools

Oracle ERP

Excel

Job description

Working at Watlow

Watlow is a global technology and manufacturing leader who provides world class engineering expertise through innovative thermal products and systems, enabling our customers to thrive. We are making a positive impact every day as our solutions enrich the lives of people everywhere. We have been providing breakthrough thermal solutions for over 100 years!

• Must be willing to work at Kulim Hi-Tech Park, Kedah.

Key Responsibilities

• Business partnership: Partner with regional operations, plant managers, supply chain, procurement, and commercial teams to evaluate performance, identify risks and opportunities, and support fact-based decisions.


• Planning and forecasting: Lead plant budgeting, forecasting, long-range planning, and scenario analysis; challenge assumptions and ensure alignment with operational plans and regional targets.


• Performance management: Establish consistent plant reporting and review routines for revenue, margin, conversion cost, productivity, labor, overhead, inventory, capital expenditure, and cash flow.


• Cost accounting: Govern standard costing, bills of material, routings, overhead rates, labor rates, variance analysis, and inventory valuation across the region.


• Working capital: Drive improvements in inventory, payables, receivables, and cash conversion through clear ownership, analytics, and operational action plans.


• Capital investment: Review business cases, validate financial assumptions, track approved spending, and conduct post-investment reviews to confirm delivery of committed returns.


• Risk management: Identify and mitigate financial and operational risks, including obsolete inventory, excess capacity, unfavorable purchase-price exposure, customer or supplier concentration, and foreign-exchange impacts.


• Process improvement: Standardize regional plant finance processes, strengthen data quality, improve ERP and reporting utilization, and automate recurring analysis where practical.


• Team leadership: Lead, coach, and develop plant controllers and finance teams; set clear expectations, build succession plans, and promote collaboration and professional growth.

Qualifications And Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, Business, or a related discipline; a professional accounting qualification such as CPA, CA, CMA, or ACCA is strongly preferred.


• Typically 10 or more years of progressive finance experience, including significant responsibility in manufacturing, plant controlling, cost accounting, or operations finance.


• Strong knowledge of standard costing, inventory accounting, manufacturing variances, budgeting, forecasting, financial analysis, internal controls, and capital investment evaluation.


• Proficiency in ERP, Oracle experience preferred; strong spreadsheet and data-analysis capability.


• Proven people-leadership and change-management experience, with the ability to influence across functions and cultures.


• Fluent business English; additional regional language capability is an advantage.

Our corporate values guide us uncompromisingly to always do the right thing, continually learn and improve, respect everyone, and lead with service and humility.