Commercial Finance Manager

Adept Ltd; Albert-Eden; On-site; NZD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Adept, a long-established manufacturing company in Auckland, seeks a Commercial Finance Manager to lead the finance function and partner with Directors on commercial performance. This role requires strong leadership, commercial acumen, and a hands-on approach to turning data into actionable business decisions.

The successful candidate will oversee financial reporting, costing, inventory, margins, and capital expenditure analysis, while driving improvements across finance systems and processes in

Qualifications

• Experience leading finance teams in manufacturing.
• Ability to translate data into practical business advice.
• Strong analytical capability with large data sets.

Responsibilities

• Lead the finance function and finance team.
• Provide financial and commercial insight to Directors.
• Analyze sales, margins, and cost drivers across products.
• Oversee payroll compliance and reporting.
• Drive continuous improvement in finance systems and controls.

Skills

Leadership

Commercial acumen

Analytical

Stakeholder management

Tools

D365 F&O

Excel

Job description

Adept is recognised as a company where talented people take pride in and enjoy the challenge of producing quality products that improve people's lives.

About us

Adept is a long-established and successful manufacturing company based in Morningside, Auckland. The company operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week and employs approximately 130 people.

We manufacture a diverse range of products for local customers, as well as design and produce proprietary products tailored to niche global markets.

Our success is built on strong manufacturing capability, innovation and long-standing relationships with customers in New Zealand and international markets.

About the role

We are looking for a Commercial Finance Manager with experience of the manufacturing sector to play a key leadership role in supporting the financial and commercial performance of our business

Working closely with our directors and wider management team, this is a hands-on leadership role for someone who enjoys understanding what drives a business - not simply reporting the numbers.

You will lead the finance function, providing direction and support to the finance team while developing strong relationships across the wider business. You will provide commercial insight, financial analysis and constructive challenge to support effective decision-making and improved business performance.

A key part of the role will be the ability to work with complex financial and operational data, identify trends and issues, and translate that information into clear, practical recommendations.

Key areas of responsibility include:

Leading and developing the finance team and building strong relationships across the business.

Providing trusted financial and commercial advice to the Directors and wider management team.

Financial and management reporting, cash flow and working capital management.

Providing insightful analysis of business performance, trends and variances.

Analysing financial and operational data sets to identify trends, opportunities, risks and areas requiring management attention.

Sales, margin, pricing and customer and product profitability analysis.

Manufacturing costing, including standard costs, BOMs, inventory and gross margins.

Financial analysis of capital expenditure and commercial initiatives.

Commercial input into contracts and other business arrangements.

Oversight of payroll compliance and providing payroll support when required.

Identifying opportunities to improve margins, efficiencies and overall business performance.

Developing relevant financial and operational reporting to support management decision-making.

Supporting managers to improve financial understanding and accountability across the business.

Driving continuous improvement in finance systems, processes and controls.

About you

You will be confident leading people, building relationships and working alongside operational managers in a busy manufacturing environment.

You will be an experienced finance leader who is commercially minded, analytical and comfortable working across both the detail and the bigger picture.

What you will bring to the role:

Strong leadership and communication skills, with experience supporting others.

The confidence and credibility to work collaboratively with Directors and senior managers and, when appropriate, to challenge thinking.

A proactive, practical and solutions-focused approach.

You will hold current membership of a recognised professional accounting organisation of Australasia (CA ANZ or CPA Australia).

Strong financial management and accounting capability.

Sound commercial acumen and the ability to translate financial information into practical business advice.

Strong analytical capability, with experience interrogating and interpreting large or complex financial and operational data sets.

Experience within a manufacturing environment, particularly costing, inventory and margin analysis.

Experience working with enterprise-grade ERP and financial systems, with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations (D365 F&O) experience highly regarded.

Advanced Excel capability and confidence working with data from multiple business systems.

New Zealand residency or unrestricted working rights.

This is an opportunity to join an established and financially sound New Zealand business where finance is closely connected to manufacturing, operations and commercial decision-making.

If you enjoy leading a finance function, getting behind the numbers, understanding how a business really operates and using financial insight to make a difference, we would like to hear from you.

If you're looking for a workplace where your financial leadership skills contribute to something meaningful - we'd love to hear from you.