Cost Analyst

Brightwing; Auburn Hills (MI); On-site; USD 80,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

Brightwing seeks a Value Creation Program (VCP) Finance Coordinator to support the B1 direct material cost workstream, driving savings for current production vehicles and parts. The role is onsite in Auburn Hills, MI, and collaborates with a four-person team including a Buyer, Engineer, Cost Engineer, and Finance Coordinator.

You will validate ideas with business cases, back negotiations, and provide financial support to strategies while ensuring governance and timely updates to leadership.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Economics or Accounting.
• Strong analytical capability across multiple systems.
• High attention to detail with data governance.

Responsibilities

• Validate commercial and technical savings ideas through business cases.
• Collaborate with a cross-functional team to size and ideate savings opportunities.
• Build supplier fact packs and negotiation strategies to drive direct material savings.
• Ensure adherence to savings governance, documentation standards, and approval requirements.
• Monitor progress to VCP targets and communicate status to leadership.

Skills

Analytical thinking

Cross-functional teamwork

Excel proficiency

Data interpretation

Attention to detail

Governance and process discipline

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Economics or Accounting

Master’s degree in Finance, Economics, Business Administration or Accounting

Tools

MS Office (Excel)

Job description

The Value Creation Program (VCP) Finance Coordinator will be responsible for supporting the B1 direct material cost (DMC) workstream. The focus of the B1 workstream is to reduce the DMC for current production vehicles/parts within the VCP.

This position is very collaborative with other functions. The finance coordinator will be 1 out of a 4-person team (Team of 4) comprised of a Buyer, Engineer, Cost Engineer, and Finance Coordinator. In addition to validating ideas and building business cases, the VCP coordinator will provide financial support and backup to building negotiations fact packs and strategies.

Role will be onsite 100%.

This position is responsible for:

• Validate commercial and technical savings ideas through business cases.
• Collaborate with the cross functional team of 4 to size and ideate potential savings opportunities.
• Build supplier fact pack and negotiation strategies to drive direct material savings.
• Ensure adherence to savings governance, documentation standards, and approval requirements.
• Monitor progress to internal VCP targets and communicate status to leadership.

What You’ll Learn

• Use of “should cost” and other tools to understand and contest supplier quotes.
• Tools to negotiate with suppliers.
• Make/Buy studies, Inbound transport cost, Transformation cost
• Impact of take rates and vehicle volume/mix on Annual Purchase Value.
• Financial reporting for purchasing (flow through, carryover, incremental).

What This Role Will Prepare You For

• Future roles in Purchasing Finance/Ops, Value Optimization/Engineering, Product Cost Standard (PCS), Total production cost (TPC), Vehicle Cost Coordination, Vehicle Cost Engineering.
• Exposure to Senior Finance and Operations Leadership

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Economics or Accounting.
• Minimum 5 years of experience in Purchasing Finance, Product Finance, Vehicle Cost Engineering, Plant Cost Analyst, or a comparable analytical role.
• Proven ability to develop, validate, and defend financial business cases.
• Strong analytical capability, including interpretation of complex data across multiple systems.
• High attention to detail with a strong focus on data accuracy, governance, and process discipline.
• Proficiency in MS Office (emphasis on Excel)
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively in a cross-functional, matrixed team environment.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s degree in Finance, Economics, Business Administration or Accounting.
• Experience in automotive and/or manufacturing environments.
• Solid understanding of commercial and technical savings concepts and cost-reduction methodologies.
• Ability to handle multiple tasks in a fast paced environment and develop creative approaches to problem solving