FP&A & Project Estimation Manager, Manufacturing

Watchfire; Danville (IL); On-site; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical

Dental

Vision

Company Paid Life/ADD

Voluntary Life/ADD

Dependent Life/ADD

401k with Employer Match

Vacation

Personal Time

Job summary

Watchfire is seeking an experienced FP&A Manager to lead financial planning, forecasting, and performance analysis for a PE-backed manufacturing business. This role partners with the CFO and senior leadership to provide insight into financial performance and forward-looking decision support, including managing the Project Estimation function for accurate costing and margin visibility.

In addition to core FP&A duties, you will ensure alignment between estimating assumptions and actual results,

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Accounting or related field required.
• CPA designation strongly preferred or active pursuit.
• 5–8+ years FP&A experience in manufacturing setting.
• Demonstrated financial modeling and Excel capabilities.
• Experience with standard costing, inventory, and key manufacturing metrics.
• Ability to present financial insights to non-financial partners clearly.

Responsibilities

• Own the annual budget and quarterly reforecast, plus long-range planning.
• Develop rolling forecasts for revenue, EBITDA, capex, and cash flow.
• Analyze volume, backlog, pricing, and margin drivers with operations and sales.
• Prepare monthly management reporting with variance analysis and insights.
• Monitor KPIs across manufacturing, gross margin, SG&A, and working capital.
• Drive margin improvement through product, project, and customer analyses.
• Ensure cost-accuracy alignment between estimating and actual results.
• Lead Project Estimation management and provide bid-quality analyses.
• Support CFO with board materials, lender reporting, and PE sponsor requests.
• Improve FP&A models and reporting, leveraging ERP systems.

Skills

Financial modeling

Excel skills

Communication to non-financial leaders

ERP/financial systems

Standard costing

Inventory metrics

Forecasting

Budgeting

Variance analysis

Manufacturing finance

Education

Bachelor's in Accounting

CPA designation

Tools

Excel

ERP systems

BI tools

Job description

Watchfire is seeking an experienced FP&A Manager to lead financial planning, forecasting, and performance analysis for a PE-backed manufacturing business. This role partners with the CFO and senior leadership to provide insight into financial performance and forward-looking decision support, including managing the Project Estimation function for accurate costing and margin visibility.

In addition to core FP&A duties, you will ensure alignment between estimating assumptions and actual results,