Manufacturing Finance Analyst: Insights & Optimization

Albemarle; Houston (TX); On-site; USD 80,000 - 110,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive compensation

Comprehensive benefits package

Supportive professional development

Job summary

The role requires strong analytical skills, a finance foundation, and an interest in operations. Join a values-driven team delivering innovative catalyst solutions.

Qualifications

• 2–5 years of finance experience in operations, manufacturing finance, cost accounting, FP&A, or related field.
• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, Business, or related field; or equivalent.
• Strong analytical, financial modeling, and problem-solving skills.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Excel and experience with large or complex data sets.
• Ability to connect financial results to operational drivers and communicate insights to stakeholders.
• Strong attention to detail, organization, and ability to manage multiple priorities.
• Strong alignment with Ketjen’s core values: curiosity, care, collaboration, humility, accountability, and integrity.

Responsibilities

• Provide financial analysis and decision support to the Operations Finance Leader and operations teams.
• Analyze manufacturing costs, production variances, yields, productivity, and other operational performance drivers.
• Build financial models, scenarios, and business cases to evaluate opportunities, risks, and tradeoffs.
• Translate complex financial and operational data into clear insights and recommendations for business stakeholders.
• Monitor manufacturing cost performance and identify key drivers of results.
• Partner with site and operations teams to evaluate productivity initiatives and quantify financial benefits.
• Support standard cost, variance, and cost-center analyses, including investigation of performance gaps.
• Develop recurring analyses and reporting that improve visibility into manufacturing economics and cost trends.
• Analyze inventory levels, movements, valuation, reserves, obsolescence, and working capital performance.
• Partner with Operations, Supply Chain, and Finance to identify opportunities to improve inventory efficiency.
• Support inventory forecasting, reconciliations, and performance reviews through timely analysis.
• Evaluate the financial impact of inventory decisions and communicate risks and opportunities.
• Support capital investment analysis, including business cases, return calculations, scenario modeling, and project tracking.
• Monitor capital spending and project performance against plans and forecasts.
• Create dashboards, reports, and analytical tools that provide actionable operations finance insights.
• Identify opportunities to automate recurring reporting, data quality, and finance processes.

Skills

Analytical skills

Excel proficiency

Communication of insights

multitask & prioritization

Values alignment

Education

Bachelor's degree in Finance/Accounting/Economics/Business

Tools

Power BI

Job description

The role requires strong analytical skills, a finance foundation, and an interest in operations. Join a values-driven team delivering innovative catalyst solutions.