Manufacturing Finance Director: Strategy, Growth & Ops

Magnera; Charlotte (NC); Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Magnera in Charlotte, NC seeks a Director, Manufacturing Finance to partner with site leadership and drive financial performance across the manufacturing network.

You will translate business drivers into actionable insights, lead budgeting and forecasting, and ensure efficient working capital and strong controls.

This role requires balancing floor-level operations with executive discussions and building a high-performing finance team.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of progressive finance leadership experience
• Experience supporting manufacturing, operations, or supply chain
• Strong budgeting, forecasting, and cost accounting skills
• Knowledge of U.S. GAAP and internal controls
• Willingness to travel to multiple sites

Responsibilities

• Serve as the primary finance partner to site and operational leadership, delivering forward-looking insights that improve business performance.
• Lead annual operating plan, quarterly forecasts, monthly outlooks, and long-range planning processes across assigned manufacturing sites.
• Develop and maintain a disciplined operating rhythm for business reviews, KPI reporting, variance analysis, and corrective action planning.
• Oversee standard costing, inventory valuation, labor and overhead rates, absorption, manufacturing variances, scrap, yield, freight, and other key cost drivers.
• Partner with Operations and Supply Chain to improve productivity, reduce costs, optimize inventory, and strengthen manufacturing performance.
• Ensure operational and financial metrics are aligned through a consistent set of clearly defined and actionable KPIs.
• Partner with Operations, Supply Chain, Procurement, and Commercial teams to identify, validate, and deliver margin expansion, productivity improvement, and cost reduction initiatives.
• Support pricing decisions, product profitability analysis, and business investment opportunities through rigorous financial analysis.
• Establish clear financial tracking and accountability for productivity and cost savings commitments.
• Lead financial analysis supporting capital investments, capacity expansion, automation initiatives, insourcing opportunities, make-versus-buy decisions, and other strategic projects.
• Monitor post-implementation results to ensure expected financial benefits are achieved.
• Ensure timely, accurate, and transparent financial reporting across the manufacturing network.
• Maintain strong balance sheet integrity and compliance with U.S. GAAP, company policies, internal controls, and audit requirements.
• Partner with corporate and regional finance teams to ensure consistent application of accounting policies and financial processes.
• Partner with site leadership to improve inventory performance and working capital management.
• Understand the operational drivers impacting inventory, receivables, and payables and work cross-functionally to improve cash flow performance.
• Support inventory accuracy, cycle counting, and inventory control disciplines across manufacturing locations.
• Standardize finance processes, reporting practices, performance metrics, and controls across the site network.
• Drive adoption of best practices that improve reporting accuracy, efficiency, and business insight.
• Leverage ERP, planning, and business intelligence tools to support data-driven decision-making.
• Lead, coach, and develop a distributed manufacturing finance organization.
• Establish clear expectations, performance objectives, and development plans for team members.
• Build organizational capability through succession planning, talent development, and sharing of best practices across locations.
• Foster a collaborative, accountable, and high-performance culture.
• Build strong relationships across Operations, Supply Chain, Procurement, Engineering, Commercial, HR, and Corporate Finance.
• Influence business decisions through credibility, partnership, and strong financial acumen.
• Serve as a trusted advisor to site leadership teams while effectively representing finance priorities and objectives.

Skills

Finance leadership

Manufacturing finance

Budgeting and forecasting

Cost accounting

ERP / SAP experience

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, or related field

MBA, CPA, CMA, or equivalent preferred

Tools

SAP

ERP systems

Job description

Magnera in Charlotte, NC seeks a Director, Manufacturing Finance to partner with site leadership and drive financial performance across the manufacturing network.

You will translate business drivers into actionable insights, lead budgeting and forecasting, and ensure efficient working capital and strong controls.

This role requires balancing floor-level operations with executive discussions and building a high-performing finance team.