Plant Controller

Talentify; Northbrook (IL); On-site; USD 120,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

CF Industries is seeking a Plant Controller to partner with the Plant General Manager, delivering timely financial and operational reporting with strong internal controls. You will oversee accounting processes, annual planning, asset management, and turnarounds, while coordinating audits and budgeting activities.

The role focuses on driving financial performance, ensuring policy adherence, and providing data-driven insights to guide plant decision making.

Qualifications

• Requires strong financial oversight and analytical skills.
• Ability to lead professional accounting and clerical staff.
• Experience with inventory costing, fixed assets, and cost accounting processes.

Responsibilities

• Acts as a key financial reporting resource to Corporate and local management.
• Leads and supervises professional accounting and clerical staff.
• Accounts for, manages, and reports on local capital and maintenance spending.
• Performs monthly inventory costing and reconciles inventory in production reporting systems.
• Manages local plant Accounts Payable and analyzes aging reports.
• Provides financial forecasting, budgeting and analyses variances from budgets.
• Reviews journal entries and month-end close processes; supports year-end close.
• Supports internal and external audits and prepares cost statements and operational reports.

Job description

At CF Industries, our mission is to provide clean energy to feed and fuel the world sustainably. Our employees are focused on safe and reliable operations, environmental stewardship, and disciplined capital and corporate management. By joining CF, you will be part of a team that brings their varied experiences, wide-ranging knowledge and diverse talents together to deliver important work and you’ll be able to pursue complex, exciting opportunities that help you continue to grow and achieve your potential in different areas. You’ll take pride in working for a company that lives its values and where you can be yourself at work, as part of an authentic team that encourages you to share your views and opinions. Our eight manufacturing complexes in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, an unparalleled storage, transportation and distribution network in North America, and logistics capabilities enabling a global reach underpin our strategy to leverage our unique capabilities to accelerate the world’s transition to clean energy.

Function:

Finance & Accounting

Job Summary:

The Plant Controller has a direct reporting relationship to the Director, Plant and Cost Accounting within the Corporate Controllers department. This position acts as a key business partner to the Plant General Manager and their direct reports by providing financial oversight, critical analysis, and actively soliciting process improvement opportunities. This role acts as the key person responsible for providing timely and accurate financial and operational reporting with corresponding analysis. In addition, this individual is responsible for establishing an environment that ensures and maintains a high level of internal control over these reporting practices. The Plant Controller will establish procedures to ensure that plant personnel are knowledgeable of and adhere to all financial policies. This individual will direct all financial activities related to accounting processes, annual planning, periodic spare parts reviews, fixed assets, maintenance activities, and budgeted or unplanned turnarounds. This role will also manage all internal and external audit requirements.

Job Description:

The Plant Controller has a direct reporting relationship to the Director, Plant and Cost Accounting within the Corporate Controllers department. This position acts as a key business partner to the Plant General Manager and their direct reports by providing financial oversight, critical analysis, and actively soliciting process improvement opportunities. This role acts as the key person responsible for providing timely and accurate financial and operational reporting with corresponding analysis. In addition, this individual is responsible for establishing an environment that ensures and maintains a high level of internal control over these reporting practices. The Plant Controller will establish procedures to ensure that plant personnel are knowledgeable of and adhere to all financial policies. This individual will direct all financial activities related to accounting processes, annual planning, periodic spare parts reviews, fixed assets, maintenance activities, and budgeted or unplanned turnarounds. This role will also manage all internal and external audit requirements. The Plant Controller acts as the key financial business partner to the Plant General Manager by providing operational financial data and analysis. This position supervises and directs the month end close process by preparing, reviewing, and verifying the accuracy of journal entries; accounting classifications; and account analysis along with year-end close functions. The incumbent is also responsible for ensuring accurate Fixed Assets accounting. This is achieved by maintaining a close relationship with Maintenance and Engineering managers to track project progress, asset capitalizations and retirements, proper internal order classification, and establishing a thorough accrual review process. The Plant Controller leads monthly cost review meetings comparing actual results to plan and prior periods in order to identify key data sources and utilizes data-driven insights about important plant-wide or departmental metrics to improve business decisions. The incumbent helps to support quarterly and annual internal and external audits by providing requested support documentation and analysis. The incumbent also prepares the annual budget and contributes to budget forecasting updates throughout the year. The Plant Controller also oversees the preparation of cost statements, accounting statements and reports, and operational reports. This individual is responsible for ensuring that production and accounts payable invoices are accurately recorded daily while supervising a clerical and professional staff. This role will also communicate to Corporate personnel deviations from established policies.

Job Responsibilities:

• Acts as a key financial reporting resource to Corporate and local management
• Leads and supervises professional accounting and clerical staff
• Accounts for, manages, and reports on the local capital and maintenance spending process
• Performs/Reviews monthly inventory costing process
• Reconciles/reviews inventory through the local production reporting systems
• Manages local plant Accounts Payable function and analyzes monthly aging reports
• Makes recommendations and suggestions on best methods and strategies to streamline accounting and plant processes (and implements)
• Reviews monthly journal entries and month end analyses
• Prepares various exhibits and commentary required for reports issued to management, outside Directors and government agencies
• Provides financial forecasting, budgeting and analyzing variations from company budgets
• Reviews written procedures on job responsibilities
• The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by persons assigned to this job. These
• statements are not intended to be an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties and skills required of personnel in this position.
• Coordinate and prepare tax analysis and filings as determined by Corporate Tax and local taxing authorities.
• Assists with internal and external audits as needed
• Prepares all other analyses as required

Matrix Responsibilities

• Provide leadership, guidance, coaching, and process oversight for plant accounting
• Provide assistance to Financial Planning & Analysis through the annual plan and forecasting periods.
• Advises stakeholders on the accounting implications of strategic decisions and highlight any potential risks to internal controls and compliance.
• Provides direction to individuals regarding their role and responsibilities to help meet the overall Company objectives, along with the role the department has in fulfilling plant goals
• Empower and promotes the proper level of responsibility and authority for others to learn, grow into new responsibilities and make the proper decisions to obtain the overall department objectives
• Demonstrates the highest level of integrity and trust in all aspects of the job by working continually towards self-development, staying abreast of all current information and technology, and be knowledgeable with FASB & AICPA governing bodies affecting functional areas to increase innovation and ensure compliance
• Promotes the corporate controller’s group