Plant Controller - Data Center BU

Danfoss; City of Utica (NY); On-site; USD 98,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Annual bonus

Paid vacation

Retirement plan

Personal insurance

Flexible work options

Job summary

Danfoss Utica site seeks a Controller to lead financial reporting, budgeting, forecasting, and cost control for the liquid-cooling manufacturing and distribution operations. You translate operational performance into financial insight and support profitable growth.

You will partner with site leadership on risks, capital investments, and inventory health, while ensuring strong internal controls and accurate reporting.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in accounting, finance, or related field required.
• Experience in manufacturing finance, cost accounting, FP&A, or operations finance.
• Experience with ERP systems, costing, budgeting, forecasting, and variance analysis.
• Ability to communicate financial concepts to operational leaders and influence decisions.

Responsibilities

• Lead financial reporting, monthly close, forecasting, budgeting, and management reporting for the site.
• Analyze labor, overhead, inventory, scrap, rework, productivity, and variances.
• Partner with site leadership on financial risks and resource allocation.
• Support capital investment requests, business cases, payback analysis, and project tracking.
• Maintain financial controls, standard costing, inventory valuation, and cost center governance.
• Support ramp-up planning and capacity investments.
• Collaborate with Supply Chain, Operations, CI, and Engineering on cost reductions.
• Prepare operating reviews, forecast updates, and leadership decision packages.
• Ensure compliance with corporate policies and audit documentation.

Skills

Manufacturing finance

Cost accounting

FP&A

Operations finance

Variance analysis

Financial reporting

Education

Bachelor's degree in accounting, finance, or related field

Master's degree / CPA / CMA preferred

Tools

ERP systems

Job description

The Impact You'll Make

The Controller leads site financial reporting, budgeting, forecasting, cost control, variance analysis, capital justification, inventory valuation, financial governance, and decision support for the Utica liquid-cooling manufacturing and distribution site within the Data Center Business Unit.

This role translates operational performance into financial insight. The Controller supports profitable growth, ramp-up decisions, inventory health, capital deployment, and cost discipline while ensuring financial controls and reporting accuracy.

The salary range for this position is 98K - 130K based on experience and industry knowledge.

What You’ll Be Doing

• Lead financial reporting, monthly close support, forecasting, budgeting, cost analysis, and management reporting for the site.
• Analyze labor, overhead, inventory, scrap, rework, productivity, purchase price variance, premium freight, capital spending, and manufacturing cost drivers.
• Partner with site leadership to identify financial risks, improvement opportunities, operating tradeoffs, and resource allocation decisions.
• Support capital investment requests, business cases, payback analysis, project tracking, capitalization, and post-completion reviews.
• Maintain financial controls, accounting accuracy, compliance, standard costing, inventory valuation, and cost center governance.
• Support ramp-up planning by modeling labor needs, overhead absorption, startup costs, inventory requirements, capacity investments, and productivity assumptions.
• Partner with Supply Chain on inventory health, cycle count results, excess/obsolete risk, purchase price variance, and freight/expedite impacts.
• Partner with Operations and CI to validate productivity savings, scrap reduction, labor efficiency improvements, and cost-reduction projects.
• Partner with Engineering on equipment justification, tooling costs, make-versus-buy analysis, standard cost impacts, and capital project controls.
• Prepare operating review materials, financial bridges, variance explanations, forecast updates, and leadership decision packages.
• Ensure compliance with corporate finance policies, internal controls, approval requirements, and audit documentation expectations.
• Develop financial acumen across the site by explaining cost drivers and helping leaders make fact-based decisions.

Qualifications

What We're Looking For

• Bachelor's degree in accounting, finance, business, or a related field required; master's degree, CPA, CMA, or equivalent certification preferred.
• Manufacturing finance, cost accounting, plant controlling, FP&A, or operations finance experience required.
• Experience with ERP systems, standard costing, inventory valuation, capital controls, budgeting, forecasting, and variance analysis preferred.
• Ability to communicate financial concepts to operational leaders and influence decisions through data.

Technical Requirements

• Deep understanding of manufacturing finance, cost accounting, budgeting, forecasting, variance analysis, inventory valuation, capital tracking, and financial controls.
• Ability to analyze labor, overhead, scrap, productivity, purchase price variance, inventory, capital spending, standard cost, and manufacturing cost drivers.
• Experience preparing financial reports, operating review materials, forecasts, annual plans, business cases, payback analysis, and post-completion reviews.
• Working knowledge of financial systems, internal controls, cost center management, standard costing, and compliance requirements.
• Ability to partner with site leadership to translate operational performance into financial impact and support business decision-making.

What You’ll Get From Us

• We promote from within and support your learning with mentoring, training, and access to global opportunities.
• You’ll have flexibility, autonomy, and support to do your best work while maintaining a healthy work-life balance. Your well-being matters to us.
• We strive to create an inclusive work environment where people of all backgrounds are respected, and valued for who they are.
• You’ll receive benefits like annual bonus, paid vacation, retirement plan, personal insurance, and more. These vary by country and contract, but they’re worth asking about—we think they’re pretty great.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or other protected category.