Plant Controller: Manufacturing Cost & Inventory Leader

Chesapeake Search Partners; Baltimore (MD); On-site; USD 95,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

Chesapeake Search Partners in Baltimore, MD is seeking a Plant Controller to serve as the primary Accounting and Finance partner to plant operations, ensuring the financial integrity of manufacturing activity.

This leadership role will own cost accounting, standard costing, inventory controls, and monthly variance reporting, partnering with Operations to drive corrective actions and improve plant performance.

Qualifications

• 5-8+ years in finance or accounting, with at least 3 years in cost accounting and plant finance.
• Strong knowledge of standard costing, inventory accounting, manufacturing variances, physical inventory controls, product costing, and manufacturing accruals.
• Experience managing periodic inventory processes, including cycle counts, reconciliations, and inventory adjustments.
• Ability to independently investigate issues, identify root causes, and drive corrective action.
• Strong analytical, organizational, and communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Own financial controls surrounding raw material, packaging, work-in-process, finished goods, and critical spare parts inventory.
• Establish and maintain cycle count, physical inventory, reconciliation, and inventory adjustment procedures.
• Review periodic inventory adjustments for accuracy, completeness, and reasonableness.
• Develop reporting to identify inventory accuracy trends, recurring adjustment drivers, and corrective actions.
• Own and maintain manufacturing standard costs within the ERP system.
• Establish and periodically validate standards for raw materials, packaging, direct and indirect labor, yields, and manufacturing overhead.
• Ensure standards reflect current production processes, material costs, labor requirements, equipment usage, and expected yields.
• Conduct or coordinate production-floor testing, time studies, yield studies, packaging usage studies, and labor studies to validate standards.
• Analyze monthly net manufacturing variances and clearly explain the operational drivers behind results.
• Evaluate material usage, yield, labor efficiency and mix, packaging usage, purchase price, dumps, production volume, and product mix variances.
• Prepare timely monthly variance reporting for Finance and Operations leadership and partner with Operations on corrective actions.
• Lead regular reporting sessions with Operations to evaluate key plant performance metrics.
• Provide financial and analytical support related to yield, labor efficiency and utilization, throughput, dumps, packaging consumption, downtime, production mix, and margin.
• Develop and maintain strong working knowledge of the Company’s ERP, including manufacturing and costing modules.

Skills

Cost accounting

Inventory accounting

Variance analysis

Financial reporting

Tools

ERP systems

Job description

Chesapeake Search Partners in Baltimore, MD is seeking a Plant Controller to serve as the primary Accounting and Finance partner to plant operations, ensuring the financial integrity of manufacturing activity.

This leadership role will own cost accounting, standard costing, inventory controls, and monthly variance reporting, partnering with Operations to drive corrective actions and improve plant performance.