Plant Finance Manager

StevenDouglas; Libertyville (IL); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

StevenDouglas, in partnership with a high-growth manufacturer, seeks a Plant Finance Manager to serve as the finance business partner to plant and operational leadership. The role leads month-end close, budgeting, standard costing, and KPI reporting to drive improvements in cost, efficiency, and profitability.

The successful candidate will deliver financial insights to plant leadership, support capital investments, and collaborate with procurement and supply chain to analyze cost drivers and

Qualifications

• Lead the plant month-end close, including journal entries and reconciliations.
• Drive annual budget and rolling forecasts across labor, materials, overhead, and production.
• Own and refine the standard costing model with BOMs, labor rates, and variances.

Responsibilities

• Transform financial data into actionable insights for plant leadership.
• Support operations on labor utilization, throughput, and cost-reduction initiatives.
• Manage inventory accounting across raw materials, WIP, and finished goods; perform cycle counts and adjustments.
• Develop plant management reporting and KPIs with commentary for leadership.
• Coordinate audit readiness and maintain internal controls across plant financial processes.

Job description

StevenDouglas is partnered with a high-growth manufacturer to identify a Plant Finance Manager! This role will act as the finance business partner to plant and operational leadership!

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the plant month-end close process, including journal entries, account reconciliations, accruals, and variance analysis, ensuring results are accurate, timely, and compliant with company policies and accounting standards.
• Drive the plant’s annual budget and rolling forecast processes, covering labor, materials, overhead, production volumes, capital expenditures, and operating expenses.
• Own and continuously refine the standard costing model — including bills of materials, labor and overhead rates, purchase price variances, material usage, yield, scrap, and manufacturing variances.
• Transform financial and operational data into clear, actionable insights for plant leadership, identifying performance trends, risks, root causes, and improvement opportunities.
• Serve as a strategic finance partner to Operations, supporting initiatives around labor utilization, conversion cost reduction, throughput improvement, yield optimization, and waste elimination.
• Manage all aspects of inventory accounting — raw materials, packaging, WIP, finished goods — including cycle counts, physical inventories, reserve analysis, adjustments, and accuracy monitoring.
• Design and maintain a strong internal control environment across plant financial processes, inventory, purchasing, capital spending, and other areas of financial exposure.
• Provide financial support for capital investment decisions, including ROI and payback modeling, project cost tracking, and post-investment benefit validation.
• Develop and deliver plant management reporting and KPIs — including cost per unit, labor efficiency, material usage, overhead absorption, and spending performance — with clear commentary for leadership.
• Collaborate with Procurement and Supply Chain on cost analysis related to commodities, ingredients, packaging, freight, and supplier decisions, and communicate the financial implications of sourcing changes.
• Support new product launches, customer and product profitability analysis, make‑vs‑buy decisions, and other ad hoc business cases as they arise.
• Coordinate audit readiness across plant finance, ensuring controls, documentation, and reconciliations are prepared for both internal and external review.
• Uphold segregation of duties and compliance with corporate financial policies, procedures, and approval authority frameworks.
• Build financial literacy and capability within the plant — coaching operational leaders on financial concepts and supervising plant accounting staff as applicable.
• Actively contribute to the plant leadership team, including participation in continuous improvement, Lean, and cost-reduction initiatives.