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Virginia Transformer is the largest U.S.-owned power transformer producer in North America. For more than 50 years, we’ve built custom power solutions as a privately held, organically growing company.
After achieving 3X growth, we’re hiring to do it again. We’re looking for people ready to take on meaningful challenges, help our teams succeed, and grow with the company. Every transformer we build is custom, every challenge is unique, and every team member matters.
One team. One mission. One source.
Position Summary
Virginia Transformer is seeking a Senior Manager of Finance & Accounting to manage manufacturing financial reporting, cost accounting, budgeting, and accounting controls in support of our engineered-to-order transformer production.
This role will turn order costs, inventory and work in process (WIP), manufacturing labor, overhead, and production forecasts into reliable reporting and practical recommendations for plant and business leaders. The Senior Manager will oversee daily accounting and analysis processes, support corporate financial policies, and help leaders understand the costs and margins behind complex transformer orders.
Key Responsibilities
- Review project-level manufacturing costs, including conductor and steel, bushings and accessories, direct labor, overhead, WIP, and finished transformers.
- Compare quoted and standard costs with actual costs and costs to complete. Identify margin variances related to material prices, rework, scrap, overtime, and schedule changes.
- Partner with operations, procurement, engineering, and project management to analyze material variances, production efficiency, and profitability on major transformer orders.
- Review estimated versus actual use of copper, aluminum, electrical steel, insulation, oil, fabricated parts, shop labor, outside services, and allocated manufacturing overhead.
- Reconcile inventory movements, production work orders, WIP balances, manufacturing variances, and cost transfers.
- Prepare cost-to-complete analyses for long-cycle orders, identifying cost changes tied to engineering revisions, scrap, rework, premium freight, overtime, and testing delays.
- Review finished-order margin analyses against quote assumptions, approved changes, overhead absorption, and actual production costs; recommend updates to estimating or operating controls.
Budgeting, Forecasts & Close
- Prepare plant or functional budgets and rolling forecasts using production backlog, planned shipments, material purchases, staffing, and expected manufacturing output.
- Supervise monthly close activities, account reconciliations, journal entry review, and reporting packages.
- Report actual results against plan for revenue where assigned, manufacturing margins, production labor, operating expenses, inventory, and capital expenditures.
- Ensure reporting complies with corporate controls and applicable U.S. GAAP.
- Coordinate with corporate finance on customer billing milestones, aging balances, material purchasing cash needs, and working-capital reporting.
- Lead timely WIP and inventory reconciliations, variance explanations, journal reviews, and manufacturing dashboard preparation for assigned sites or business units.
Cash, Billing & Inventory Controls
- Coordinate progress billing and milestone invoicing against contract terms, drawing approvals, manufacturing milestones, factory testing, and shipment documentation.
- Maintain short- and medium-term cash forecasts tied to major material purchases, supplier deposits, customer collections, production ramps, and capital projects.
- Analyze aging inventory, customer-specific components, obsolete or revised bill-of-material materials, aged WIP, and completed units awaiting shipment.
- Coordinate inventory valuation and disposition with finance leadership and plant teams.
- Strengthen purchasing-to-pay and order-to-cash controls through receipt matching, inventory counts, contract authorization, customer credit follow-up, and account reconciliations.
Plant Financial Support & Reporting
- Work with plant leadership to review direct labor hours per job, overtime, fabrication and winding productivity, overhead absorption, quality-related costs, and capacity utilization.
- Analyze equipment investments, capacity increases, shift changes, and manufacturing improvements; prepare payback and sensitivity models.
- Build investment analyses for coil winders, steel processing equipment, fabrication tools, cranes, testing infrastructure, and new production space using documented throughput and payback assumptions.
- Support budgets for plant ramp-ups and expansions, including start-up labor, training, utilities, equipment, and manufacturing overhead.
- Support accounting for capital assets, interplant transactions, and manufacturing cost allocations as assigned.
- Escalate complex accounting-policy judgments, tax questions, and ASC 606 decisions to senior finance leadership.
- Supervise cost accountants and financial analysts supporting production variances, project costs, plant budgets, inventory, and customer billing.
- Assign and review work, coaching the team on accurate close processes, factory engagement, and internal controls.
- Improve ERP cost data, management dashboards, reporting timeliness, and documentation of costing assumptions.
- Resolve issues such as incorrectly coded work orders, incomplete receiving transactions, open purchase order accruals, and inconsistent plant costing practices.
- Document close procedures for cost allocation, inventory rollforwards, material price variances, factory overhead, customer advances, and reconciliation exceptions.
- Provide finance leadership with concise monthly explanations of revenue timing, order mix, gross margin movements, cash conversion, and major manufacturing cost changes.
Required Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in accounting or finance.
- Eight or more years of manufacturing finance, cost accounting, or general accounting experience, including supervisory or functional leadership.
- Experience with inventory, WIP, overhead absorption, direct labor and material costing, budgeting, and monthly financial close.
- Working knowledge of U.S. GAAP, ERP systems, reconciliations, internal controls, and plant financial reporting.
- Experience reconciling job-cost ledgers, production work orders, WIP, inventory valuation, and actual versus quoted manufacturing costs.
- Ability to translate manufacturing costs and order margin results into clear operational actions.
- Ability to explain overhead, labor, material-cost variances, and project margin trends to plant and project leaders.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience in engineered-to-order, project-based, or heavy electrical equipment manufacturing.
- CPA, CMA, or MBA.
- Familiarity with ASC 606 and its application to customer contracts.
- Experience with multi-plant costing, milestone billing, capital expenditure analysis, and plant expansions.
- Knowledge of long-cycle industrial orders, cost-to-complete analysis, and related accounting controls.
- Manufacturing finance experience involving copper, electrical steel, transformer components, or complex custom capital equipment.
Key Performance Indicators
- Timely, accurate plant financial closes and account reconciliations.
- Accuracy of transformer order margin and cost-to-complete reporting.
- Effective follow-up on manufacturing cost variances.
- Integrity of inventory and WIP records and reconciliations.
- Budget and forecast accuracy and effectiveness of financial controls.
- Clear visibility into quote-to-actual transformer margin variances.
- Timely follow-up on aged customer milestone billings and WIP exceptions.
Virginia Transformer is an Equal Opportunity Employer.