Plant Finance Manager – Steel Frame Manufacturing

Job Description:

Plant Finance Manager – Steel Frame Manufacturing

Location: Texas (TBD)

Reports to: Director of Finance (with a dotted-line to the Plant General Manager)

Position Summary

The Plant Finance Manager serves as the senior financial leader at the steel-frame manufacturing facility and a key member of the plant leadership team. This role drives financial performance, operational profitability, cost discipline, and internal-control excellence in a coil-fed, roll-forming production environment. The Finance Manager partners closely with Operations, Supply Chain, and Sales to improve margins, manage steel commodity-cost exposure, optimize working capital, and support strategic growth initiatives.

This is a hands-on individual-contributor role responsible for plant-level financial management, standard-cost accounting for roll-formed steel products, forecasting, compliance, and business decision support.

Key Responsibilities

Financial Leadership & Strategy

·      Serve as a strategic advisor to the Plant General Manager on financial performance, risk management, capital allocation, and profitability improvement.

·      Translate operational performance—including line uptime, changeover time, and coil utilization—into financial impact and actionable insights.

·      Lead financial modeling and ROI analysis for capital investments, including roll-forming line upgrades, tooling changes, and continuous-improvement initiatives.

·      Assess and report on steel commodity-price exposure (hot-rolled, cold-rolled, and galvanized coil) and support hedging or pass-through pricing strategies in coordination with Sales and Procurement.

·      Prioritize tasks effectively and manage competing deadlines to drive results independently.

Cost Accounting & Operational Finance

Own and maintain the standard-cost system, including:

·      Labor, material (coil steel, coatings, and fasteners), and overhead standards.

·      PPV and manufacturing-variance analysis, with particular focus on steel-input price volatility.

·      Absorption analysis across roll-forming lines and product families.

·      Inventory valuation and reserves for raw coil, work in process (WIP), and finished steel-frame components.

·      Analyze scrap, yield, coil-to-finished-product conversion efficiency, labor efficiency, throughput, and overhead utilization by line.

·      Monitor gauge/width yield loss and tooling changeover costs as key cost drivers.

·      Drive cost-reduction initiatives and margin-improvement strategies specific to roll-forming operations.

·      Partner with Operations to identify and execute productivity improvements, including line-speed optimization and reduced changeover downtime.

Budgeting, Forecasting & Reporting

·      Lead the annual operating plan and rolling-forecast processes, incorporating steel-market pricing trends and lead-time volatility.

·      Provide monthly performance analysis, including price, volume, mix, labor, overhead, and steel-input cost variances; margin by product, customer, and gauge specification; and working-capital trends, including raw-coil inventory levels and positioning.

·      Deliver accurate and timely financial statements in accordance with GAAP.

·      Develop KPI dashboards aligned with plant-performance objectives, including yield percentage, scrap rate, on-time delivery, and cost per ton or unit.

Working Capital & Asset Management

·      Monitor and optimize raw-coil and finished-goods inventory levels, accuracy, and turns.

·      Oversee cycle-count processes and fixed-asset controls, including roll-forming tooling and die inventory.

·      Improve cash flow through disciplined accounts receivable, accounts payable, and inventory management.

·      Ensure strong internal controls in compliance with SOX requirements.

Compliance & Controls

·      Serve as the site lead for internal and external audits.

·      Ensure adherence to GAAP, SOX, and corporate policies.

·      Strengthen the internal-control environment and drive continuous process improvement.

Qualifications

Required

·      Bachelor’s degree in Accounting or Finance.

·      8–10 years of progressive accounting or finance experience.

·      3–5 years of experience in a manufacturing environment with full plant-level financial responsibility.

·      Strong standard-cost accounting experience.

·      Deep understanding of GAAP and SOX.

·      Strong command of Microsoft Excel.

Preferred

·      Background in heavy steel manufacturing, metal forming, or roll-forming operations.

·      Familiarity with coil processing, gauge/tolerance specifications, and steel commodity-pricing dynamics.

·      CPA and/or MBA.

·      Experience with ERP systems in a manufacturing environment.

·      Experience in a public-company reporting environment.

·      Fluent in Chine (Mandarin).

Key Competencies

·      Strong operational-finance mindset with fluency in steel-manufacturing cost drivers.

·      Strategic thinker with hands-on execution capability.

·      Data-driven decision maker.

·      Continuous-improvement orientation.

·      Ability to influence plant leadership.

·      High ethical standards and control discipline.

·      Self-directed, with the ability to prioritize and manage multiple deadlines.

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