Commercial Finance Director

The Director of FP&A – Commercial is a strategic finance leader responsible for partnering with Sales, Commercial Operations, and Product Management to drive profitable revenue growth in a manufacturing environment. This role focuses heavily on pricing strategy, customer and product profitability, volume forecasting, and margin optimization while aligning commercial activities with plant capacity, cost structures, and supply chain activity.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Commercial Partnership

• Partner with Sales, Business Development, and Product Management to shape growth strategies across key markets, channels, and customers
• Provide financial insight into demand trends, customer behavior, and market dynamics
• Support strategic initiatives such as new product launches, market expansion, and key account strategies

Revenue & Volume Planning

• Lead forecasting processes for volume, revenue, and price realization across product lines and regions
• Partner with S&OP (Sales & Ops Planning) teams to align commercial forecasts with production capacity, supply chain constraints, inventory planning
• Develop models incorporating vol/mix, pricing changes, and raw material impacts 

Pricing, Margin Management, and Customer/Product Profitability

• Lead pricing strategy, including price increases, surcharges, and tracking
• Analyze and improve gross margin by product, customer, and channel
• Support bid pricing, contract negotiations, and large deal evaluations
• Conduct profitability analysis at customer/account, product/sku, channel/region
• Identify margin leakage drivers (e.g., freight, rebates, inefficiencies, low-volume)
• Provide actionable recommendations to improve contribution margins

Performance Management & Reporting

• Deliver insights on key commercial and financial KPIs, including: 
  • Revenue growth and volume trends including sales mix and profitability
  • Gross margin and contribution margin
  • Price / cost variance analysis
• Act as the bridge between commercial and operational finance

Financial Modeling & Decision Support

• Build models to support: 
  • Capital investments tied to commercial growth
  • Make vs. buy decisions
  • Product rationalization
• Perform scenario analysis related to: 
  • Volume fluctuations
  • Commodity price volatility
  • Tariffs or supply disruptions

Team Leadership and Cross-functional Collaboration

• Act as a bridge between commercial and operational finance supporting holistic business efforts
• Drive process improvements in forecasting, reporting, and data analytics
• Implement scalable tools, dashboards, and AI driven analytics to enhance visibility and decision-making

Qualifications

Education & Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, or related field (MBA preferred)
• 10–15 years of FP&A or finance experience, with strong exposure to manufacturing or industrial environments
• Proven experience supporting Sales or Commercial functions
• Experience with complex cost structures, standard costing, and margin analysis

Skills & Competencies

• Deep understanding of manufacturing financial drivers (volume, cost absorption, utilization, yield)
• Strong pricing and profitability analysis capabilities
• Advanced financial modeling and forecasting skills
• Ability to influence cross-functional senior leaders
• Experience with ERP and planning tools
• Strong communication and executive presentation skills