What are the responsibilities and job description for the Business Unit Controller position at Talent Reel?
BU Controller (Flagship manufacturing site warehouse network)
Position Summary
This is a key finance role in a well-established, $1B global manufacturing organization. It sits at the intersection of site-level execution and divisional / business-unit partnership.
The BU Controller owns the plant’s financial integrity — close, reporting, standard cost, inventory, labor and overhead — while also serving as the primary finance partner who can explain plant performance to leadership outside the four walls.
What the Role Does
Financial close, reporting, and control
- Own monthly close for the site, including P&L and balance sheet account reconciliation (oversight and/or preparation).
- Prepare internal monthly financial packages and leadership slide decks.
- Serve as the primary finance contact for questions on plant performance and monthly results.
- Maintain appropriate accruals and support accuracy of the financial statements.
- Identify and implement internal control enhancements as needed.
- Support capital project justification and analysis; proper expense vs. capital treatment; maintenance of capex and fixed asset records.
Planning and analysis
- Lead / support annual budget and quarterly forecasts for the site.
- Analyze variances versus budget and forecast (labor, overhead, price, production/absorption, and operational drivers).
- Provide forward-looking analysis — not only “what happened,” but what a change on the floor or in the product mix means for site and business-unit profitability.
Costing, inventory, and product economics
- Establish and maintain material, labor, and overhead standards; update standards and bills of materials as needed.
- Own the integrity of standard costing as products are added, removed, or transferred into the site.
- Inventory management and the financial impact of mix, volume, and process change.
- Support cost estimates when volume or products move into the site (the Controller is a focal point for “what does this do to plant cost?”).
- Customer / product profitability support as needed; gross-to-net mechanics exist in the business but are not the center of this role.
Partnership and transformation
- Regular presence on the plant floor: understand process, production changes, and projects, then translate those into numbers leadership can use.
- Partner with plant leadership and with other controllers / business-unit finance on performance, mix, and supply-chain impact.
- Bridge site results to business-unit leaders who do not sit at the plant — clear variance explanations, monthly story, and implications.
- Support major site projects (new lines, layout/footprint changes, construction or warehouse projects, new-product qualification) from a finance standpoint.
- Contribute a process-improvement mindset (yield, damage, cost of quality, operating discipline) rather than a purely accounting orientation.
Ideal Background
- Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, or related field. MBA a plus.
- Progressive manufacturing finance experience (typically 7–12 years), including standard costing.
- A mix of plant finance and FP&A / analytical work is often a better fit — early plant experience plus later analysis work, or the reverse — provided the person can operate on the floor and own costing.
- Demonstrated experience explaining plant or operations results to non-finance and commercial stakeholders.
- Experience in a site that has gone through change (new lines, product transfers, footprint or major capital projects) is highly relevant.
- SAP experience is a strong plus (implementation / integration experience even more so); it is not framed as the sole gate.
- Solid GAAP; IFRS familiarity is helpful in a global organization.
- Process and system documentation experience valued; SOX familiarity a plus.
- Strong communication and presentation skills. This person will be the site’s finance voice to a wider audience.