Vice President - Finance / Controller

Vice President, Finance / Controller

Confidential Search | Leading High-Growth Manufacturer

Location: Auburn, Massachusetts, south of Worcester

On-site Senior Finance Leadership Role

The Avery Point Group has been retained to conduct a confidential search for a Vice President, Finance / Controller for a leading, high-growth manufacturer in its industry. This is a hands-on senior finance leadership role for an experienced manufacturing finance professional who can strengthen the company’s accounting foundation, improve financial discipline, and partner closely with operations, supply chain, purchasing, sales, and executive leadership.

The successful candidate will serve as the company’s senior accounting and finance leader, reporting to the CEO / President. This person must be comfortable operating both as a senior leader and as a hands-on contributor, moving easily between executive-level financial leadership and detailed execution around costing, inventory, controls, close, reporting, ERP, and operational finance.

This is an excellent opportunity for a manufacturing finance leader who understands the details behind product cost, margin, inventory valuation, labor, overhead, working capital, and operating performance, and who can help build the systems, processes, reporting, and controls needed to support continued growth.

Position Summary

The Vice President, Finance / Controller will lead the company’s accounting and financial operations, with primary responsibility for accurate, timely, and disciplined financial processes across a manufacturing and distribution environment.

A major priority of the role will be ensuring that costs, inventory values, margins, and financial results are accurate and supported by reliable systems, data, controls, and processes. The right candidate will bring strong experience in manufacturing cost accounting, a deep understanding of inventory and standard costing, and the ability to partner effectively with non-financial leaders across the business.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead all accounting operations, including general ledger, accounts payable, accounts receivable, payroll, inventory, fixed assets, and financial reporting.
• Direct monthly, quarterly, and annual close processes, including reconciliations, financial statement preparation, variance analysis, and management reporting.
• Ensure compliance with GAAP and maintain strong accounting controls and balance sheet integrity.
• Improve the accuracy, timeliness, consistency, and usefulness of financial reporting.
• Lead the design, implementation, and continuous improvement of the company’s manufacturing cost accounting processes.
• Develop and maintain accurate standard costs, including materials, labor, overhead, freight, outside services, and other cost drivers.
• Analyze product profitability and manufacturing variances, including material, labor, overhead, scrap, yield, inventory, purchasing, and cost-of-goods-sold variances.
• Partner with operations to identify root causes, improve costing accuracy, strengthen performance visibility, and drive corrective actions.
• Lead the development, validation, governance, and ongoing maintenance of bills of materials, routings, work-center rates, overhead assumptions, and item master data.
• Ensure new products, changes, and operating assumptions are supported by complete costing, accurate master data, and disciplined change control.
• Lead the finance workstream for ERP selection, implementation, testing, deployment, and post-implementation optimization.
• Define accounting, costing, inventory, reporting, workflow, data governance, and internal control requirements within the ERP environment.
• Establish and maintain effective controls over raw materials, work in process, finished goods, supplies, and related inventory categories.
• Develop and oversee cycle-counting, physical-inventory procedures, inventory adjustments, reserves, obsolete inventory, slow-moving inventory, and valuation methodologies.
• Strengthen internal controls across purchasing, payroll, inventory, cash, capital expenditures, reconciliations, and customer/vendor transactions.
• Standardize financial processes, reduce reliance on manual spreadsheets, improve documentation, and build scalable accounting procedures.
• Lead annual budgeting, forecasting, long-range planning, budget-to-actual reporting, financial forecasts, cash flow projections, and capital investment analysis.
• Provide financial analysis to support pricing, profitability, sourcing, operational improvements, working capital management, and strategic business decisions.
• Manage cash flow, treasury activities, banking relationships, debt reporting, liquidity planning, lender compliance, and working capital performance.
• Lead, develop, and strengthen the finance organization through coaching, accountability, performance management, and organizational design.
• Build strong working relationships with Operations, Supply Chain, Sales, Human Resources, Information Technology, and executive leadership.
• Maintain a visible presence within manufacturing operations to understand the business, support operating decisions, and provide practical financial leadership.

Ideal Candidate Profile

The ideal candidate is a hands-on manufacturing finance leader who understands that accurate financial results begin with disciplined operating data, sound costing, inventory accuracy, reliable ERP processes, and strong cross-functional execution.

This person should bring the technical depth of a strong Controller, the business orientation of a finance partner, and the leadership presence needed to build stronger financial discipline across a growing manufacturing organization.

The right leader will be comfortable reviewing detailed accounting records, system configurations, reconciliations, bills of materials, costing calculations, inventory transactions, and operating data.

At the same time, this person must be able to communicate clearly with executive leadership and non-financial business leaders in a way that drives better decisions and stronger accountability.

This is a strong fit for a finance leader who wants to help a growing manufacturer improve visibility, strengthen controls, upgrade systems and processes, and create a more scalable financial foundation for continued growth.

Required Experience

• At least 12 years of progressive accounting and finance experience, including significant leadership responsibility.
• At least five years of experience as a Controller, Corporate Controller, Vice President of Finance, Division Controller, or similar senior financial leader.
• Substantial manufacturing finance experience required.
• Strong knowledge of manufacturing cost accounting, standard costing, inventory accounting, BOMs, routings, labor standards, overhead allocation, and variance analysis.
• Demonstrated experience improving or implementing product-costing systems.
• Experience leading or playing a major role in an ERP implementation within a manufacturing company.
• Strong knowledge of GAAP, financial reporting, internal controls, audit requirements, and accounting-process design.
• Experience overseeing month-end close, budgeting, forecasting, treasury, cash flow, accounts receivable, accounts payable, inventory, and tax coordination.
• Demonstrated ability to identify accounting or operational issues, determine root causes, and drive corrective actions.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with exceptional attention to detail.
• Ability to work effectively with large volumes of financial and operational data.
• Strong project-management skills and the ability to manage multiple priorities and deadlines.
• Ability to operate both as a senior leader and as a hands-on contributor.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to build productive relationships across finance, operations, supply chain, sales, IT, HR, and executive leadership.
• Comfortable working in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial, and evolving organization.

Preferred Experience

• Experience in a multi-site manufacturing and distribution environment.
• Experience implementing or upgrading a mid-market manufacturing ERP system.
• Experience establishing costing and inventory disciplines in an organization transitioning from spreadsheet-based or informal processes.
• Experience with acquisitions, business integrations, multiple legal entities, or family-owned businesses.
• Experience developing KPI dashboards and management reporting for manufacturing operations.

Education and Certifications

A bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, Business Administration, or a related field is required. An MBA or other relevant advanced degree is beneficial but not required.

CPA or CMA certification is strongly preferred.