Director, Business Unit Finance

About the role

The Business Unit Finance Director serves as the senior, business-embedded finance leader for a manufacturing business unit, co-owning the BU P&L alongside the Business Unit Executive Vice President (EVP).

Responsibilities

• Serve as the primary finance partner to the BU EVP and BU leadership team, co-owning BU financial outcomes and reinforcing a disciplined operating cadence.
• Bring strong manufacturing finance experience and ensure disciplined job/program-level financial visibility—owning job-level margin, cost-to-complete, and cash views, including project-system reporting and job WIP analysis—to support timely BU decision-making and accountability.
• Support the BU EVP in commercial activities including negotiation of customer/channel terms and pricing; provide quotation decision support through standardized margin and cash-impact analytics; and lead finance support for the BU strategic planning process through multi-year modeling, scenarios, and capital allocation trade-offs.
• Lead BU-level annual budget, rolling forecasts, and long-range financial planning, including scenario and sensitivity analysis and clear recommendations.
• Analyze and communicate BU results, performance trends, and KPIs; translate insights into actionable recommendations for BU leadership.
• Own standardized BU financial outputs for the enterprise cadence; prepare, consolidate, and submit required packages on schedule.
• Produce concise BU-level variance narratives (actuals vs. plan/forecast) highlighting root causes, leading indicators, and forward implications.
• Partner with Plant Controllers and the Operations Finance Director to ensure plant-level analytics, escalation items, and KPI packs roll up cleanly into BU reporting and decision forums.
• Lead financial evaluation of significant BU investments and initiatives (e.g., capital expenditures, restructuring, footprint changes) including feasibility and return/risk assessment.
• Own BU reporting tools, templates, and processes; drive improvements in efficiency, consistency, and scalability across planning and reporting workflows.
• Facilitate BU deliverables to Corporate Accounting and other stakeholders as needed, supporting audit and disclosure-related requests when applicable.
• Build and lead a high-performing BU finance team; attract, develop, and retain talent while instilling accountability and continuous improvement.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Business, Economics, or a related discipline required.
• 10+ years of progressive finance experience, including significant experience in manufacturing environments.
• Demonstrated experience leading BU-level planning, forecasting, and performance management with senior leadership visibility.
• MBA, CPA, CMA, or other relevant professional certification preferred.

Skills and Abilities

• Strong financial analysis, forecasting, and modeling capabilities (including scenario and sensitivity analysis).
• Excellent communication and presentation skills; ability to translate complex financial information into concise, decision-ready insights.
• Executive presence and ability to influence senior leaders in high-visibility forums.
• Systems orientation: experience with ERP and reporting/BI/FP&A tools; strong proficiency in Microsoft Excel, Word, and PowerPoint.
• Strong organizational skills and ability to manage multiple priorities and deadlines in a fast-paced environment.
• People leadership capabilities: ability to hire, coach, develop, and retain high-performing teams.