Plant Controller

About the role

The Plant Controller serves as the financial leader of the manufacturing facility and is accountable for maximizing plant profitability through rigorous cost management, operational partnership, and proactive leadership across the manufacturing organization. Owns the financial performance of the plant P&L and is expected to be highly visible on the production floor, partnering daily with Operations, Maintenance, Supply Chain, Quality, Engineering, and Plant Leadership to drive labor productivity, material yield improvement, overhead optimization, and working capital performance. Actively influences plant decisions, identifies inefficiencies, challenges assumptions, and drives corrective actions to deliver world-class manufacturing performance. Influences every dollar spent and every dollar earned within the plant.

Responsibilities

• Plant Financial Leadership – Serve as the primary financial leader and strategic business partner to the Plant Manager; provides financial leadership across all operational decisions; owns the complete plant P&L, including manufacturing costs, labor, materials, overhead, maintenance expenses, consumables, and inventory performance; delivers timely, accurate, and actionable financial insights that enable rapid decision‑making; leads monthly financial reviews, forecasting, budgeting, and strategic planning processes; drives a culture of financial accountability throughout the facility.
• Manufacturing Cost Management – Supports all manufacturing cost improvement initiatives focused on material utilization and yield, labor productivity, OEE improvement, overhead management, and waste elimination; develops and implements processes to identify, quantify, and eliminate cost losses throughout the manufacturing process; partners with operations teams to translate manufacturing metrics into financial outcomes and measurable savings; establishes rigorous cost controls and continuously challenges spending levels against benchmarks and standards; ensures recovery of customer associated costs.
• Shop Floor Financial Leadership – Maintains a highly visible presence on the manufacturing floor; spends significant time in production areas understanding drivers of performance and financial results firsthand; partners directly with Production Managers, Supervisors, Maintenance Leaders, Supply Chain teams, and Operators to identify cost‑saving opportunities; drives accountability for labor efficiency, material usage variances, productivity metrics, downtime costs, scrap reduction, and inventory performance; utilizes daily management systems to connect operational performance with financial outcomes.
• Labor Productivity and Workforce Cost Control – Leads labor cost analysis across all production lines and departments; monitors staffing and crewing levels, overtime, efficiency metrics, and workforce productivity; identifies opportunities to optimize labor deployment while supporting safety, quality, and service objectives; partners with Operations leadership to institutionalize labor performance metrics and accountability.
• Material Cost and Yield Management – Owns financial oversight of material consumption and manufacturing yields; drives variance analysis related to raw materials, packaging materials, ingredient utilization, scrap and waste, and rework losses; ensures robust controls exist around inventory consumption, production reporting, and loss tracking; leads financial reviews of yield opportunities and manufacturing process improvements.
• Overhead, Repair & Maintenance Control – Establishes financial discipline around plant overhead spending; drives aggressive management of repair and maintenance expenses, plant supplies and consumables, indirect labor, utilities, and contract services; challenges spending requests and ensures every expenditure supports operational value creation; partners with Maintenance and Engineering leadership to optimize preventive maintenance investments while controlling total maintenance costs; develops visibility and accountability around plant fixed and variable spending.
• Financial Planning, Analysis, and Controls – Leads annual budget, forecasts, monthly and weekly estimate processes including standard costs development and maintenance for