Prinicipal Financial Analyst

About the role

We are seeking a Principal Financial Analyst to support both Ascend-owned and Guest-owned units within our Pensacola manufacturing site. The Analyst will play a critical role in operating decisions through their analysis and partnership with the area operations team members.

Responsibilities

• Act as business partner to the site leadership team to help drive business improvements by communicating key results, issues, and challenges.
• Evaluate capital and productivity projects, helping to prioritize opportunities.
• Prepare impactful cost information reporting for use by business partners in managing their business, enabling them to make strategic decisions with accurate information.
• Identify and assess key value drivers, risks, and opportunities in order to maximize operating levels.
• Create cross-functional collaboration and support key ideas and initiatives by liaising with various cross functional roles, such as Corporate Accounting, Procurement, Commercial, Guests, and other financial functions on behalf of the plant and / or business partners.
• Analyze performance and financials on a weekly, monthly, annual, and ad hoc basis.
• Generate scorecards that drive improved performance.
• Support department-wide improvement initiatives, including the development of standard work, process documentation, and cross-training activities.
• Use various information systems such as SAP, BW and Microsoft Office Suite to extract needed data and turn it into analyzed information, conclusions, and recommendations.
• Complete monthly closing activities, which include making journal entries, allocating usages and costs, performing variance analysis, reconciling accounts, and preparing Guest reporting and billings.
• Cook up a monthly operations forecast (cost, production, and usages).
• Support the company’s annual planning and LRP (i.e., Long Range Plan) processes by coordinating with unit and site leaders to prepare assigned portions of the manufacturing site’s annual budget.
• Advise site leadership team and operations on financial impact of decisions and recommend best course of action based on knowledge and analysis.
• Provide analytical expertise to assist in tracking cost reduction activities and capacity expansion / rationalization projects.

Requirements

• BS / BA in Accounting or Finance; will consider Business degree with related experience.
• CPA or MBA a plus.
• History in building performance relationships and cross-functional partnerships.
• Ability to assimilate disparate information to develop detailed analysis and options.
• Advanced knowledge and user of Excel functions, lookups, pivot tables, etc.
• SAP experience preferred; experience with other ERP platforms will be considered.
• 5 - 7 years in business, accounting, financial planning with data analysis (Manufacturing industry preferred).

Qualifications

• Excellent written, verbal, and interpersonal skills; demonstrated ability to effectively communicate and work in a collaborative manner with diverse cross-functional and cross-business teams.
• Highly organized and detail-oriented with the ability to meet tight deadlines.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with an aptitude for systems and process optimization.
• Ability to multi-task and prioritize assignments while maintaining attention to detail.
• Self-driven and able to work in a fast-paced environment.
• Proactive and willing to get involved in projects outside of comfort level; willingness to involve others in the solution process.
• Proven problem-solving skills, able to break a problem down into component parts and resolve issues.
• Demonstrated ability to impact and influence others both inside and outside of the function achieve the best solution.

Skills

• Advanced knowledge and user of Excel functions, lookups, pivot tables, etc.
• SAP experience preferred; experience with other ERP platforms will be considered.