Senior FP&A Analyst (Downstream)

About Us

We are on a mission to become a leading supplier of critical materials that enable the green energy and technology revolution. Our materials and technologies are required for the electric vehicle, green energy, consumer electronics, and defense industries. We supply battery-grade lithium and tech metals for chipsets, semiconductors, and 5G. We have a substantial interest in the Round Top Heavy Rare Earth, Lithium, and Critical Minerals deposit in West Texas. We have developed the United States’ first rare earth and critical minerals processing facility and own the only scalable, sintered neo-magnet manufacturing system in the Western Hemisphere. By developing this fully integrated, US-based “mine-to-magnet” critical mineral supply chain, we are poised to become the leading domestic supplier to these industries.

At USA Rare Earth, we are pioneers and problem solvers, technologists and team players. Together, we:

• Build Solutions: We are creative and solution-oriented, thinking outside the box to solve important problems. We work across sectors and alongside customers to deliver world-class solutions in sustainable ways.
• Deliver Quality: We hold ourselves to the highest quality standards, ensuring top-tier quality leads to industry competitiveness. Safety, quality, and excellence always come first.
• Lead Responsibly: We prioritize safety, take accountability for our actions, incorporate sustainable practices, and act with the financial best interest of our investors and consumers in mind.
• Win Together: We communicate openly, work together, and challenge each other in pursuit of our goals. With every step, we learn and improve.

About the Role

The Senior FP&A Analyst is responsible for budgeting, forecasting, and performance analysis across manufacturing operations. This role partners closely with operations, supply chain, sales, and accounting to analyze costs, monitor key performance indicators, and provide the financial visibility leadership needs to plan and grow. The ideal candidate is analytically rigorous, comfortable working with large data sets, and able to translate numbers into clear, actionable recommendations.

Responsibilities

• Lead the annual budgeting process and periodic reforecasts (monthly/quarterly) for manufacturing operations, working cross-functionally with plant, supply chain, and commercial teams.
• Prepare and analyze monthly financial results, including variance analysis of actuals versus budget, forecast, and prior year, with clear explanations of key drivers.
• Develop and maintain product-level and plant-level cost models, including cost of goods sold (COGS) and margin analysis.
• Conduct pricing analysis to support the sales and commercial team, including cost-plus and margin modeling, customer and product profitability, and evaluation of quotes, price changes, and volume/discount scenarios.
• Track and report on manufacturing KPIs such as unit cost, labor and overhead absorption, scrap/yield, capacity utilization, and inventory turns.
• Partner with operations to identify cost-savings and efficiency opportunities, and quantify the financial impact of continuous-improvement initiatives.
• Build and evaluate business cases for capital expenditures, including ROI, payback, and NPV analysis for equipment, automation, and capacity investments.
• Track, monitor, and forecast project-level capital expenditures against approved budgets, reporting on spend-to-date, commitments, forecast-to-complete, and variances for active capital projects.
• Support monthly and quarterly financial reporting and management dashboards.
• Improve financial models, reporting tools, and processes to increase accuracy, automation, and speed as the organization scales.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, or a related field.
• 4+ years of FP&A, corporate finance, or cost accounting experience in a manufacturing or industrial environment.
• Strong understanding of financial statements, budgeting, forecasting, and variance analysis.
• Advanced Excel skills, including financial modeling and complex formulas.
• Experience working with ERP systems and extracting data from operational systems.
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills with strong attention to detail.
• Ability to communicate financial insights clearly to non-financial stakeholders.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with cost accounting in a manufacturing setting.
• Proficiency with BI and data-visualization tools and FP&A platforms (e.g., Adaptive).
• Exposure to a high-growth and fast-paced environment.

Work Environment

The work environment will be a mix of a typical office environment, manufacturing floor, and construction site. Noise level exposure will vary and include normal office noise, typical laboratory sounds (e.g., ventilation systems, equipment operation), manufacturing floor noise (e.g., machinery, forklifts), and construction site noise depending on project phase and location.