Director, Manufacturing Finance

Overview

Magnera's purpose is to better the world with new possibilities made real. For more than 160 years, the originating companies have delivered the material solutions their partners need to thrive. Through economic upheaval, global pandemics and changing end-user needs, they have consistently found ways to solve problems and exceed expectations. By bringing together these legacy companies, the distinct scale and comprehensive portfolio of products will bring customers more materials and choices. With a combined legacy of resilience, Magnera will build personal partnerships that withstand an ever-changing world.

Reporting to the Vice President Finance, U.S. & Canada Region, the Director, Manufacturing Finance serves as the senior finance business partner to a network of manufacturing sites. This role is responsible for driving financial performance, strengthening operational decision-making, and ensuring financial stewardship across the manufacturing organization.

The Director will work closely with site leadership, Operations, Supply Chain, Commercial teams, and Corporate Finance to translate business drivers into actionable insights, improve profitability, optimize working capital, and support sustainable growth. This leader will connect operational performance to financial outcomes by providing rigorous analysis, strategic perspective, and practical recommendations that enable better business decisions.

Success in this role requires a leader who is equally comfortable on the manufacturing floor and in executive-level discussions. The ideal candidate can connect volume, mix, yield, labor, material usage, inventory, pricing, and capital investments to business performance while building strong relationships across the organization.

In addition to leading financial performance, this role will develop a high-performing manufacturing finance team, establish consistent processes across multiple sites, and serve as the critical link between regional finance objectives and operational execution.

Responsibilities

Strategic Business Partnership

• Serve as the primary finance partner to site and operational leadership teams, providing forward-looking insights that improve business performance and decision-making.
• Translate regional financial objectives into actionable operational plans and measurable performance outcomes.
• Challenge assumptions, identify risks and opportunities, and provide recommendations that support profitable growth.

Planning, Forecasting, and Performance Management

• Lead the annual operating plan, quarterly forecasts, monthly outlooks, and long-range planning processes across assigned manufacturing sites.
• Ensure forecasting assumptions are grounded in key business drivers, including volume, pricing, mix, productivity, labor, capacity utilization, inflation, and capital spending.
• Develop and maintain a disciplined operating rhythm for business reviews, KPI reporting, variance analysis, and corrective action planning.
• Clearly communicate financial performance, trends, risks, and opportunities to both operational and finance leadership.

Manufacturing Finance Leadership

• Oversee standard costing, inventory valuation, labor and overhead rates, absorption, manufacturing variances, scrap, yield, freight, and other key cost drivers.
• Partner with Operations and Supply Chain to improve productivity, reduce costs, optimize inventory, and strengthen manufacturing performance.
• Ensure operational and financial metrics are aligned through a consistent set of clearly defined and actionable KPIs.

Profitability and Value Creation

• Partner with Operations, Supply Chain, Procurement, and Commercial teams to identify, validate, and deliver margin expansion, productivity improvement, and cost reduction initiatives.
• Support pricing decisions, product profitability analysis, and business investment opportunities through rigorous financial analysis.
• Establish clear financial tracking and accountability for productivity and cost savings commitments.

Capital Investment and Strategic Decision Support

• Lead financial analysis supporting capital investments, capacity expansion, automation initiatives, insourcing opportunities, make-versus-buy decisions, and other strategic projects.
• Evaluate financial risks, returns, and business impacts of proposed investments.
• Monitor post-implementation results to ensure expected financial benefits are achieved.

Financial Stewardship and Controls

• Ensure timely, accurate, and transparent financial reporting across the manufacturing network.
• Maintain strong balance sheet integrity and compliance with U.S. GAAP, company policies, internal controls, and audit requirements.
• Partner with corporate and regional finance teams to ensure consistent application of accounting policies and financial processes.

Cash Flow and Working Capital Management

• Partner with site leadership to improve inventory performance and working capital management.
• Understand the operational drivers impacting inventory, receivables, and payables and work cross-functionally to improve cash flow performance.
• Support inventory accuracy, cycle counting, and inventory control disciplines across manufacturing locations.

Process Improvement and Analytics

• Standardize finance processes, reporting practices, performance metrics, and controls across the site network.
• Drive adoption of best practices that improve reporting accuracy, efficiency, and business insight.
• Leverage ERP, planning, and business intelligence tools to support data-driven decision-making.

Team Leadership and Talent Development

• Lead, coach, and develop a distributed manufacturing finance organization.
• Establish clear expectations, performance objectives, and development plans for team members.
• Build organizational capability through succession planning, talent development, and sharing of best practices across locations.
• Foster a collaborative, accountable, and high-performance culture.

Cross-Functional Leadership

• Build strong relationships across Operations, Supply Chain, Procurement, Engineering, Commercial, HR, and Corporate Finance.
• Influence business decisions through credibility, partnership, and strong financial acumen.
• Serve as a trusted advisor to site leadership teams while effectively representing finance priorities and objectives.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, or a related field.
• 10+ years of progressive finance leadership experience, including significant responsibility supporting manufacturing, operations, or supply chain environments.
• Demonstrated success supporting multiple manufacturing sites, business units, or geographically distributed operations.
• Strong expertise in budgeting, forecasting, financial analysis, cost accounting, standard costing, inventory management, and capital investment analysis.
• Strong understanding of manufacturing operations and the financial drivers of productivity, cost, quality, inventory, and profitability.
• Working knowledge of U.S. GAAP, financial controls, and audit requirements.
• Proven experience leading and developing finance professionals across multiple locations.
• Demonstrated ability to simplify complex financial and operational issues and communicate effectively with both plant-level and executive audiences.
• Strong ERP, financial modeling, spreadsheet, and business intelligence capabilities.
• Ability and willingness to travel regularly among assigned manufacturing sites.

Preferred Qualifications

• MBA, CPA, CMA, or equivalent advanced professional certification.
• Experience with SAP and related manufacturing systems.
• Knowledge of Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) controls and compliance.
• Experience supporting Lean manufacturing, continuous improvement, operational excellence, finance transformation, integration, or restructuring initiatives.
• Experience leading finance support for automation, productivity, or manufacturing modernization programs.