Operations Finance Analyst

SUMMARY

About Ketjen

Ketjen Corporation is a provider of advanced catalyst solutions to leading producers in the petrochemical, refining, and specialty chemicals industries. Our company is driven by a strong set of core values: curiosity, care, collaboration, humility, accountability, and integrity. These values guide our decisions, shape our culture, and define how we work together to deliver exceptional value to our customers and communities.

About the Role
The Operations Finance Analyst provides financial analysis across manufacturing costs, productivity, operational performance, inventory, and capital expenditures. This role partners closely with the Operations Finance Leader and operations teams to deliver insights that support informed business decisions and improved manufacturing economics. The ideal candidate brings strong analytical skills, a solid finance foundation, and an interest in operations and manufacturing finance. 

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Operations Financial Analysis

• Provide financial analysis and decision support to the Operations Finance Leader and operations teams. 
• Analyze manufacturing costs, production variances, yields, productivity, and other operational performance drivers.
• Build financial models, scenarios, and business cases to evaluate operational opportunities, risks, and tradeoffs.
• Translate complex financial and operational data into clear insights and recommendations for business stakeholders.

Manufacturing Cost & Productivity

• Monitor manufacturing cost performance and identify key drivers of favorable and unfavorable results. 
• Partner with site and operations teams to evaluate productivity initiatives and quantify expected and realized financial benefits.
• Support standard cost, variance, and cost-center analyses, including investigation of performance gaps.
• Develop recurring analyses and reporting that improve visibility into manufacturing economics and cost trends.

Inventory & Working Capital 

• Analyze inventory levels, movements, valuation, reserves, obsolescence, and working capital performance. 
• Partner with Operations, Supply Chain, and Finance to identify opportunities to improve inventory efficiency.
• Support inventory forecasting, reconciliations, and performance reviews through accurate and timely analysis.
• Evaluate the financial impact of inventory decisions and communicate risks and opportunities.

Capital Effectiveness & Decision Support 

• Support capital investment analysis, including business cases, return calculations, scenario modeling, and project tracking. 
• Monitor capital spending and project financial performance against approved plans and forecasts.
• Create and maintain dashboards, reports, and analytical tools that provide actionable operations finance insights.
• Identify opportunities to improve or automate recurring reporting, data quality, and finance processes.

QUALIFICATIONS

Required Qualifications

• 2 to 5 years of finance experience, preferably in operations finance, manufacturing finance, cost accounting, financial planning and analysis, or a related discipline. 
• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, Business, or a related field; or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Strong analytical, financial modeling, and problem-solving skills.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Excel and experience working with large or complex data sets.
• Ability to connect financial results to operational drivers and communicate insights to financial and non-financial stakeholders.
• Strong attention to detail, organization, and ability to manage multiple priorities.
• Strong alignment with Ketjen’s core values: curiosity, care, collaboration, humility, accountability, and integrity.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience analyzing manufacturing costs, productivity, inventory, or capital expenditures. 
• Experience in specialty chemicals, petrochemicals, refining, manufacturing, or another asset-intensive environment.
• Knowledge of standard costing, variance analysis, forecasting, and operational performance management.
• Experience with enterprise financial systems, manufacturing cost systems, Power BI, or other analytical tools.
• Demonstrated ability to improve or automate financial reporting and analytical processes.