Senior Plant Controller

Position Summary

The Senior Plant Controller is the senior finance leader for both the Chesterfield, MI and Seattle, WA plants, owning financial reporting, cost accounting, and internal controls across both sites. Based in Chesterfield with about 25% travel to Seattle, this person standardizes practices across the two locations and serves as the primary finance partner to both Plant Managers - while also directly handling day-to-day transactional accounting (cash/bank reconciliation, JE preparation, intercompany accounting).

What you'll do

Multi-site financial reporting & controls

• Own the monthly, quarterly, and annual close for both plants in accordance with GAAP and corporate policy, and present P&L and variance analysis to plant and corporate leadership.
• Maintain a strong internal controls environment at both sites, including SOX compliance; lead plant-level audits and partner with the BU Controller to deliver clean audits and drive findings to closure.
• Partner with corporate accounting and FP&A on consolidation, reporting packages, and budget/forecast cycles spanning both plants.
• Own daily cash application and bank reconciliation (credit card fees, check/receipt clearing, ACH/wire/FX postings); run and reconcile SAP month-end reports and support corporate tax with SAP-based research and entries.
• Prepare and reconcile intercompany transactions between SAP and Oracle-based entities, and partner with IT to automate manual reconciliations, performing the interim manual research/reclass entries in the meantime.
• Review and approve capital expenditure requests for both sites, ensuring appropriate ROI analysis and documentation.

Standard cost development & inventory management

• Build a standard costing framework from the ground up at both plants (material, labor, and overhead standards; annual roll process; transition off average costing) and upgrade KPIs to reflect it.
• Analyze manufacturing variances with local operations leadership to identify root causes and corrective actions; oversee physical and cycle inventory counts, and benchmark productivity, scrap, and yield across both sites.
• Create and upgrade auditable finance/accounting SOPs across both plants, and establish a disciplined monthly reconciliation cadence with documented review and sign-off.

Influence & site partnership

• Serve as the primary finance business partner to both Plant Managers, driving adoption of new standards through influence and leading the annual budgeting/forecast process.
• Travel approximately 25% of the time between Chesterfield and Seattle to maintain an on-site presence and partner directly with each plant’s leadership.

What you'll bring

• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, or a related field required.
• 10+ years of progressive accounting/finance experience, including a track record in manufacturing/plant controllership, with demonstrated leadership managing teams, projects, or change without formal authority.
• Proven experience supporting multi-site finance operations, standardizing practices and driving accountability across locations.
• CPA or CMA strongly preferred.
• Strong knowledge of standard costing, manufacturing variance analysis, and inventory accounting.
• Hands-on audit experience - providing evidence to auditors, tracing to source documentation, and building workpapers to evidence standards.
• Solid understanding of GAAP and internal controls, including SOX compliance experience.
• Direct hands-on SAP experience strongly preferred (cash management, bank reconciliation, month-end reporting); Oracle familiarity a plus. Advanced Excel required.
• Comfort with hands-on transactional accounting - daily bank/cash reconciliation, JE preparation, and intercompany accounting - alongside strategic oversight.
• Willingness to travel approximately 25% of the time between Chesterfield, MI and Seattle, WA.

Nice-to-haves

• Lean/Six Sigma or continuous improvement experience.
• Experience integrating or standardizing finance practices across newly combined or acquired sites.
• Prior experience supporting M&A integration or plant startup/turnaround.