Senior Finance Business Partner - Operations

Position Summary

The Senior Finance Business Partner - Operations will serve as the primary finance business partner to the Vice President of Operations and the broader Operations organization. Reporting directly to the Vice President of Operations, with a dotted-line relationship to the Chief Financial Officer, this role will provide financial planning, analysis, reporting, and decision support across manufacturing, supply chain, procurement, engineering, quality, logistics, and capital investment activities.

This individual will lead the annual operating plan and forecasting processes for Operations, support capital planning and expenditure tracking, develop financial business cases, and provide analysis related to make-versus-buy decisions, manufacturing footprint, productivity, sourcing, capacity, inventory, and other operational initiatives.

This is a high-visibility individual contributor role requiring a self-sufficient finance professional who can work through fragmented or difficult-to-access data and develop practical reporting and analytical solutions in an environment where systems and processes are evolving. The successful candidate will combine strong financial and analytical skills with manufacturing acumen, business judgment, and the confidence to challenge assumptions and provide clear recommendations to operational leadership.

Key Responsibilities

Operations Finance Business Partnership

• Serve as the primary finance advisor to the Vice President of Operations and Operations leadership team.
• Provide financial guidance across manufacturing, supply chain, procurement, engineering, quality, and logistics.
• Translate operational decisions into impacts on revenue, gross margin, EBITDA, cash flow, inventory, and working capital.
• Identify financial and operational risks and opportunities and recommend actions to improve performance.
• Challenge assumptions and promote accountability for operating commitments and financial targets.
• Build strong relationships with operational leaders and serve as a trusted, objective financial advisor.

Planning & Performance Management

• Lead the annual operating plan, periodic forecasts, and long-range planning processes for Operations.
• Develop driver-based forecasts using volume, labor, material, overhead, productivity, capacity, sourcing, and inventory assumptions.
• Partner with Operations leaders to establish clear assumptions, targets, and forecast ownership.
• Analyze performance against budget, forecast, prior year, and operational targets.
• Communicate variances, risks, opportunities, and forecast changes in clear business terms.
• Ensure operational assumptions are aligned with broader company financial plans.

Operations Reporting & Analysis

• Develop recurring reporting for manufacturing performance, productivity, labor, overhead, materials, inventory, working capital, and capital expenditures.
• Establish consistent metrics and reporting standards across facilities and operational functions.
• Connect operational KPIs to gross margin, cash flow, and overall financial performance.
• Support monthly and quarterly operating reviews with actionable insights and recommendations.
• Reconcile operational reporting to financial results and investigate material differences.
• Identify trends and underlying business drivers and translate findings into actionable recommendations.

Business Cases & Decision Support

• Develop business cases for make-versus-buy decisions, insourcing, outsourcing, automation, capacity expansion, supplier changes, and manufacturing footprint initiatives.
• Build financial models addressing implementation costs, savings, margin impact, working capital, risks, sensitivities, and expected returns.
• Incorporate operational factors such as capacity, quality, lead times, logistics, tooling, labor availability, and execution risk.
• Present clear, fact-based recommendations to Operations and executive leadership.
• Track approved business cases against actual results and identify lessons learned.

Capital Planning & Management

• Coordinate the annual capital-planning process for Operations.
• Develop and review capital business cases, including payback, return on investment, net present value, cash-flow impact, and key risks.
• Partner with Operations leaders to prioritize projects based on safety, compliance, maintenance, capacity, productivity, quality, and financial return.
• Track approved projects, spending, commitments, forecasts, timing, and expected completion.
• Monitor project benefits and support post-investment reviews for significant capital expenditures.

Manufacturing & Supply Chain Analysis

• Analyze manufacturing costs, labor productivity, overhead absorption, material usage, scrap, freight, capacity utilization, and other operational cost drivers.
• Support sourcing, supplier, purchase-price, logistics, and supply chain analyses.
• Evaluate inventory levels, inventory turns, excess and obsolete inventory, safety stock, and working capital opportunities.
• Support productivity and cost-reduction initiatives by validating assumptions and tracking realized savings.
• Connect demand forecasts to labor, capacity, inventory, sourcing, and capital requirements.

Data & Process Improvement

• Independently identify, extract, reconcile, and analyze information from ERP systems, BI platforms, data warehouses, and spreadsheets.
• Work through incomplete, inconsistent, or difficult-to-access data to deliver timely analysis and decision support.
• Develop practical interim solutions while partnering with Finance, Operations, and IT on sustainable improvements.
• Standardize reporting, data definitions, assumptions, and recurring analytical processes.
• Reduce manual effort through automation and improved use of business intelligence tools.
• Improve the quality, consistency, and accessibility of operational financial information.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner closely with Operations, FP&A, Accounting, Commercial Finance, Engineering, Procurement, Supply Chain, Quality, and IT.
• Ensure operational assumptions are aligned with the consolidated company forecast and financial results.
• Maintain clear accountability between operational decision support and controllership responsibilities.
• Support additional financial and strategic projects requested by the Vice President of Operations or Chief Financial Officer.

Qualifications

• Strong financial analysis, modeling, reporting, and business-partnering capabilities.
• Demonstrated ability to translate complex, incomplete, or inconsistent data into useful business insights.
• Strong understanding of manufacturing costs, gross margin, inventory, working capital, productivity, forecasting, and operational performance drivers.
• Ability to independently access, organize, validate, and analyze data from multiple systems and sources.
• Strong business judgment and ability to distinguish information that is analytically interesting from information that drives business decisions.
• Ability to communicate financial concepts clearly to non-financial stakeholders and senior leaders.
• Confidence to challenge assumptions, identify risks, and provide an independent financial perspective.
• Strong attention to detail without losing sight of broader operational and strategic priorities.
• Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Excel and financial modeling.
• Experience with Power BI or similar business intelligence tools strongly preferred.

Experience

• 5-8 years of progressive experience in operations finance, manufacturing finance, FP&A, financial analysis, or a related field.
• Prior experience directly supporting Operations, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, or a similar organization strongly preferred.
• Experience with manufacturing cost analysis, operational performance analysis, business cases, capital investments, productivity initiatives, or inventory analysis.
• Experience working with fragmented data, manual reporting processes, or evolving financial systems highly desirable.
• Experience partnering directly with senior operational leaders and influencing decisions without direct authority.
• Experience with ERP systems and business intelligence tools.
• JD Edwards (JDE) and Power BI experience preferred.
• Manufacturing, industrial, engineered-products, or private equity-backed company experience preferred.

Education

• Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, Business Administration, Engineering, Supply Chain, or a related field required.
• MBA or advanced degree preferred, but not required.