Plant Controller

The Plant Controller is responsible for overseeing plant-level financial reporting, operational analysis, and decision support within a food manufacturing environment. This position works closely with the Plant Manager, operations, quality assurance, procurement, sales, payroll, and finance leadership to ensure accurate financial results, effective cost control, sound inventory oversight, and clear visibility into key manufacturing performance drivers.

The role is accountable for supporting month-end close, budget preparation, reporting variance analysis, production KPI reporting, product costing, inventory controls, business case modelling, and continuous improvement initiatives. The successful candidate will be a disciplined finance professional with strong manufacturing knowledge, cost accounting expertise, systems capability, leadership skills, and the ability to translate financial and operational data into actionable recommendations that enhance plant performance.

Responsibilities

Financial Reporting, Budgeting, and Analysis

• Oversee plant financial reporting, month-end close support, balance sheet reconciliations, and operational performance analysis to ensure accurate and timely financial results.
• Lead annual budget preparation and support forecasting activities for plant operations, including labour, overhead, production costs, inventory, and key operating assumptions.
• Prepare comprehensive variance analysis for actual results versus budget, forecast, and prior periods, with clear explanations of production costs, labour, yield, overhead, inventory, margins, and other key manufacturing performance drivers.
• Prepare and communicate production KPIs, including labour efficiency, yield, throughput, downtime, waste, inventory accuracy, and cost per unit.
• Develop reports, dashboards, and financial tools to monitor production performance, cost trends, and improvement opportunities.

Manufacturing Operations and Cost Control

• Maintain regular shop-floor engagement to understand production processes, labour utilization, material usage, yield performance, downtime, sanitation impact, and operational constraints.
• Partner with the Plant Manager and operations team to evaluate production performance, identify cost reduction opportunities, and support corrective actions in a food processing environment.
• Support product costing, standard costing, bill of material and recipe/formulation cost reviews, labour standards, and overhead absorption analysis.

Inventory, Controls, and Compliance

• Oversee inventory control processes, including cycle counts, inventory adjustments, slow-moving or obsolete inventory review, and reconciliation of production usage to financial records.
• Support compliance with internal controls, company policies, food manufacturing procedures, and audit requirements related to inventory, production reporting, and financial processes.

Business Partnering, Continuous Improvement, and Leadership

• Prepare financial models and business cases for crewing decisions, capital investments, process improvements, and capacity initiatives.
• Collaborate with operations, quality assurance, procurement, sales, payroll, and finance leadership to support business decisions, compliance requirements, and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Provide guidance, support, and development to accounting staff while promoting accountability, accuracy, collaboration, and continuous improvement.

Requirements

• CPA designation, or internationally recognized accounting designation, required.
• At least 3-5 years in a Controller or senior accounting management role preferably within a manufacturing or food manufacturing environment.
• Strong knowledge of financial reporting, month-end close, internal controls, cost accounting, standard costing, budgeting, forecasting, and business case modelling.
• Demonstrated ability to analyze financial and operational data, interpret variances, and communicate insights effectively to non-finance stakeholders.
• Supervisory or team lead experience within an accounting, payroll, or inventory function.
• Strong systems capability, including ERP, reporting, payroll, and operational systems, with advanced Microsoft Excel skills.
• Collaborative and hands-on approach with the ability to work effectively with plant operations, sales, payroll, finance leadership, and other cross-functional teams.
• Strong communication, problem-solving, organizational, prioritization, attention to detail, and professional judgment skills.
• Continuous improvement mindset with the ability to identify efficiencies, streamline processes, and support automation initiatives.