Plant Controller – Germany (Lead)

• As Plant Controller, you are the finance professional and trusted business partner for the German manufacturing site.

You are responsible for driving the plant’s financial performance, supporting profitable growth, improving cash generation, and making a significant contribution to operational excellence within a demanding manufacturing environment.

Working closely with the local leadership team, you combine strong financial expertise with a pragmatic, hands-on approach to manufacturing finance. Through robust analysis, professional cost management, Lean Finance principles, and value stream management, you provide the foundation for sound operational and strategic decision-making.

You play a key role in improving productivity, profitability, working capital performance, and overall business results while leading and developing the local finance team.

• Financial Reporting & Compliance
• Prepare and present monthly, quarterly, and annual financial reports to group and plant leadership.
• Ensure compliance with internal controls, company policies, and group-wide finance processes.
• Support external audits as well as group reporting requirements.
• Maintain a robust financial control environment and ensure high data quality.

Budgeting, Forecasting & Performance Analysis

• Lead the annual budgeting, forecasting, and monthly performance reporting processes.
• Analyze value stream performance with regard to profitability, capacity utilization, and operational KPIs.
• Evaluate business performance against defined stretch targets and identify gaps, root causes and key value drivers and improvement opportunities.
• Develop meaningful analyses and actionable recommendations to improve profitability and operational performance.
• Support management decision-making through scenario analysis and data-driven insights.

Business Partnering

• Act as a trusted financial advisor to the local leadership team.
• Partner closely with Operations, Supply Chain, Engineering, Procurement, HR, and Commercial teams.
• Translate financial insights into tangible operational and commercial actions.
• Support capital investment decisions through business case development, ROI calculations, and financial feasibility analyses.
• Actively participate in cross-functional planning and performance review processes.

Cost Accounting & Product Costing

• Maintain robust product costing processes and support LEAN methods of direct labour and production overhead attribution for closing monthly inventory valuations.
• Ensure the accuracy and reliability of product costing sufficient to enable value-add maintenance.
• Continuously improve master data quality, including Bills of Material (BOMs) and routings, in close cooperation with Operations and Engineering.
• Analyze profitability across value streams, product groups, and customer segments to support commercial decisions.
• Support the implementation of target costing approaches to optimize quotation and pricing processes.

Manufacturing & Inventory Control

• Ensure the completeness, accuracy, and proper valuation of inventory.
• Oversee physical inventories, reconciliations, and inventory control processes.
• Analyze Purchase Price Variance and Material Usage Variances manufacturing variances and identify the root causes of operational inefficiencies.
• Partner closely with production teams to improve operational performance and reduce waste.
• Support capital expenditure management, including post-investment reviews and business case evaluations.

Lean Finance & Continuous Improvement

• Apply Lean Finance principles to improve financial processes, transparency, and decision-making.
• Promote LEAN Enterprise thinking, and 80/20 business simplification methodologies to enhance operational, commercial and financial performance.
• Support Kaizens, and Lean Daily Management processes.
• Identify waste and financial improvement opportunities within operational processes.
• Drive automation, augmentation, standardization, and process simplification within the Finance function.
• Actively contribute to productivity improvement and ensuring spending leverage in face of growth and drive performance enhancement initiatives through data-driven analysis and financial modeling.

Treasury, Cash Flow & Working Capital

• Manage cash flow forecasting and liquidity planning at plant level via established Finance Cash Gemba process.
• Drive working capital improvement initiatives.
• Monitor receivables, and manage the existing true sale factoring arrangement and support credit risk management in cooperation with the commercial organization.
• Identify and implement opportunities to improve liquidity and cash conversion to drive sustainably positive, increasing Cash Flow Available for Debt Service (CFADS)

Leadership

• Lead, coach, and develop the local finance team.
• Build and further develop a high-performing Finance organization focused on business partnering, accountability, and continuous improvement.
• Foster collaboration, knowledge sharing, and professional development within the team.

• University degree in Business Administration, Finance, Accounting, Economics, or a related discipline.
• Post-degree qualification in Finance or MBA preferred.
• Several years of experience in Plant Controlling, Manufacturing Finance, Cost Accounting, Operations Finance, or a similar role within a manufacturing environment.
• Proven track record as a business partner to plant leadership, operations, and cross-functional management teams.
• Strong expertise in cost accounting, product costing, inventory management, and performance management.
• Practical experience with Lean Manufacturing, Lean Finance, Value Stream Management, Operational Excellence, or Continuous Improvement initiatives.
• Advanced Excel skills and experience with ERP systems, ideally Microsoft Dynamics.
• Strong analytical capability, business acumen, and problem-solving skills.
• Excellent communication and influencing skills across all levels of the organization.
• Fluent German language skills and good English language skills for effective communication with the wider group.
• Hands-on mentality and a strong understanding of manufacturing operations.
• Entrepreneurial mindset with strong results orientation.
• Audit mindset -with deep understanding of finance principles
• High degree of ownership, accountability, and execution focus.
• Ability to translate financial insights into operational actions.
• Passion for Lean, Operational Excellence, and continuous improvement.
• Strong personal credibility and presence with plant leadership and operational teams.
• Ability to combine strategic thinking with pragmatic execution.