Commercial Finance Manager - Manufacturing
The Opportunity
Are you a CA(SA) who enjoys getting beyond the financial statements and understanding what is really driving a manufacturing business?
Our client is looking for a commercially minded Commercial Finance Manager to work closely with senior leadership, engineering and operations to turn plant data into meaningful commercial insight and better business decisions.
This is not a traditional reporting-focused finance role.
We are looking for someone who can take production, operational and financial data, identify the story behind the numbers, model the potential outcomes and clearly communicate what the business should do next.
You will be the person who can sit with senior engineering and operational stakeholders and say:
“These are the numbers. This is what they are telling us. These are our options, this is the financial impact of each, and this is what I recommend.”
Key Responsibilities
- Partner with senior leadership, engineering, production and commercial teams to drive business performance.
- Analyse financial and operational data from the manufacturing plant to identify trends, risks and opportunities.
- Develop meaningful management reports, dashboards and visualisations that turn complex data into clear business insights.
- Analyse production volumes, product mix, costs, margins, efficiencies and operational performance.
- Develop financial models and scenario analyses to assess the impact of operational and commercial decisions.
- Provide insight into the financial implications of changes in production, product mix, pricing, capacity and costs.
- Support budgeting, forecasting and long-term financial planning.
- Analyse budget versus actual performance and identify the underlying drivers of variances.
- Identify opportunities for cost reduction, efficiency improvement and margin enhancement.
- Partner with operational teams to quantify the financial impact of improvement initiatives.
- Provide clear recommendations to senior management based on financial and operational analysis.
- Challenge assumptions and support fact-based decision-making across the business.
- Develop and maintain relevant KPIs and performance dashboards.
- Identify opportunities to improve profitability through product mix, pricing, cost management and operational efficiency.
- Support strategic and ad-hoc commercial analysis as required.
What We Are Looking For
- CA(SA) qualification is essential.
- Relevant post-qualification experience in commercial finance, financial management, FP&A or finance business partnering.
- Strong experience within a manufacturing or plant environment.
- Demonstrated ability to analyse both financial and operational data.
- Advanced Excel skills.
- Strong financial modelling and scenario-planning capability.
- Experience with Power BI or similar data visualisation tools will be highly advantageous.
- Strong understanding of manufacturing costs, margins, profitability and operational performance.
- Experience with budgeting, forecasting, variance analysis and management reporting.
- SAP experience essential
The Person
We are looking for a CA(SA) who is commercial, analytical and operationally minded.
You should be someone who:
- Looks beyond the numbers to understand why they are moving.
- Can turn complex data into a clear and compelling story.
- Is confident challenging senior stakeholders and asking the right questions.
- Can translate operational activity into financial consequences.
- Thinks in terms of “if we do this, then this will happen.”
- Can identify opportunities to improve profitability and quantify the potential benefit.
- Is comfortable working closely with engineers, production and operational teams.
- Has strong commercial judgement and the confidence to make recommendations.
- Communicates complex financial information simply and effectively.
- Is proactive, curious and solutions-oriented.
- Wants to influence decisions rather than simply report on them.
The Opportunity
This is an opportunity for a CA(SA) who wants to be close to the business and have a genuine impact on commercial and operational decision-making.
If you enjoy taking data, finding the story behind it, modelling the options and helping the business make better decisions, this could be an excellent opportunity for you.