Commercial Finance Manager - Manufacturing

SUMMARY:

The Opportunity

POSITION INFO:
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.