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Finance Manager- Business Finance & Accounting Leader, Location: Buffalo, NY or Syracuse, NY

The Accounting and Finance organization is a mission and results driven team that operates with a strong sense of collaboration to support the business, while utilizing our technical expertise, as we manage processes to record, reconcile, and report all financial activity of the enterprise. We bring financial context into the picture when partnering with the lines of business, senior and executive management, and our board of directors.

The opportunity:

We are seeking a Business Finance & Accounting leader that will report to the Area Sr. Finance Manager - New England Area, as well as supporting the Area Sr. Finance Manager - Ohio River Valley. This individual will be responsible for the one or two manufacturing plants and will, demonstrating ability to influence plant personnel through fact-based analysis, provide insights into recommendations, analysis and drive improvements in operations, sales and the overall profitability of the plant. The Business Finance & Accounting Leader will be a business partner to the site General Manager and accountable for the bottom-line results of the facilities.

Responsibilities:

* Budget & Financial preparation and reporting.

* Prepares annual budget and quarterly forecasts in conjunction with the plant General manager with a goal of forecast accuracy.

* Utilize KPI\u2019s and plant initiatives to project future plant growth opportunities, encourage going beyond just the traditional product cost.

* Collaboration with Commercial Business leads to challenge and validation of top line revenue expectations.

* The Business Finance and Accounting Leader should be able to effectively communicate the organization\u2019s values.

* Creates simplified budget and reporting processes.

* Balances financial and non-financial indicators

* Lead monthly results communication through routinary presentation and clear reports, articulating key impactful items to the business results

* Monitor weekly results tracking, providing recommendation to drive actions to achieve or exceed targets. Timely communication with Plant/Area leaders and finance team

* Serves as a consultant to business partners to help develop action plans for improvement

* Cost Take out support, review and tracking.

* Strategic Planning (CAPEX)

* Partner with the General Manger on future and long-range Capital needs to sustain and or grow the sites business opportunities.

* Understand competitor strengths and weaknesses

* Timely closure of all capital projects after in-service date

* Develop financial models for return generating projects. Make the plants accountable to deliver financial commitment after project completion, by tracking investment returns monthly to ensure project returns are achieved

* Conduct post audits for the projects after maturity

* Internal Controls

* The Business Finance and Accounting Leader is accountable for overseeing all internal controls and failures of the site(s)

* They ensure decisions are made by those with authority to do so.

* They ensure key processes follow documented company policies, such as non-compliant PCard / Travel & Expenses spending, inventory, AVM/RNV (automated voucher match / received not vouchered)

* They ensure adequate control over the company\u2019s local assets and financial reporting, performing quarterly balance sheet reviews with accounting

* They find the right balance between effectiveness in value creation and control efficiency.

* Responsible for optimizing processes through IT improvement and implementation.

* Drive process improvements through the utilization of best practices across the organization

* Annual fixed assets audit

* Profitability Analysis

* Leverage data systems to provide ongoing customer profitability analysis to help catch and correct margin erosion.

* Lead routinary analysis to ensure the customer level profitability analysis is aligned with overall plant performance and cost profile

* Routinary assessment of customer and product outliers to drive corrective actions on cost models and allocations

* Facilitate open discussion among business leaders on how to drive more margin through volume, price or operational changes

* Provide or Review PAT (profit analysis tool) for current and new customers, including information for legal contracts and credit risk/payment terms approvals

* Drive people staffing discussion to right size overtime, number of shifts and headcounts

* Accounting

* Actively review and validate plant WIP, Finished Goods and raw materials values.

* Creation and/or review of site monthly Journal Entries

* Review P&L accounts and statistical data for the necessary reclassification

* Facilitate and assist with plant inventory counts, count verifications and reconciliation processes

* Monitor Customer rebates and/or cost take out commitment\u2019s accruals for accuracy and consistency

* Other tasks as deemed necessary

* Working Capital/ Cash flow monitoring

* Serve as the facilitator to their business partners on decision making processes that drive working capital improvements or that prevent negative impacts.

* Partner with accounts receivable team to remedy short-term issues and create plans to act on the route case problems

* Provide guidance and support for plant personnel on the execution of purchase order and receipts procedures

* Ad Hoc Analysis

* Plant Comps in performance to other "like" plants or businesses

* Profitability Improvement programs if the plant is on an improvement plan

* Compiling and Delivering Plant visit decks to Senior leadership during onsite or Teams meetings

* Continuous education of plant key personnel on the set of information available, and how to use the data such as reports, visualization tools, etc

This set of duties is not intended to be a catch-all for the other ad hoc requests of the plant and or the division\u2019s needs.

What you need to succeed:

* Bachelor\u2019s degree in accounting, Finance or Business Administration; CPA and/or MBA preferred.

* Finance career progression in corporate/operations finance with 10+ years of experience.

* Experience in the paper and packaging industry or another manufacturing or operations environment is strongly preferred.

* Demonstrated experience managing and exerting influence on diverse teams, with full responsibility for hiring, development and performance management.

* Strong analytical ability/perspective required along with willingness to dive into the details.

* Strong verbal and written communication skills and demonstrated experience as a business partner to operational leaders.

* Demonstrated ability to communicate effectively with all levels of the organization, including non-finance personnel

* Must be a self-starter and completely self-directed, with a passion for continuous improvement and ambition to continue to grow to greater levels of responsibility.

* Strong PC skills in Knowledge of AS400, BPCS, Radius, MS Excel, Word, PowerPoint, pivot tables and data mining. Prior Hyperion experience is desired.

What we offer:

* Corporate culture based on integrity, respect, accountability, and excellence

* Comprehensive training with numerous learning and development opportunities

* An attractive salary reflecting skills, competencies and potential

* A career with a global packaging company where Sustainability, Safety and Inclusion are business drivers and foundational elements of the daily work.

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) is a global leader in sustainable paper and packaging solutions. We are materials scientists, packaging designers, mechanical engineers and manufacturing experts with a shared purpose: Innovate Boldly. Package Sustainably. Guided by our values of safety, loyalty, integrity, and respect, we use leading science and technology to move fiber-based packaging forward.

Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, protected veteran status or other characteristics protected by state or federal law.