Finance Business Partner

Job Description:

Position Summary

The Finance Engineering Manager serves as the primary finance business partner to the Engineering organization, providing financial leadership and governance across the capital investment portfolio. This role is responsible for ensuring capital projects are appropriately evaluated, validated, approved, and executed in alignment with approved business cases and company financial objectives.

The Finance Engineering Manager supports Site Finance Managers through advanced analytics, factory benchmarking, and value realization processes that drive operational performance and network productivity improvements. The role serves as a key link between Engineering, Operations, and Finance to ensure investments and improvement initiatives deliver sustainable business results.

Key Responsibilities

Capital Project Financial Governance

• Partner with Engineering teams to evaluate, validate, and prioritize capital investment opportunities.
• Develop, review, and challenge project business cases to ensure financial assumptions, risks, and expected returns are robust and well supported.
• Ensure capital expenditure requests comply with company financial policies, approval requirements, and investment criteria.
• Support the capital authorization and approval process, providing financial recommendations to leadership.
• Monitor project execution against approved scope, budget, timelines, and financial commitments.

Project Performance Tracking & Analysis

• Track capital project actual spending against approved budgets and forecasts.
• Identify and communicate project variances, financial risks, and opportunities throughout project execution.
• Establish reporting and governance processes to monitor project performance across the capital portfolio.
• Analyze project outcomes and conduct post-implementation reviews to ensure expected benefits and returns are realized.

Site Finance Partnership & Factory Performance Leadership

• Partner with Site Finance Managers to provide financial insights, analytics, and benchmarking that drive factory performance improvements across the manufacturing network.
• Develop and maintain standardized performance metrics, productivity & spending reporting and operational KPI analysis to support decision-making at the site and network levels.
• Develop and analyze site-level depreciation modeling, including Asset Under Construction data, to develop affordability targets and scenario planning.
• Analyze manufacturing performance trends, including cost, productivity, labor, efficiency, waste, and throughput, identifying opportunities to improve financial and operational results.
• Support Site Finance Managers in evaluating the financial impact of operational initiatives, productivity programs, and continuous improvement efforts.
• Provide data-driven insights to help factories identify performance gaps and prioritize improvement opportunities.
• Collaborate with Site Finance and Operations leaders to track and validate value realization from productivity and operational improvement initiatives.
• Drive consistency in performance measurement, reporting methodologies, and value tracking across the manufacturing network.

Continuous Improvement

• Partner with engineering and operational leaders to identify opportunities for improved capital efficiency and investment returns.
• Benchmark project performance, investment metrics, and financial outcomes across manufacturing facilities.
• Share best practices and lessons learned to improve future project selection, execution, and value realization.

Strategic Business Partnership

• Act as a trusted advisor to Engineering leadership on capital allocation, investment strategy, and portfolio management.
• Support long-term manufacturing and engineering strategies through financial analysis and scenario modeling.
• Provide insights and recommendations to senior leadership regarding capital deployment and resource prioritization.
• Foster strong cross-functional relationships among Engineering, Operations, Supply Chain, and Finance teams.

Qualifications

Education

• Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, Engineering, or related field required.
• MBA, CPA, CMA, or other relevant professional certification preferred.

Experience

• 7+ years of progressive experience in Finance, FP&A, Manufacturing Finance, Capital Management, or Engineering Finance.
• Experience supporting engineering, manufacturing, operations, or supply chain organizations.
• Strong understanding of capital investment analysis, project governance, and financial modeling.
• Experience managing large capital portfolios and cross-functional projects preferred.

Knowledge, Skills, & Abilities

• Strong financial modeling and investment analysis capabilities, including NPV, IRR, payback, and ROI methodologies.
• Knowledge of manufacturing operations and capital project management processes.
• Ability to influence decision-making across multiple levels of the organization.
• Excellent analytical, communication, and presentation skills.
• Strong project management and organizational abilities.
• Ability to translate complex financial concepts into actionable business recommendations.
• Advanced proficiency in financial systems, ERP platforms, and Microsoft Office applications.

Success Measures

Success in this role will be measured by:

• Capital projects delivered within approved budgets and business case expectations.
• Accuracy of project forecasts and financial tracking.
• Achievement and validation of approved project savings and productivity targets.
• Consistency of capital project valuation methodologies across the network.
• Improved capital efficiency and return on investment.
• Effective partnership and support of Engineering and Site Finance teams.
• Timely identification and mitigation of project financial risks.

This role plays a critical part in ensuring the company's capital investments create sustainable value and support long-term manufacturing excellence.