Director of FP&A & Strategic Finance (REQ915)

Overview

This role serves as a trusted partner to the Chief Financial Officer, executive team, and operating leaders. The Director of FP&A & Strategic Finance owns enterprise planning and performance-management rhythm while elevating Finance into a proactive, value-creation partner.

You will connect commercial, operational, and financial data; frame critical trade-offs; and translate insights into measurable actions that improve contribution margin, EBITDA, cash flow, working capital, and asset utilization. The position also supports operational and commercial growth through scenario rigor, investment discipline, and enterprise value-focused decision support.

Key Responsibilities

Enterprise Planning, Forecasting & Performance Management

• Lead the annual budget, long-range planning, rolling forecast, and monthly outlook processes, including calendars, ownership, assumptions, scenario ranges, and executive-level outputs.
• Own consolidated P&L forecasting and performance reporting, including analysis across revenue, volume, mix, contribution margin, operating expenses, EBITDA, cash flow, and working capital.
• Drive high-quality variance and root-cause analysis, uncovering hidden-factory and companywide costs, working-capital requirements, and full cash-to-serve economics tied to customer, product, and service decisions; quantify impact, identify leading indicators, and establish accountable corrective actions.
• Establish and maintain enterprise KPIs, scorecards, and bridges that connect operational drivers to financial outcomes and track progress against commitments.

SIOP, Commercial Finance & Business Partnership

• Provide financial leadership for SIOP to ensure demand, production, inventory, and financial views reconcile to a credible, actionable enterprise plan.
• Partner with Sales & Marketing and R&D on customer volume and margin forecasts, pipeline conversion, wins/losses, pricing, product and customer profitability costing, and commercial resource allocation.
• In collaboration with Product Management, Commercial, Technology, and other functions, quantify and communicate differentiated value propositions to support value-based pricing and decisions beyond a cost-plus approach.
• Partner with Operations, Supply Chain, and Manufacturing Finance to connect forecast changes to production, inventory positioning, uptime, yield, scrap, material usage, capacity, and asset-utilization decisions.
• Frame and quantify trade-offs involving service, delivery, quality, expedite cost, inventory, contribution margin, and cash flow to enable fast, transparent decision-making.

Strategic Finance & Enterprise Value Creation

• Lead financial modeling, scenario analysis, and sensitivity analysis for growth initiatives, turnaround plans, footprint and portfolio decisions, productivity programs, restructuring actions, and other enterprise priorities.
• Develop fact-based paths to break-even and sustainable profitability for underperforming products, facilities, or business areas, and monitor execution against the approved plan.
• Assess capital expenditures and new product development opportunities using standardized business cases, ROI, cash payback, risk analysis, and post-investment performance reviews.
• Support mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures as applicable, including valuation, financial due diligence, synergy assessment, integration planning, and performance tracking.
• Support the CFO and leadership team with ad hoc analyses, board and shareholder questions, financing-related materials, and other high-priority strategic projects.

Reporting, Analytics & Technology Enablement

• Own and continuously improve executive, board, lender, and management reporting packages with consistent definitions, clear visual communication, concise commentary, and decision-focused insights.
• Build a modern, scalable analytics foundation and trusted source of financial and operating data across ERP, profitability, commercial, and operational datasets, partnering directly with the Operational Analytics Leader to improve data fidelity, analytical depth, and product-level visibility into net-cash-to-EBITDA conversion.
• Lead development and adoption of standardized dashboards and reporting tools, including executive P&L, daily sales, profitability, SIOP, plant KPIs, and controllable-spend reporting.
• Automate recurring reporting and analysis; strengthen controls and data governance to reduce manual reconciliation and enable appropriate self-service analytics.
• Build strong working knowledge of SAP / ERP and related data flows, including product costing, COPA, and the connection from transactional data to profitability and management reporting.

Leadership, Talent & Cross-Functional Influence

• Lead, develop, and retain a high-performing FP&A team, setting clear accountabilities, development plans, cross-training, and succession coverage for critical capabilities.
• Create a culture of intellectual curiosity, ownership, constructive challenge, speed, accuracy, and continuous improvement.
• Build trusted partnerships across Commercial, Operations, Supply Chain, Accounting, IT, Human Resources, and other functions; influence outcomes without relying on formal authority.
• Communicate complex analyses in a concise, practical manner for executives, finance professionals, and non-financial leaders.
• Promote financial and data literacy through coaching, knowledge sharing, and practical training in analytics, modeling, and decision support.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Finance or Accounting, Economics, or a related field.
• 10-15 years of total Finance or Accounting experience, with at least 7-10 years of progressive FP&A, strategic finance, business finance, or related experience, including meaningful leadership experience.
• Experience in a multi-site manufacturing, industrial, or similarly complex operating environment.
• Demonstrated ownership of budgeting, forecasting, consolidated performance reporting, financial modeling, and analytics-based decision support.
• Advanced Excel and financial-modeling capability, with experience working in large-scale ERP and business-intelligence environments.
• Strong knowledge of financial statements, management reporting, cash flow, working capital, and core accounting concepts.
• Proven ability to influence senior leaders, challenge assumptions constructively, and convert analysis into action.
• Clear, concise written and verbal communication skills, with the executive presence to present to leadership and governance stakeholders.

Preferred Qualifications

• MBA, CPA, CMA, or other relevant advanced degree or certification.
• Experience with SAP, COPA, Power BI, data lakes, or comparable analytics and profitability platforms.
• Private equity-backed company experience, including board, lender, or sponsor reporting (strong plus, not required).
• Experience supporting SIOP, capital allocation, product and customer profitability, and turnaround initiatives.

Compensation & Benefits

• Competitive salary, incentives, and benefit programs.
• Most benefits start day one.
• Benefits include:
  • Medical, Dental, and Vision
  • Flexible Spending Accounts
  • Company paid Life & Long-term/Short-term disability programs
  • 401(k) with strong company match
  • 120 hours Paid Time Off (prorated based on hire date)
  • 11 paid holidays

Location

Maryland Heights, MO

This is primarily a remote opportunity with requirements to travel periodically to facilities and business meetings.