Senior Operations Financial Analyst in Brea, California at APPLIED COMPOSITES INC

Position Summary

The Senior Operations Financial Analyst will serve as a key finance partner to manufacturing, supply chain, operations, and program leadership within an aerospace manufacturing environment. This role is responsible for providing financial analysis, reporting, forecasting, and decision support focused on manufacturing operations, inventory performance, material costs, and working capital.

The ideal candidate combines strong financial and analytical capabilities with a solid understanding of manufacturing processes, inventory accounting, cost accounting, and operational performance. This individual will identify cost and efficiency opportunities, analyze inventory trends and variances, support production planning, and translate complex operational data into actionable financial insights.

Key Responsibilities

Operations & Manufacturing Finance

• Partner with Operations, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Procurement, and Program Management to evaluate financial and operational performance.
• Develop and maintain financial models, forecasts, budgets, and monthly operating reports.
• Analyze manufacturing labor, material, overhead, scrap, rework, and other production costs.
• Monitor actual performance against budget, forecast, standard cost, and operational targets.
• Investigate financial and operational variances and provide root-cause analysis and recommendations.
• Support make-versus-buy, capacity, production scheduling, outsourcing, and other operational decisions.
• Develop key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure manufacturing efficiency, productivity, cost performance, and profitability.
• Identify opportunities to improve manufacturing efficiency, reduce costs, and optimize resource utilization.

Inventory & Working Capital

• Own or support financial analysis related to raw materials, work-in-process (WIP), finished goods, and inventory reserves.
• Monitor inventory levels, turns, aging, excess and obsolete inventory, and inventory accuracy.
• Analyze inventory trends and identify drivers of inventory growth, shortages, excess materials, and working-capital requirements.
• Partner with Supply Chain and Materials Management to improve inventory planning and working-capital performance.
• Support cycle counts, physical inventories, inventory reconciliations, and investigation of inventory discrepancies.
• Analyze excess, obsolete, and slow-moving inventory and support appropriate reserve recommendations.
• Evaluate inventory provisions and potential write-offs in accordance with company accounting policies.
• Develop reporting to track inventory performance by program, product line, site, commodity, or other relevant dimensions.

Cost & Variance Analysis

• Perform standard-cost and purchase-price variance (PPV) analysis.
• Analyze material usage, labor efficiency, manufacturing overhead, and production variances.
• Review bill-of-material (BOM) costs, routings, and other manufacturing cost drivers.
• Partner with Cost Accounting to investigate and resolve significant cost variances.
• Support annual standard-cost updates and periodic cost reviews.
• Evaluate the financial impact of engineering changes, material substitutions, supplier changes, and manufacturing process improvements.

Planning, Forecasting & Reporting

• Support annual operating plans, budgets, long-range plans, and periodic forecasts.
• Prepare monthly financial packages and management reporting for Operations and Supply Chain leadership.
• Develop dashboards and automated reporting to improve visibility into operational and inventory performance.
• Translate financial results into concise business insights and recommendations for senior leadership.
• Perform ad hoc financial analysis and scenario modeling to support strategic and operational decisions.

Cross-Functional Business Partnership

• Build strong working relationships with Operations, Supply Chain, Procurement, Quality, Engineering, Program Management, and Accounting.
• Act as a finance business partner who can bridge financial results with operational activity on the manufacturing floor.
• Challenge assumptions, identify risks and opportunities, and communicate financial implications to non-financial stakeholders.
• Support continuous-improvement initiatives and quantify financial benefits from operational improvement projects.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, Business, or a related field.
• 5+ years of experience in financial analysis, manufacturing finance, cost accounting, operations finance, or a related discipline.
• Experience in an aerospace, defense, industrial manufacturing, or other complex manufacturing environment strongly preferred.
• Strong understanding of manufacturing operations, inventory management, and cost accounting principles.
• Experience analyzing inventory, WIP, standard costs, purchase-price variances, labor, overhead, and manufacturing variances.
• Advanced Microsoft Excel skills, including financial modeling, pivot tables, lookups, Power Query, and data analysis.
• Experience with ERP systems such as Epicor.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and organizational skills.
• Ability to communicate complex financial information clearly to both finance and non-finance audiences.
• Demonstrated ability to work independently, manage competing priorities, and meet deadlines in a fast-paced manufacturing environment.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with aerospace or defense manufacturing programs.
• Experience with program finance, or cost accounting.
• Experience with inventory optimization, MRP/ERP systems, or supply-chain analytics.
• Experience with Power BI, SQL, or other business intelligence tools.

Key Performance Indicators

Success in this position may be measured through:

• Inventory turns and inventory reduction
• Excess and obsolete inventory
• WIP aging and inventory accuracy
• Manufacturing cost variance
• Purchase-price variance
• Labor and overhead efficiency
• Budget and forecast accuracy
• Working-capital performance
• Cost-reduction and continuous-improvement initiatives
• Timeliness and accuracy of management reporting

Core Competencies

• Financial Analysis & Modeling
• Manufacturing & Operations Finance
• Inventory Management
• Cost Accounting
• Variance & Root-Cause Analysis
• Forecasting & Budgeting
• Business Partnering
• Data Analytics
• Process Improvement
• Executive Communication
• Strategic Problem Solving