Chief Financial Officer

Our client, a global manufacturer of factory automation solutions, is seeking an experienced Chief Financial Officer.  The CFO is to be an accomplished financial executive with unquestionable integrity, a positive reputation and demonstrated success serving as a finance leader within a global company. He/she will possess strong operational finance and commercial skills, as well as broad finance and accounting experience with reporting, financial systems and internal controls.

Responsibilities:

• Drive the financial performance of the business to support improvements in value creation.
• Deliver sustainable improvements in the business’ cash generation.
• Partner with the president to develop the strategy for the business and align it with the corporate strategy. Prioritize actions and investments and establish KPIs to track implementation progress.
• Support the decision-making process in the business by providing thoughtful and proactive financial information.
• Collaborate with site controllers to lead consolidation of financials, ensuring compliance with regulatory and local statutory requirements.
• Manage the FP&A and Business Process Improvement functions to optimize key business processes and workflows
• Lead the procurement team which is responsible for the process of evaluating suppliers, conducting interviews with vendors, negotiating supplier agreements and managing supplier and vendor contracts.
• Steer and monitor the processes of the transport of the goods from the supplier to/ into he company as well as warehouse- – incoming goods area, proper booking of incoming goods, proper storing etc.
• Liaise regularly with the corporate finance team (including tax and treasury); interface with senior management, external auditors and the audit committee.
• Top-grade and build-out the division's finance and accounting team.
• Drive standardization of finance and accounting processes to provide consistent data across business units.
• Coordinate with internal audit to harmonize and drive continuous improvement in finance and internal control processes to promote a strong internal control environment.
• Provide guidance, training and support for site controllers to ensure that reporting and compliance objectives are achieved, including supporting talent development and organizational design initiatives.
• Assess the existing finance and accounting team and build and recruit as necessary.
• Execute a redesign of the finance and accounting organization to better address reporting and control requirements, resulting in a strong internal control environment.
• Actively participate in the design and implementation of effective internal management reporting, budgeting and forecasting processes to support decision-making for the division.
• Improve the business partnering approach by implementing financial metrics to help drive business decisions across the division.

Requirements:

• 15+ years in finance leadership roles with a strong controllership focus
• Early accounting and auditing experience is preferred.
• Solid year-end closing experience, strong controlling and process background is desirable.
• CPA is a plus.
• Experience in a multinational industrial manufacturing company.
• Leading a team in a manufacturing company is preferred.
• Experience with SAP and IT ERP systems a plus
• Proficiency with IT change management initiatives (process standardization, etc.) is a benefit
• Cross-functional initiative experience helpful
• A good understanding of taxes, finance and legal issues (contract law, commercial law, some labor law) as well as some experience in purchasing would be helpful.
• Knowledge of material flow and workflow handling in a discreet manufacturing environment.
• Undergraduate degree in accounting, finance or a related discipline.

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