Manager, Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A)
Location: Greater San Diego Area, CA (On-site / Hybrid cadence; Carmel Mountain area)
Industry: Advanced Precision Component Manufacturing
Ownership Structure: Private Equity-Backed
Reports To: Chief Financial Officer
Target Compensation: $165,000 – $185,000 Base Salary | 10% Target Bonus | Full Benefits
Position Overview
We are partnering with a standalone, private equity-backed manufacturer of high-precision micro-components that serve critical, highly regulated end-markets. Following a corporate carve-out from an international conglomerate, the business is investing heavily in modernizing its financial architecture, establishing operational cost visibility, and accelerating value creation ahead of an anticipated liquidity event in 2–3 years.
Historically, strategic forecasting and planning functions were managed at the corporate parent level. This newly established role represents a unique opportunity to build an on-site FP&A discipline from the ground up. Reporting directly to an experienced, sharp, and growth-oriented CFO, the FP&A Manager will serve as the strategic finance co-pilot to executive leadership.
The ideal candidate will bridge the gap between operational reality and commercial finance. Because standard costing and ERP optimization are active works-in-progress, this role requires a scrappy, hands-on finance professional who understands manufacturing operations and costing concepts, rather than someone solely reliant on pristine, pre-packaged dashboard data.
Key Responsibilities
- Budgeting, Forecasting & Driver-Based Modeling: Lead the annual operating plan (AOP) and recurring rolling forecast cycles. Design dynamic, three-statement integrated models (P&L, Balance Sheet, Cash Flow) connecting physical manufacturing drivers (volume, scrap, machine run rates, labor efficiency) to financial performance.
- Cash Forecasting & Liquidity Planning: Build and maintain short- and long-term liquidity models, including 13-week rolling cash flow forecasts. Partner with Accounting, Operations, and Supply Chain to forecast working capital trends, receipts, disbursements, and inventory movements.
- PE Debt Governance & Covenant Management: Maintain dynamic covenant models and borrowing base analyses in compliance with credit agreements. Model downside, base, and upside scenarios to evaluate headroom and provide proactive visibility to senior leadership, lenders, and PE sponsors.
- Costing & Operations Partnership: Collaborate closely with the Senior Cost Accountant, plant managers, and engineering teams to translate product costing, manufacturing variances, and inventory reserves into actionable commercial insights.
- Executive Decision Support & Business Cases: Formulate business cases for capital expenditures, footprint initiatives, make-vs.-buy evaluations, pricing reviews, and new program introductions. Deliver transparent ROI and sensitivity analyses to the CFO and CEO.
- Management Dashboards & Reporting: Establish recurring monthly executive reporting packages, operational KPIs, and Board presentation decks that distill complex operational and financial data into clear, actionable executive summaries.
- Systems & Process Optimization: Partner with finance leadership to streamline data extraction and financial modeling workflows leveraging enterprise systems (e.g., IFS ERP and modern consolidation platforms like Planful).
Requirements
Required Qualifications & Attributes
- Education: Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, or related quantitative discipline. MBA, CFA, or CPA is a plus.
- Experience: 5+ years of progressive experience in corporate FP&A, strategic finance, transaction advisory, or investment banking.
- Manufacturing Immersion: Prior experience within a manufacturing, industrial, or complex engineering environment is essential. A practical working understanding of standard costing, bill of materials (BOM), inventory accounting, and manufacturing variances is strongly required.
- Financial Modeling Prowess: Expert-level Microsoft Excel modeling capabilities, including three-statement financial modeling, driver-based forecasting, and scenario/sensitivity builds.
- Treasury & Debt Exposure: Demonstrated experience with debt agreements, lender reporting, 13-week cash forecasting, and debt covenant compliance modeling.
- Systems Exposure: Familiarity with manufacturing ERP platforms (e.g., IFS, SAP, Oracle) and consolidation/BI software (e.g., Planful, OneStream, Power BI).
- Operating Style: Scrappy, proactive, and resilient. Comfortable operating in an environment of ongoing systems cleanup and process building, communicating transparently with a direct, fast-moving CFO.