Financial Analyst at Ford Motor Company of Southern Africa

Job Description

• The Manufacturing Finance Analyst will serve as a dedicated finance business partner to Manufacturing Operations, providing timely and accurate financial analysis, reporting and to support effective cost management, operational efficiency and achievement of the plant’s targets.
• A key focus of the role will be to develop, implement and continuously improve automated reports, dashboards and data-driven tools for use across the plant. The successful candidate will collaborate with Finance, Operations and other cross-functional teams to translate business requirements into reliable and user-friendly reporting solutions that improve data visibility, reporting accuracy and decision-making speed.
• The ideal candidate must be comfortable working with data, financial systems and automation tools, and must have the ability to translate business requirements into practical reporting solutions for plant stakeholders.

Responsibilities
Financial Analysis and Business Support

• Support plant financial planning, forecasting, budgeting and reporting processes.
• Analyse manufacturing costs, variances, operating expenses, material costs, labour costs and plant performance indicators.
• Provide timely, accurate and value-adding financial information to plant leadership and cross-functional business partners.
• Support month-end close activities, financial reviews, reconciliations and management reporting.
• Identify cost-saving opportunities, financial risks and process improvement areas.
• Assist with the preparation of business cases, financial models and investment-related analysis where required.
• Ensure compliance with internal controls, corporate financial policies, governance requirements and reporting standards.

Automation, Reporting and Digital Enablement

• Lead and support the development of automated financial and operational reports for use across the plant.
• Design, build and maintain dashboards, data models and reporting tools that improve visibility of key plant metrics.
• Work with cross-functional teams to understand reporting needs and convert them into efficient, user-friendly automated solutions.
• Improve existing manual reporting processes by identifying opportunities for automation, standardisation and simplification.
• Ensure automated reports are accurate, reliable, well-controlled and aligned to plant business requirements.
• Train and support plant users in the adoption of automated reports and self-service reporting tools.

Business Partnering and Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner with Manufacturing Operations, Purchasing and other key stakeholders to identify, quantify and deliver cost-reduction opportunities.
• Provide financial analysis to support operational efficiency and continuous-improvement initiatives.
• Proactively identify expenditure trends, cost deviations, inefficiencies and potential areas of waste.
• Work closely with assigned operational teams to align daily activities with the plant’s financial objectives.
• Develop strong working relationships with Manufacturing Operations, Purchasing, Engineering, Material Planning and Logistics, Human Resources, IT and other relevant functions.
• Engage with operational area leads and department managers to understand their financial and reporting requirements

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Finance or Related field
• At least 5 years’ experience in Finance, ideally gained within a manufacturing environment.
• Proven experience in financial reporting, forecasting, budgeting and variance analysis.
• Demonstrated ability to analyse and interpret complex financial data.
• Experience developing reporting solutions from initial business requirements through to implementation and user adoption.