Jobs at Astron Energy (Pty) Ltd.

Financial Perspective

Gross Margin Analysis

• Prepares monthly Gross Margin analysis of refinery production income vs business plan and reforecast expectations, including price and volume variance analysis with related commentaries.
• Ensures accuracy of refinery transfer pricing entries in SAP through comparison to gross margin calculations
• Collates Availability and Utilisation and other KPIs from Commercial department for inclusion in monthly reporting and validates explanations provided for reasonability.
• Responsible for ensuring accuracy of gross margin reporting in SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC) system.
• Coordinates the annual business plan and monthly reforecasting of refinery’s gross margin. Works side by side with refinery’s gross margin planner to ensure deadlines are met and validates the inputs received from the gross margin planner to ensure accuracy.
• When required, acts as interface between Oils Accounting and Refinery Commercial departments during month-end, assisting in resolving discrepancies on product yields and driving month-end to a close.

Financial and Management Reporting:

• Prepares all required monthly, quarterly, and annual financial reports and variance analysis of actual results vs business plan/forecast for the refinery for submission to the FP&A
• Collates, validates, and reports on various refinery Key Performance Indicators monthly.

Business Planning, Forecasting and Performance Reporting:

• Coordinates, consolidates, and prepares the presentation deck supporting the annual business plan for the refinery business unit.  Ensure the business plan is reasonable by conducting analysis and facilitating discussions with department heads and challenging their proposed business plans. 
• Coordinates, consolidates, and prepares the presentation deck supporting the monthly reforecast for the refinery business unit. 
• Responsible for the submission of the annual business plan/monthly forecast into SAP Analytics Cloud system and validation of accuracy of final product. 
• Attends monthly Business Teams’ performance meetings as Finance representative responsible for explaining gross margin and fuel cost KPIs. The role also supports Opex analysts in the team in answering queries from business and driving cost control/Opex management at the refinery.
• Prepares deck on monthly business performance and leads presentation thereof to the Refinery Leadership Team (RLT) at monthly business performance governance meeting.

CAPEX reporting

• Reviews capex reporting prepared by the Refinery Capex planner for reasonability and supports Refinery Capex planner with guidance to ensure that reporting requirements to stakeholders are met.

Customer Perspective

• Supports the reporting requirements to shareholders, EXCO, RLT and other refinery stakeholders.
• Leads the finance presentation at the monthly business performance governance meeting. 
• Represents Finance in the Extended Leadership Team at Refinery
• Will be sought out to support Refinery initiatives and priorities from a financial perspective from time to time.

Internal Processes

Special Projects

• Participate in special projects as directed by Refinery Finance Manager.  Projects may require economic/decision analysis, guidance on accounting policy, and internal control assessments and guidance. Projects are generally focused on continuous improvement initiatives.

Month-end Coordination:

• Prepare, distribute, and coordinate/manage the refinery’s monthly reporting schedule to ensure all deadlines are met

Ad-hoc queries:

• Support the business in resolution of complex vendor/payment queries and act as interface between refinery business unit and Procurement and Accounts Payable departments.
• Assist the business with SAP data requests.
• Support the Refinery Finance Manager with resolving queries from CoCT, ESKOM, TNPA and other bills that are sent directly to Refinery Finance team.
• Support the Refinery Finance Manager in providing oversight over the Refinery Warehouse’s adherence to internal controls for warehouse inventory, ensuring compliance is achieved with UKCR and AE’s accounting policy.

People Management

• As senior member of the refinery finance team this role is expected to guide, coach, and support the analysts in the team and assist them with the resolution of any complex queries. 
• Actively influence the Refinery Leadership Team (RLT) and Extended Leadership Team (ELT) at the refinery on finance-related initiatives and objectives.
• Stand-in for the Refinery Finance Manager as and when required. May be required to review manual journals and account reconciliations of opex analysts on ad-hoc basis.

Minimum Qualifications and Experience required

• Fully qualified CA (SA) or CIMA
• Minimum of 3 years’ post qualification accounting experience essential. Preference will be given to candidates with 5+ years  
• External auditing experience strongly preferred
• Oil and gas industry or similar manufacturing experience strongly preferred
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
• Strong interpersonal and presentation skills
• Ability to take initiative and grow with the business

Application deadline:

• 04 January 2026

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The Senior Manager FP&A ensures the delivery of insights through financial and commercial analysis, to support business decision-making and drive organisational performance. Partner with business units to understand drivers of financial performance and facilitate informed decision-making, ensuring financial data is translated into actionable intelligence.

• Lead and coordinate the preparation of the annual budget/ strategic business plan, Q1 reforecast, and monthly EBM (IBP) reforecasts across supported business units (EVCO, Logistics, Retail, Commercial and Lubricants) including operational and capital planning.
• Ensure accuracy, alignment and integrity of forecasts and assumptions with business and macroeconomic drivers.
• Partner with business units to challenge historical performance and assumptions, identify risks and opportunities, and improve forecast accuracy.
• Provide input into the development of the long-term valuations and business plans, supporting strategic decision-making.
• Lead the monthly performance reporting process, ensuring timely accurate, insightful, and actionable analysis and reporting of financial and operational performance for supported BUs.
• Develop meaningful dashboards and metrics that highlight key performance drivers, variances and trends.
• Provide analysis and recommendations to the CFO, EXCO and business unit GMs to drive informed decision-making.
• Continuously improve reporting packs, tools and processes for effectiveness, clarity and relevance.
• Facilitate alignment between finance and business operations, ensuring shared accountability for performance outcomes and resolution of misalignment between business and the broader finance group (e.g. credit, treasury, accounting and tax).
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to evaluate and prioritise strategic initiatives, investment cases and commercial opportunities.
• Act as first approver (prior to CFO submission) of business cases for capital projects, commercial opportunities, pricing decisions, partnerships and acquisitions (organic and inorganic growth).
• Set hurdle rates (e.g. WACC and IRR) and ensure all relevant KPIs, financial metrics and strategic considerations are assessed in each commercial evaluation, seeking appropriate approvals from shareholder and EXCO as required.
• Support commercial negotiations with external parties on commercial opportunities and investments as CFO representative.
• Partner with the cross-functional teams to maintain financial discipline, consistency and transparency in business case development and investment decision-making.
• Lead a financial modelling centre of excellence that builds, reviews and maintains complex financial models and tools used by business in the evaluation of commercial and investment decisions.
• Identify and lead opportunities for process simplification, automation and digital transformation within FP&A and broader finance and business processes to enable enterprise-wide efficiency and effectiveness.
• Support the design, implementation, and rollout of enterprise-wide budgeting and performance management tools and enhancements (e.g., SAP Analytics Cloud).
• Enhance data quality, accuracy and accessibility through system improvements, data governance and leveraging available tools and systems (e.g. PowerBI, SAC).
• Challenge the status quo and support change initiatives that improve efficiency, insights and alignment with enterprise value creation objectives.
• Support the CFO and BU GMs in the development and updates of enterprise and BU strategies ensuring financial impact and value drivers are clearly articulated and linked to enterprise strategic objectives.
• Champion and embed a value creation mindset across the business through understanding of enterprise value, performance and value-driven decision-making.
• Identify and evaluate Enterprise and BU specific risks and opportunities, providing quantitative support to Strategy function in assessing risks and opportunities for inclusion in Enterprise risk registers.
• Lead and contribute to cross-functional/ transformation projects that drive enterprise performance, cost optimisation and long-term sustainability.

People Management:

• Provide direction and define objectives to be achieved in department.
• Manage performance of direct reports ensuring agreement of annual goals and measuring performance against agreed goals and addressing non-performance issues.
• Deploy people management processes effectively, in line with Company policies, procedures and prevailing improvement initiatives.
• Drive operational excellence through area of supervision.
• Oversee resource deployment to ensure adequate cover and resilience in the team.
• Promote, support, and encourage team members to live the Company values.

Financial Management:

• Lead and coordinate the preparation of the annual budget/ strategic business plan, Q1 reforecast, and monthly EBM (IBP) reforecasts across supported business units (EVCO, Logistics, Retail, Commercial and Lubricants) including operational and capital planning.
• Ensure accuracy, alignment and integrity of forecasts and assumptions with business and macroeconomic drivers.
• Partner with business units to challenge historical performance and assumptions, identify risks and opportunities, and improve forecast accuracy.
• Provide input into the development of the long-term valuations and business plans, supporting strategic decision-making.
• Presentation of annual budget and business plan to CFO, CEO and Shareholder for approval.

Stakeholder Relationship Management:

• Identify, build, and nurture trust and collaborative relationships with internal and external stakeholders.

Professional Qualification and Certifications:

• Qualified CA(SA)

Work Experience:

• 8 years’ experience:
• Relevant senior level experience preferably in a similar role in a large, complex commercially focused business

Knowledge and skills:

• Proven track record in analysis of customer profitability models
• Understanding of Internal transfer pricing methodologies and Regulatory Accounting System Pricing requirements
• Ability to build strong relationships throughout the business and drive improvement in financial and operational KPIs
• Strong commercial acumen and financial planning experience
• Advanced data analysis and interpretation skills
• Ability to translate complex data into actionable insights.
• High proficiency in reporting tools and advanced Excel skills.
• Excellent problem-solving ability.
• Exceptional communication and presentation skills, including the ability to clearly convey complex information

Application deadline:

• 04 January 2026