Position Title: Cost Specialist (Costing, FP&A, and Pricing)
Department: Finance for Ambient Operations
Reports to: Head of Finance for Ambient Operations
Location: Samut Sakhon
Role Purpose
The Finance Manager will lead financial planning, product costing, and pricing strategy for Ambient Operations. The role requires strong understanding of food manufacturing processes, raw material price volatility, and international trade dynamics. This position will provide insights to improve cost efficiency, profitability, and competitiveness across global and domestic markets.
Key Responsibilities
Costing
- Oversee and ensure accuracy of product costing for all ambient products, including raw materials, conversion costs, packaging, and overhead allocation.
- Monitor raw material purchase prices, yield rates, and by-product recovery to ensure accurate cost reporting and margin analysis.
- Partner with Operations and Supply Chain to track processing efficiency, waste, and yield variances.
- Provide cost simulations and feasibility analysis for new products, formulations, and customer specifications.
- Maintain standard costing and ensure compliance with company policies and audit requirements.
Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A)
- Lead annual budget, monthly forecast, and long-range financial planning cycles for Ambient Operations.
- Deliver monthly management reports with analysis on sales, margins, operating costs, and variance to budget/forecast.
- Develop financial models to evaluate plant performance, capacity utilization, and investment projects (e.g., new lines or automation).
- Monitor foreign exchange and global market trends impacting raw material and export competitiveness.
- Provide management with actionable insights and recommendations to drive profitability and efficiency.
Pricing
- Develop pricing strategies and models for export and domestic markets, factoring in raw material volatility, production costs, competitor benchmarks, and customer profitability.
- Partner with Sales and Marketing to review customer quotations and tenders, ensuring prices protect margins while remaining competitive.
- Conduct profitability analysis by product, SKU, customer, and market to recommend adjustments.
- Monitor global market trends, trade tariffs, freight costs, and competitor pricing to support commercial decision-making.
Leadership & Business Partnership
- Manage and develop a team of finance analysts, ensuring strong financial support to commercial and operational teams.
- Act as a key business partner to Operations, Procurement, Supply Chain, and Commercial functions.
- Lead continuous improvement initiatives in costing, pricing governance, and financial processes.
- Provide financial training to non-finance stakeholders to build awareness of cost and margin drivers.
Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in finance, Accounting, Economics, or related field; Master's degree or professional certification (CPA, CFA, CIMA) will be an advantage.
- Minimum 7 years finance experience in FMCG or food manufacturing; experience in ambient or shelf-stable food operations is strongly preferred.
- Proven track record in product costing, FP&A, and pricing in a manufacturing/export environment.
- Strong knowledge of yield analysis, standard costing, and variance reporting.
- Proficiency in Excel and financial modeling; ERP system experience (e.g., SAP, Oracle).
- Strong business acumen with ability to connect financial insights to commercial strategies.
- Excellent communication and leadership skills; ability to work with cross-functional and international teams.
- Able to work or participate in discussions with teams across time zones.
Key Competencies
- Commercial and strategic mindset with category awareness
- Strong analytical and problem-solving capability
- Leadership and team development skills
- Collaboration and influencing ability across functions
- Adaptability to volatile raw material markets and export business dynamics
