Manager - Manufacturing Cost & Commercial Finance Manager

Role & responsibilities

Own end-to-end batch-level costing and plant cost intelligence across Production, Quality, and Engineering; partner in vendor negotiations; and lead preparation of customer commercial quotes using deep cost-to-serve insights. This is a plant-facing finance role critical to margin assurance and pricing competitiveness

1) Batch Costing & Plant Cost Intelligence

• Build and maintain batch costing models for each product / SKU, capturing direct materials, direct labor, machine / line rates, utilities, consumables, QA / QC testing costs, rework/scrap, and overhead absorption by department (Production, Quality, Engineering)
• Ensure BOM and routing accuracy in ERP; validate yields, cycle times, changeover losses, and capacity utilization to reflect true cost per batch.
• Perform variance analysis (material price/usage, labor rate/efficiency, overhead absorption/volume) and translate findings into operational actions with plant heads.

2) Vendor Negotiations & Cost Savings

• Partner with Procurement/Supply Chain in vendor negotiations, bringing cost models, should-cost benchmarks, and TCO (total cost of ownership) views to secure better pricing, payment terms, and service levels.
• Identify efficiency levers (yield improvement, scrap reduction, energy / utilities optimization, contract manufacturing vs in-house) and quantify savings for leadership decisions.
• Support insource/outsource and make-vs-buy analyses for critical processes and equipment.

3) Departmental Cost Understanding (Production, Quality, Engineering)

• Map cost drivers by department:
• Production: labor grades, line rates, batch sizes, changeovers, OEE, utilities, consumables.
• Quality: QC testing per batch, stability studies, retests, deviations/CAPA costs, QA overhead.
• Engineering: maintenance labor/spares, calibration, validation, downtime costs, capex depreciation.
• Build departmental P&L views and KPIs (cost / batch, cost / unit, overhead absorption %, capacity utilization) for monthly performance reviews with plant leadership

4) Commercial Quote Preparation (Core Skill)

• Lead preparation of customer commercial quotes by integrating batch cost models, yield assumptions, QA / engineering costs, logistics, duties, and target margins
• Develop pricing scenarios (MOQ changes, potency/strength variations, packaging specs, Incoterms) and sensitivity analyses to support negotiations with customers.
• Ensure quotes are defensible and auditable, with clear assumption logs and margin waterfalls for CFO/leadership approval

Preferred candidate profile

• Minimum 8 - 12 years in finance/cost accounting within process manufacturing (Pharma / Chemicals / Manufacturing preferred), with at least 4 years plant-facing.
• Strong hands-on expertise in batch / job costing, BOM/routing, standard costing, and variance analysis.
• Proven track record in vendor negotiation support and delivering cost-out programs
• Demonstrated experience preparing customer quotes / proposals and pricing models in B2B settings.
• Working with Claude to get automate reports and pricing models
• Advanced Excel / Google Sheets; comfort with ERP (Focus / SAP / Oracle) for CO, MM, PP modules; ability to work with large datasets.
• Excellent communication; able to translate operational data into clear commercial recommendations for plant heads and customers.
• Exposure to Indian GAAP/Ind AS (preferable) and export-oriented unit (EOU) in Injectable / manufacturing costing.