Associate Director, Finance - Manufacturing Operations

About AbbVie
AbbVie’s mission is to discover and deliver innovative medicines that solve serious health issues today and address the medical challenges of tomorrow. We strive to have a remarkable impact on people’s lives across several key therapeutic areas: immunology, oncology, neuroscience, eye care, virology, women’s health and gastroenterology, in addition to products and services across its Allergan Aesthetics portfolio. For more information about AbbVie, please visit us at www.abbvie.com. Follow @abbvie on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn.

Description:                                                                                                                                                                     

The Plant Controller is the primary Financial Manager directly responsible for Manufacturing Operations for the North Chicago Manufacturing plant.   North Chicago is one of AbbVie’s key manufacturing sites for API(Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient), including Rinvoq, Survanta, Elagolix and other Third Party products.  The position executes a full range of controllership responsibilities including financial record keeping, reporting, profit planning, systems operations, and financial analysis for the Plant.  The position is expected to seek out cost opportunities and assist in managing the manufacturing organization in achieving optimum financial performance.  The North Chicago Finance team’s objective is to manage the manufacturing organization’s Cost Accounting function to achieve optimum performance with regard to quality product at the lowest cost.  The North Chicago Finance team also provides support to Manufacturing, Quality Assurance, and various manufacturing service groups.                                           

Key Responsibilities Include:

·         Managing manufacturing accounting and reporting systems            

·         Support manufacturing strategies                                                                                                     

·         Providing financial support to Operations Management                                                              

·         Communicate results and identify trends and opportunities                                         

·         Actively seeking improvements in manufacturing productivity                                                                  

·         Maintaining adequate internal/operational controls                                                                                   

·         Providing leadership and direction to staff reporting to position                                                               

 

Major Responsibilities:                                                                                                                                  

A comprehensive understanding of the business and how its elements interrelate is key in the effective execution of the Plant Controller’s responsibilities.  Standard Product Costing: Requires the review and maintenance of Bill of Materials including: review of labor, equipment and testing time standards, review of material components, review of engineered and operating allowances, and review of commodity/drug price data as well as burden rates for labor, equipment and testing production centers.  The activity is performed in conjunction with Operations, Materials Management, Quality Assurance and Manufacturing Management.  Financial Accounting: Requires the collection and audit of operating data on an ongoing basis to report to all levels of management operating efficiencies and any significant deviations from the Profit Plan.  Activities encountered in this area include development of earned standards for output, calculation of manufacturing variances, other variances, special direct charges, and start-up expenses.  The successful completion of the above activities will require the preparation of journal entries and the reconciliation of general ledger account balances for expenses, inventories, and other applicable accounts.                                                                                                        

Annual Profit Plan and Updates: Involves the development of detailed operating budgets for all support and manufacturing departments.  Burden rates must be established on an annual basis for all manufacturing departments.  Planned variances and changes in product cost due to inflationary factory and process changes must be projected for future periods.  The Plant Controller’s function is responsible for reviewing all data utilized in the profit planning process for accuracy and is solely responsible for the technical accuracy of the profit plan.                                                                

Capital Expenditures: Includes the review of all requests for capital expenditure (RCE) for technical financial accuracy and compliance with divisional objectives.   Additionally, develops all required financial justifications as supported by cost accounting and industrial engineering analyses.  Assistance is provided in the development of requests for capital expenditures and the post completion audit of all projects to determine if the original objectives were met.                                                                                    

Financial Reporting: Includes the analysis of actual operating results as compared to plan projections.   This requires the development of analysis and presentation tools to provide all levels of management with control and decision making information.  Financial reporting must measure all variances in material, labor and overhead in manufacturing departments, deviations in expenditures for support areas and changes in inventory levels.                                                                                                       

Key Operating Decision Support: Significant analyses, alternatives evaluations, cost estimates, etc. are provided to Operations management.  Resultant decisions may affect all plant management functions and include labor requirements, equipment alternatives, new product introductions, material substitutions, production process changes and overall workload impact.                   

Information Flow: While system design and programming is provided by corporate MIS groups, the Plant Controller’s function has fiduciary responsibility to ensure appropriate checks/balances are in place relative to the various systems utilized in the management of plant operations.                              

Accountability/Scope:                 

The Plant Controller must direct the creation of accurate usable information in the format and content accepted by various levels of management at the Plant and Functional level.  Information requirements vary and the Plant Controller must have an understanding of the related functions in the entire organization.  Clear conceptual thinking applied with ingenuity and experienced judgment is needed to identify, isolate and focus attention on cause and effect relationships.  Information requirements include timeliness, accuracy and efficient collection/reporting systems.  A significant challenge is to develop, motivate and control the financial and industrial engineering awareness of plant management to achieve optimum financial manufacturing productivity.   This includes being able to effectively project and plan for constant changes within Operations (e.g. developing and implementing processes to handle new contract manufacturing relationships and issues, the effect of changing the type or volume of output from the plant, etc.).                                                                                     

The position impacts Division decision making by providing financial Plans, updates, project analyses, cost estimates and ongoing financial performance.   

The Plant Controller is also accountable to the Division Controller for financial reporting consistent with divisional and corporate guidelines.  Financial records must comply with external and internal auditors, as well as divisional management guidelines.                                                                                                       

The Plant Controller functions independently in terms of developing, monitoring and explaining manufacturing costs and variances.  This includes providing financial information directly to Functional and Plant Operations Management, and sister division management of various disciplines.  In addition, the Plant Controller position can work directly with third parties on contractual/financial issues.                     

Qualifications

Qualifications                                                                                                                                                                  

Basic:                                                             

·         Bachelor’s degree in Finance or Accounting

·         7 plus years of progressive Accounting or Finance experience with 3 plus years of management experience                                                                                                                                    

·         Manufacturing experience in a plant environment                                                                                       

·         As this position has financial responsibility for actual results and planning of domestic API operations, a strong financial education is necessary                                                                                                

·         Understanding of manufacturing and interrelation with other functions, proactive in identifying opportunities / issues and engaging Senior Operational and Financial Management  

                                                                                                                                                                            

Preferred:                                                                                                                                                                        

·         CPA/MBA/CMA preferred                                                                        

 

Key Leadership Competencies:                                                           

·         Builds strong relationships with peers and cross functionally with partners outside of team to enable higher performance.                                                                                                                                                              

·         Learns, fast, grasps the “essence” and can change the course quickly where indicated                                          

·         Raises the bar and is never satisfied with the status quo.                                                                                                                                                                  

·         Creates a learning environment, open to suggestions and experimentation for improvement.                                                                                                                                                                      

·         Embraces the ideas of others, nurtures innovation and manages innovation to reality.                   

Significant Work Activities
N/A
Travel
Yes, 10 % of the Time
Job Type
Experienced
Schedule
Full-time
Job Level Code
M
Equal Employment Opportunity
At AbbVie, we value bringing together individuals from diverse backgrounds to develop new and innovative solutions for patients. As an equal opportunity employer we do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex (including pregnancy), physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, marital status, protected veteran status, or any other legally protected characteristic.