Business Partner - Costing

About the role

The Business Partner - Costing acts as a trusted financial advisor to business leaders, bridging the gap between finance and operations. The role focuses on driving cost efficiency, providing forward-looking financial insights, and challenging business assumptions to optimize resource allocation and deliver sustainable cost performance. What you'll do

1. Business Partnering & Stakeholder Management:

· Partner with business stakeholders to provide cost insights and drive efficiency initiatives.

· Challenge business leaders on cost drivers and budget assumptions constructively.

· Build strong cross-functional relationships to become a trusted advisor on cost matters

2. Planning, Budgeting & Forecasting:

· Develop cost models to support scenario analysis and sensitivity testing.

· Lead the annual budgeting and quarterly reforecasting process for assigned business areas.

· Ensure timely and accurate delivery of budget submissions with robust assumptions.

3. Cost Reporting & Performance Management

· Prepare monthly cost reports with clear, concise variance analysis (actual vs. budget vs. forecast).

· Investigate cost performance issues and identify key drivers and one-off items.

· Develop dashboards and KPIs to improve cost transparency (e.g., Power BI, Excel).

4. Cost Optimization & Efficiency

· Identify and drive cost reduction opportunities to improve operating leverage.

· Partner with procurement teams on supplier cost analysis and contract renewals

5. Continuous Improvement

· Drive automation and standardization of cost reporting (e.g., transition to cloud-based platforms).

· Champion the use of self-service analytics and dashboard tools.

Qualifications

Education & Certification:

· Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, or related field.

· CPA, ACCA, CMA, or CIMA qualifications are a strong plus.

Experience:

· 5+ years of experience in FP&A, cost controlling, or business partnering roles in manufacturing.

· Proven track record in cost optimization and efficiency initiatives.

· Strong analytical and financial modeling capability.

Technical Skills:

· FP&A Expertise: Deep expertise in budgeting, rolling forecasting, long-range planning, scenarios modeling, and management reporting.

· Costing & Manufacturing Finance: Strong command of standard costing variance analysis, BOM costing, and product cost modeling. Experience with cost reduction programs and capacity planning.

· Data analytics & Tools: Advanced Excel modeling. Proficiency in Power BI, Tableau or similar visualization tools. Experience with SQL or Python for data extraction is a plus.

Core Competencies (Behavioral):

· Commercial Acumen: Understands business drivers and links cost decisions to value creation.

· Influencing & Challenge: Confidently challenges business leaders with data-driven insights.

· Attention to Detail: Ensures accuracy in reporting and modelling; "right first time" mindset.

· Stakeholder Management: Builds credibility and trust with senior stakeholders.

· Problem Solving: Deep-dives into complex data to identify root causes and solutions.

· Proactive & Curious: Seeks opportunities for improvement without being prompted.

· Integrity & Ethics: Uncompromising professional integrity. Set the tone for compliance, internal controls, and ethical decision-making across the organization.