Supervisor – IS Financial Systems Controlling & Manufacturing Finance

Westlake offers you the potential to enrich your work life and career experience in an entrepreneurial environment. We work together to enhance peoples' lives through our products and presence in the communities in which we operate.​

SUMMARY
The IS Supervisor - Financial Systems - Controlling & Manufacturing Finance leads the support, design, enhancement, and roadmap for SAP Finance and Controlling capabilities, with primary focus on Product Costing, Profitability Analysis, manufacturing finance, inventory valuation, actual costing, intercompany accounting, transfer pricing, manufacturing statement reporting, and business unit/segment controllership support.
In addition to Controlling and Manufacturing Finance expertise, the role is expected to have a working understanding of core SAP Financial Accounting and Record-to-Report (R2R) processes including General Ledger, Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, Fixed Assets, Banking, Financial Close, journal entry governance, and SOX-controlled business processes. The role may serve as system owner for assigned Financial Systems capabilities, ensuring application reliability, process governance, compliance, and continuous improvement.
This role provides hands-on SAP FICO/CO subject matter expertise while directly supervising IS Financial Systems analysts, contractors, and partner resources. The role works closely with Accounting, Finance, Controllers, FP&A, Procurement, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Commercial, Customer Service, Credit Management, and IS teams to deliver reliable, integrated, and scalable financial systems solutions.

People Leadership 

• Supervise SAP Financial Systems analysts, contractors, and partner resources responsible for SAP FICO/CO, Product Costing, CO-PA, and related Finance applications. 

• Provide coaching, mentoring, workload direction, performance feedback, and annual performance reviews. 

• Build team capability in SAP Controlling, integration design, application support, project delivery, documentation, and business partnership. 

• Promote accountability, continuous improvement, operational excellence, customer service, and effective collaboration across IS and business teams.

SAP Controlling and Manufacturing Finance 

• Lead and support SAP Controlling processes including Product Costing, Cost Center Accounting, Profit Center Accounting, cost allocations, overhead costing, Activity-Based Costing, Standard Costing, Actual Costing, and management reporting. 

• Provide subject matter expertise for product costing in discrete, continuous, and process manufacturing scenarios, including cost component structures, standard cost estimates, variance analysis, and manufacturing cost flows. 

• Support inventory valuation, actual costing, plant-to-plant transfers, terminal/warehouse movements, intercompany inventory transactions, and related financial impacts. 

• Support manufacturing statement reporting, plant-level financial reporting, and business unit/segment controllership requirements. 

Profitability Analysis and Management Reporting 

• Lead SAP CO-PA/Margin Analysis and profitability reporting solutions for product, customer, plant, legal entity, sales company, segment, and business unit reporting. 

• Support reporting for variable cost, fixed cost, material margin, gross margin, net margin, cash margin, transfer pricing impacts, manufacturing margins, and sales company margins. 

• Partner with Controllers, FP&A, Commercial Finance, and business unit leaders to improve profitability transparency and decision-support capabilities. 

• Translate controllership and management reporting needs into scalable SAP design, configuration, reporting, and enhancement solutions. 

Intercompany Accounting, Transfer Pricing, and Single Sales Company Processes 

• Lead SAP Financial Systems support and solution design for intercompany accounting processes, including IC Stock Transfer Orders, inventory movements, ownership transfers, goods issue/receipt processing, and related financial postings. 

• Support integration with Order-to-Cash for transfer pricing, intercompany billing, and backend IC billing flows where third-party sales generate related intercompany transactions under the Single Sales Company model. 

• Partner with Finance, Controllership, Tax, FP&A, Commercial Finance, Manufacturing, and OTC stakeholders to align transfer pricing, IC billing, margin reporting, and legal entity reporting requirements. 

• Lead or support automation of intercompany Accounts Payable invoice creation and processing using SAP intercompany billing and RD04 output-type capabilities. 

• Ensure CO-PA/Margin Analysis design reflects manufacturing entity margins, sales company margins, transfer pricing impacts, and consolidated profitability considerations. 

Cross-Functional Integration, R2R, and Process Improvement 

• Lead and support integration between SAP FICO/CO and Procure-to-Pay, Order-to-Cash, Record-to-Report, Manufacturing, Materials Management, Sales & Distribution/Logistics Execution, Production Planning/Quality Management, Plant Maintenance, and Project Systems. 

• Ensure Finance and Controlling impacts are properly designed and tested for procurement, inventory, production, sales, billing, accounts payable, accounts receivable, credit, collections, intercompany billing, and IC AP invoice automation processes. 

• Partner with business process owners and IS teams to identify improvement opportunities that increase efficiency, accuracy, compliance, standardization, automation, and reporting quality. 

• Lead design sessions, fit/gap discussions, integration reviews, testing cycles, training, and business readiness activities. 

Application Support and Project Delivery 

• Ensure reliable operation of SAP FICO/CO, Project Systems, and related financial applications; oversee Level 3 incident, service request, enhancement, and production support processes. 

• Partner with Shared Services organizations supporting Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Credit Management, Banking, Financial Close, and related financial operations. 

• Review, approve, configure, and test system changes, upgrades, enhancements, and support packages in compliance with IS lifecycle, QA, SOX, and change control requirements. 

• Lead medium to large Financial Systems projects, enhancements, integrations, acquisitions, upgrades, and transformation initiatives. 

• Define scope, requirements, estimates, resource plans, schedules, risks, issues, status reports, test plans, documentation, and implementation plans. 

• Manage project governance, budget/resource tracking, delivery quality, and implementation partner performance. 

Portfolio, Roadmap, and Executive Stakeholder Management 

• Own and maintain the multi-year roadmap for assigned SAP FICO/CO, Product Costing, CO-PA, manufacturing finance, and integrated Finance capabilities. 

• Serve as system owner for assigned Financial Systems capabilities, ensuring process governance, application reliability, compliance, and continuous improvement. 

• Prioritize portfolio demand, enhancements, production support needs, transformation initiatives, technical debt, and business value opportunities. 

• Support annual planning, budget input, business case development, resource planning, and leadership governance discussions. 

• Serve as a primary IS Financial Systems liaison for Controllers, Accounting, FP&A, Procurement, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Commercial, Customer Service, Credit Management, and senior stakeholders. 

• Communicate project status, risks, decisions, roadmap priorities, and recommendations clearly to functional and executive audiences. 

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES 

• Direct supervision of IS Financial Systems analysts, contractors, and partner resources. 

• Responsible for team development, workload allocation, coaching, performance management, and annual performance reviews. 

• May lead onshore, offshore, contractor, and external vendor teams supporting SAP FICO/CO and related financial applications. 

QUALIFICATIONS 

• 10+ years of hands-on SAP FICO/CO configuration, implementation, support, and integration experience; SAP ECC 6.0 or higher required, SAP S/4HANA or Central Finance preferred. 

• Working knowledge of SAP S/4HANA Finance concepts including Universal Journal (ACDOCA), Margin Analysis, New Asset Accounting, and related financial reporting capabilities preferred. 

• Deep expertise in SAP Controlling, including Product Costing, CO-PA/Margin Analysis, Cost Center Accounting, Profit Center Accounting, cost allocations, overhead costing, Activity-Based Costing, Standard Costing, Actual Costing, and management reporting. 

• Manufacturing finance experience covering product costing, standard cost estimates, inventory valuation, actual costing, variance analysis, manufacturing cost flows, and month-end close support. 

• Intercompany accounting experience covering IC Stock Transfer Orders, transfer pricing, intercompany billing, IC AP invoice automation, Single Sales Company flows, and related CO-PA/Margin Analysis impacts. 

• Strong experience integrating SAP FICO/CO with PTP, OTC, Manufacturing, MM, SD/LE, PP/QM, PM, and PS processes. 

• Working knowledge of SAP Financial Accounting processes including General Ledger (GL), Accounts Receivable (AR), Accounts Payable (AP), Asset Accounting/Fixed Assets (AA), Banking, Financial Close, and Management Reporting. 

• Understanding of financial governance processes including manual journal entries, account reconciliations, month-end close activities, SOX compliance, audit controls, approval workflows, and change management processes. 

• Experience with related Finance applications such as OpenText VIM, Vertex, BlackLine, SAP Concur, FIS GetPaid, FIS Integrity, Coupa, SAP Ariba, Basware, or equivalent solutions preferred. 

• Proven supervisory, team leadership, project delivery, vendor management, and executive stakeholder management experience. 

• Strong understanding of application support practices, SDLC, SOX change controls, quality assurance testing, audit compliance, and documentation standards. 

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE 

• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, Information Systems, Business Administration, Computer Science, or related field required; Master’s degree preferred. 

• Professional certification such as CPA, CMA, PMP, SAP certification, Agile certification, or equivalent certification preferred. 

• Experience in chemical, manufacturing, distribution, building products, or industrial environments preferred. 

SKILLS AND CORE COMPETENCIES 

• Strong leadership, coaching, talent development, communication, collaboration, and stakeholder management skills. 

• Ability to translate complex SAP FICO/CO concepts into clear business language for Finance, Operations, and leadership audiences. 

• Strong analytical, troubleshooting, root-cause analysis, prioritization, and problem-solving capabilities. 

• Ability to lead cross-functional teams and influence outcomes without direct authority. 

• Strong project management, portfolio management, planning, budgeting, governance, and execution discipline. 

• Ability to balance Controlling, Manufacturing Finance, Intercompany, R2R, and Financial Accounting priorities while supporting a diverse Financial Systems portfolio. 

• Customer service orientation with a continuous improvement mindset focused on standardization, automation, compliance, and operational excellence. 

• Demonstrates Westlake People Manager Core Competencies: Instills Trust, Works with Vision and Purpose, Plans and Aligns, Analyzes, Communicates Effectively, and Drives Results.

PERSONAL QUALITIES 

Strategic, hands-on, proactive, self-motivated, detail-oriented, and solution-focused. 

Able to balance tactical production support with long-term roadmap planning and business transformation needs. 

Builds trust with Finance, Operations, IS, and external partners in a matrixed environment. 

Anticipates risks, resolves conflicts, makes recommendations, and drives alignment across stakeholders. 

PHYSICAL DEMANDS 

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is frequently required to sit, stand, walk, use hands to handle or feel, reach with hands and arms, and talk or hear. The employee may occasionally be required to stoop, kneel, or crouch. The employee must regularly lift and/or move up to 10 pounds and occasionally up to 25 pounds. 

WORK ENVIRONMENT 

The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate, as this role is normally based in an office environment. Some work may be required in operating units and may require use of PPE such as safety glasses, hearing protection, or other required equipment. Travel up to 25%, including domestic and international travel, may be required. 

Westlake is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to any characteristics protected by applicable legislation.

If you are an active Westlake employee (or an employee of any Westlake affiliates), please do not apply here. You will apply via the Jobs Hub application in Workday.