Head of Finance

About the Role

The Head of Finance, Accounts & Cost Control will lead the complete Finance & Accounts function while driving organisation-wide cost control, budgeting, cost reduction and profitability. This is a business-oriented Finance Head role, not a back-office accounting position.

Key Responsibilities

• Budgeting & Planning: Prepare the annual and department-wise budgets (production, purchase, manpower, admin, maintenance, utilities, logistics) with HODs. Track monthly Budget vs Actual, analyse variances, recommend corrective action, and prepare cash-flow projections.
• Cost Reduction: Run a company-wide cost reduction programme with measurable savings targets. Find and close leakages in material, wastage, overtime, utilities, purchase, inventory, machine utilisation and admin costs, without hurting quality or safety.
• Purchase Cost Control: Keep purchases within budget and competitively priced. Analyse quotations and price trends, align quantities with production needs, avoid excess inventory and emergency buys, and support negotiations with cost analysis.
• Production Cost Control: With Production, Stores and Quality, monitor material consumption, scrap, rejection, rework, labour, overtime, downtime, power and yield. Build product-wise and process-wise cost sheets and track cost per unit.
• Departmental & Admin Budgets: Act as financial business partner to every HOD. Flag overspending early, guide corrective action and escalate repeated overruns. Control office, utility, travel, maintenance, vehicle, AMC and other admin costs.
• Finance & Accounts Operations: Overall ownership of GST, TDS and statutory compliance; banking, reconciliation, payment planning and cash flow; payables and receivables; payroll accuracy with HR; and accurate, audit-ready books. Coordinate with auditors and consultants.
• Financial Controls: Strengthen purchase-to-payment, approval matrix, payment, vendor, expense, cash, inventory and payroll controls with proper documentation.
• MIS & Reporting: Present regular MIS on budget vs actual, product cost, purchase price variance, wastage, overheads, cash flow, receivables/payables and savings achieved, with analysis and clear recommendations, not just numbers.
• Productivity: Assess utilisation of manpower, machines and materials against capacity, and improve output without a proportionate rise in cost.

Requirements

• 8+ years of relevant experience, strongly preferably in manufacturing
• Hands-on in cost and manufacturing accounting, budgeting, cost reduction, MIS, GST, taxation, banking and statutory compliance
• Experience managing a Finance & Accounts team preferred
• Strong analytical, Excel and MIS skills with a commercial, cost-conscious mindset
• Confident to professionally challenge HODs on spending
• High integrity, strong follow-up and execution

Preferred Qualifications

• CA / CMA (Final or Qualified) / M.Com / CS