Business Controller

Business Controller

Formica Corporation, a global leader in decorative surfacing materials and part of Broadview Materials, is seeking an experienced Business Controller to serve as a strategic partner to business leadership and focused on driving profitability through performance analysis, financial planning, budgeting and forecasting across North America (US, Canada, Mexico). This role reports to the Vice President of Finance and is central to driving financial performance, operational insight, and strategic decision-making.

The Business Controller is a key member of the leadership team responsible for variance analysis, internal business control, financial planning, reporting, and decision support. The Controller is expected to deliver regular, timely, and clear data-driven insights to improve operational and financial performance while ensuring the accuracy and integrity of financial information across functions and locations. The role acts as a strategic partner to managementbridging financial data and business operations to support profitability, performance to plan, growth initiatives, and informed decision-making. The Business Controller should be able to make sense of financial reality by diagnosing gaps between actuals and plans and then providing insight that will help move the business forward.

Key Responsibilities

• Track results against targets, isolate root cause, identify trends, and recommend actions to improve profitability and efficiency.
• Engage directly with operational teams to understand the business events, decisions, and market dynamics driving performance gaps.
• Prepare timely, accurate business and financial reports and ensure adherence to standards.
• Translate variance findings into clear, forward-thinking narratives that inform management decisions and shape the next planning cycle.
• Challenge planning assumptions with data and outside-in thinking.
• Design and deliver management reporting that goes beyond status updates - focused on insight, implication, and recommend action.
• Analyze gross margins, product profitability, and operational costs to identify improvement opportunities.
• Design, track and monitor KPIs across business units; question whether the metrics being tracked are the correct metrics.
• Proactively investigate anomalies, trends and outliers in financial data and bring findings to relevant stakeholders with context and recommendations.
• Collaborate with executives and functional leaders to support strategic initiatives, evaluate risks/opportunities, and guide business decisions.
• Participate actively in business reviews, strategy sessions and investment decisions, contributing financial analysis and a critical perspective.
• Identify and mitigate financial risks to support organizational stability.
• Direct budgeting, forecasting, and financial modeling to support strategic initiatives and investment decisions.
• Maintain a continuous feedback loop between actuals and plans, ensuring that what the business learns from results is systemically reflected in future forecasts and budgets.

Required Qualifications & Skills

• Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, Economics or Business; MBA or CPA preferred.
• 5+ years' experience in FP&A, modeling, planning, budgeting, and forecasting in a business/manufacturing context.
• Ability to interpret complex data and translate insights into actionable recommendations.
• Demonstrated ability to independently investigate financial results, identify root causes, and communicate findings persuasively to senior stakeholders
• Strong financial modeling skills and advances Excel proficiency; experience with BI and reporting tools (e.g., Power BI, Tableau, Cognos, or similar) with strong knowledge of accounting principles and ERP systems.
• Proven ability to communicate clearly and collaborate effectively with senior leaders and promote financial discipline across teams.
• Strong analytical thinking, business acumen, and influence skills
• Willingness to travel within the U.S., Canada, and Mexico as required.

Key Competencies

• Intellectual Curiosity instinctively digs below the surface; not satisfied until the real story behind the numbers is understood.
• Self-Driven & Proactive sets their own agenda, anticipates what needs to be done, and follows through without needing to be prompted.
• Analytical Rigor structured, hypothesis-driven approach to problem-solving; comfortable with ambiguity and able to build logic from incomplete information.
• Bridge-Builder able to connect financial outcomes to operational realities, and translate between the language of finance and the language of the business.
• Communication & Storytelling turns complex analysis into a clear, compelling narrative that drives decisions.
• Stakeholder Confidence earns trust with senior leadership through consistency, candor, and depth of understanding.
• Continuous Improvement Mindset always looking for a better way, whether in analysis techniques, tools, or processes.