Plant Controller

Role summary

Plant Controller is a full-time role at Allied Steel Buildings in McGregor, Texas, United States (on-site). Posted 2026-10-10. Experience level: 5-10.

Job title

Plant Controller

Company

Allied Steel Buildings

Location

McGregor, Texas, United States

Work arrangement

on-site

Employment type

full-time

Category

Logistics & Warehousing

Experience level

5-10

Date posted

2026-10-10

Job description

About the Role

Allied Fabricators, LLC is the domestic fabrication arm of Allied Steel Buildings, producing steel building components at our Texas plant. We are looking for a seasoned Plant Controller to own the financial picture of the factory floor — not just to close the books, but to tell us what a job actually costs, where margin is leaking, and what the inventory is really worth.

This is a hands-on role at a growing operation. You will be the senior finance presence on site, reporting to AFL's VP of Operations and functionally accountable to the EVP of Financial Reporting & Analysis and the CFO. You will need to serve plant priorities and corporate reporting standards at the same time, and hold the line when those pull in different directions.

You will lead a team of two staff accountants and serve as the on-site approval authority for plant spending. Our Texas facility also houses Allied Advanced Systems (AAS), so shared-cost allocation and clean intercompany discipline are part of the job.

What You'll Own

Cost Accounting

Maintain and refine the standard cost system: material, labor, burden, and overhead rates

Develop and validate machine-hour and labor-hour burden rates by work center

Analyze and explain manufacturing variances — purchase price, material usage, labor efficiency, overhead absorption — and drive them to root cause with operations

Job-level and project-level costing: estimate vs. actual, margin at completion, and the story behind the gap

Support pricing, make-vs-buy, and capital investment decisions with real cost data

Team & Approval Authority

Manage, develop, and review the work of two staff accountants — assign close responsibilities, set review standards, and build their capability over time

Own the plant's purchasing approval workflow: review and approve purchase requisitions and POs within delegated authority, and escalate above-threshold items to corporate with a clear recommendation

Administer the capital expenditure approval process from request through authorization — verify business case, cost basis, and payback assumptions before anything moves forward

Verify and sign off on analyses prepared by staff and by operations before they go to plant leadership or corporate

Financial Stewardship & Advisory

Act as financial advisor to the plant executive team — bring analysis, options, and consequences to decisions on capacity, staffing, pricing, sourcing, outsourcing, and capital before they are committed

Protect the integrity of AFL's financial results and safeguard the assets behind them: inventory, equipment, and the processes that touch cash

Question operating decisions the numbers do not support, and require an assumption set, cost basis, and payback on any proposal that spends money

Be the independent financial voice in the room — willing to be the only dissent when the analysis calls for it, and to carry that view to corporate finance when it is not resolved at the plant

Translate operating decisions into their P&L, cash, and balance sheet effect so leadership sees the full cost before committing

Surface risk, exposure, and unfavorable trends to plant leadership and corporate early and directly

Inventory

Own inventory accounting end to end: raw steel, consumables, WIP, and finished goods

Run the cycle count program and lead physical inventories; investigate and resolve shrink and count variances

Monitor inventory valuation, obsolescence, and reserve adequacy

Partner with purchasing and production control on turns, scrap, and material yield

Close, Reporting & Controls

Lead the plant month-end close and deliver results to corporate on schedule

Produce the plant P&L with meaningful commentary — not just numbers, but what happened and what we are doing about it

Build and report operational KPIs: cost per ton, throughput, labor utilization , scrap rate, on-time production

Maintain internal controls over inventory, receiving, production reporting, and fixed assets

Manage intercompany transactions and shared-facility cost allocations (AAS co-location, MSH facility lease, corporate charges)

Maintain reporting integrity and accounting policy compliance as defined by corporate finance, independent of plant operating pressures

Support external audit requests and corporate consolidation

Own the plant's capital expenditure tracking and fixed asset records

Planning

Build the annual plant operating budget and rolling forecasts

Model capacity, headcount, and overhead scenarios for plant leadership

Flag risk early — before it shows up in a variance report

Requirements

Qualifications and Competencies

Required

Bachelor's degree in Accounting or Finance

7–10 years of progressive accounting experience, with demonstrated advancement in scope and responsibility

Prior experience as a Controller or Financial Controller

Experience leading and developing an accounting team

Demonstrated depth in standard costing, variance analysis, and overhead absorption — this is the core of the job

Hands-on inventory accounting experience

Experience owning a full month-end close

Strong ERP experience and advanced Excel (pivot tables, lookups, modeling)

Comfort on the shop floor — you will spend real time out there

Preferred

Manufacturing or industrial plant accounting experience — strongly preferred

Steel fabrication, metal building, or heavy industrial background

CPA, CMA, or MBA

Experience in a multi-entity structure with intercompany allocations

Familiarity with project or percentage-of-completion revenue recognition (ASC 606)

Experience standing up or improving a costing system, not just operating one