Plant Controller II

Darigold is seeking a Plant Controller II to serve as the financial leader for up to two dairy manufacturing plants. This role partners closely with Plant Leadership and Operations to drive cost discipline, operational performance, and financial integrity.

The Plant Controller II owns plant-level financial reporting and leads the team responsible for plant accounting activities. This role provides clear insight into production and cost trends and partners with plant leadership to support informed decisions that drive growth and profitability. The position requires a strong operational presence, building relationships with production teams to understand processes firsthand and ensure accurate reporting of production activity, labor, and inventory.

This is a hands‑on leadership role with broad exposure across accounting, forecasting, cost management, internal controls, and continuous improvement initiatives.

This position reports to the Director of Operations Accounting and will be a hybrid onsite role at one of our dairy manufacturing plants. Travel between plant locations and headquarters may be required (typically less than 20%).

• Directly manage plant accounting team members responsible for production reconciliations and inventory true-ups
• Provide hands‑on coaching to ensure production activity and inventory adjustments are accurate, timely, and well supported
• Drive consistency in processes, controls, and reporting across team members and plant locations
• Review reconciliations and analysis to reinforce strong controls and data integrity
• Identify process improvement opportunities within production reporting and inventory management workflows
• Foster a culture of accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement

• Serve as a mentor to junior members of the broader Operations Accounting function, sharing best practices and strengthening technical consistency across plants
• Support succession planning and talent development within the Operations Accounting organization

• Lead and coordinate monthly plant close activities, ensuring timely and accurate financial reporting
• Oversee preparation and review of journal entries and plant account reconciliations
• Analyze plant results, including labor and overhead, and clearly communicate key drivers and variances
• Identify and share recommendations for operational and cost improvements with Plant Management
• Ensure compliance with company policies and U.S. GAAP

• Assess and strengthen plant-level internal controls to support accurate financial reporting and safeguard assets
• Provide recommendations to enhance process discipline and data integrity
• Ensure adherence to company policies and financial standards

• Partner with the Cost Accounting team to ensure accuracy of standard costing for monthly close and reporting, including inventory valuation, production reporting, key statistical entries, and manufacturing variance analysis
• Prepare and review plant account reconciliations to ensure accuracy, completeness, and alignment with financial reporting

• Lead development of the plant Annual Operating Plan (AOP) and budget
• Prepare monthly forecasts and variance analysis, sharing insights with plant leadership
• Partner with Plant Leadership to evaluate capital improvement projects, prepare supporting requests, and monitor spend
• Support execution of cost management initiatives

• Participate in problem‑solving and Continuous Improvement initiatives as the finance subject matter expert
• Support analysis related to process performance, line efficiency, inventory management, capital spending, etc.
• Collaborate with IT and cross-functional partners to enhance reporting tools and streamline processes
• Lead or support special projects, including user acceptance testing for systems implementations
• Document and standardize processes to reduce inefficiencies and drive consistency across plants

• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, Business, or related field (or equivalent progressive experience)
• 7–15 years of progressive…