Supply Chain Finance Production Manager

Unilever

Estimated pay: Est. $19–$29/hr (market estimate, not employer-stated)

Shift: Full time

Join us as Supply Chain Finance Production Manager Function: Finance Reports to: Supply Chain Finance Director Scope: South Africa Location: Johannesburg/ Durban Terms Conditions: Full time, Onsite About the Role The Supply Chain Finance Production Manager is responsible for partnering with Supply Chain, Procurement, and Category Finance teams to drive financial performance, governance, cost optimization, and strategic decision-making across Unilever South Africa s manufacturing network. This role provides financial leadership across Unilever factories and collaborative manufacturing partners supporting the Nutrition, Home Care, Beauty Wellbeing, and Personal Care categories. The role plays a critical part in improving profitability, enhancing operational efficiency, strengthening governance, and delivering sustainable cost savings across the production landscape. You will lead a high-performing finance team while partnering with cross-functional stakeholders to unlock value through productivity initiatives, capital investment management, robust financial controls, and waste reduction programs. You ll be part of a team that believes in doing work that matters — for people and the planet. Because here, we don t just hire for jobs. We invite you to be part of something bigger. Key Responsibilities Business Performance Management Decision Support • Partner with factory leadership teams to steer business performance through insightful financial analysis and decision support. • Lead budgeting, forecasting, and long-range planning processes across manufacturing and collaborative production sites. • Provide actionable insights through variance analysis, identifying key performance drivers, risks, opportunities, and corrective actions. • Support capital investment decisions through robust business cases and evaluation of Capital Expenditure Proposals (CEPs). • Partner with Supply Chain and Category teams to maximize government incentives and support delivery of key strategic projects. • Monitor stock losses, material usage variances, and operational performance metrics to support effective decision-making. Cost Optimisation Productivity Delivery • Drive the Cost per Ton agenda through delivery of productivity, efficiency, and cost reduction initiatives across manufacturing operations. • Challenge and influence factory teams to achieve productivity targets while maintaining quality, service, and safety standards. • Lead financial governance of waste reduction programmes and identify opportunities to improve manufacturing efficiencies. • Monitor and evaluate capital expenditure commitments against budgets and expected returns. • Drive alignment of manufacturing cost benchmarks and productivity improvements across sourcing units and production facilities. • Partner with Operations teams to reduce production indirect costs and improve overall supply chain competitiveness. Financial Governance Controls • Ensure robust financial controls, governance practices, and compliance standards are implemented and maintained across Supply Chain operations. • Lead audit engagements and coordinate financial reviews to ensure control effectiveness and compliance with company policies and SOX requirements. • Maintain the integrity of balance sheet and income statement reporting through strong financial discipline and governance processes. • Ensure compliance with Unilever s Standard Chart of Accounts and financial reporting requirements. • Manage journals, provisions, write-offs, and financial adjustments in line with Schedule of Authority requirements. • Drive timely, accurate, and transparent financial reporting to support operational and strategic decision-making. Budget Management, Inventory Working Capital • Lead annual budgeting processes and standard product costing activities in line with global costing guidelines. • Ensure accurate financial management of manufacturing and third-party production operations. • Monitor budget performance and conduct monthly analysis of forecast variances, overspends, and savings opportunities. • Drive stock governance and inventory management processes, including stock counts, variance reporting, and stock reconciliations. • Partner with Operations and Planning teams to optimize inventory levels and reduce stock days on hand. • Support sourcing strategy decisions through financial modelling and development of business cases for alternative sourcing options. • Drive analysis and reporting of material usage variances and inventory performance across production sites. UMS Operational Excellence • Lead Finance s contribution to the Unilever Manufacturing System (UMS) agenda and continuous improvement initiatives. • Partner with site leadership teams to drive operational excellence and delivery of key manufacturing performance indicators. • Support improvements in output reliability, stock record accuracy, customer service levels, and production performance. • Use operational and financial data to i