1. Position purpose
the operations business analyst serves as the strategic "data brain" for the operation
director. This role is responsible for overseeing the financial and operational health of a
hybrid business model in juarez. The candidate is expected to move beyond traditional tools
by leveraging ai-driven capabilities to automate reporting, predict cost trends, and provide
actionable insights toward manufacturing efficiency with trading profitability.
2. Key responsibilities
manufacturing & assembly analysis
• cost & energy monitoring: analyze conversion costs for dry-press pulp molding,
specifically tracking energy consumption, raw material yield, and direct labor.
• assembly productivity: evaluate assembly line efficiency (standard vs. Actual
hours). Use data to optimize labor allocation for post-production kitting services.
• manufacturing governance: act as an objective controller to monitor scrap rates
and work-in-progress (wip) levels, ensuring alignment with plant benchmarking and
improvement initiatives.
trading & logistics analysis
• procurement & margin control: manage the profitability of outsourced items (paper
cartons, inserts, etc.). Track purchase price variance (ppv) and its impact on
bundled project margins.
• inventory & warehouse optimization: optimize the storage-to-turnover ratio for
bulky materials to minimize warehousing overhead in juarez.
• logistics audit: analyze 3pl performance and delivery costs to ensure
cost-effective distribution to north american customers.
quotation reasonableness & margin governance
• standard cost benchmarking: establish and maintain standard cost cards for key
product lines (molded pulp skus and traded items), serving as the baseline for
validating sales quotations submitted by the sales team.
• quotation review & challenge: act as an independent analytical checkpoint in the
quotation approval process. Evaluate whether proposed prices achieve minimum acceptable gross margin thresholds, flagging quotations that deviate from cost floor
assumptions or historical margin norms.
• price-cost gap analysis: conduct regular variance analysis between quoted
prices, standard costs, and actual landed costs—identifying margin erosion risks
caused by ppv, freight fluctuations, or labor efficiency shortfalls.
• margin floor policy support: work with the operation director to define and
maintain minimum gross margin policies by business type (self-manufactured vs.
traded), factoring in overhead absorption targets and customer-segment risk profiles.
• customer / project profitability reporting: produce monthly profitability reports at
the customer or project level, enabling the sales director and operation director to
make data-backed decisions on pricing strategy, volume discounts, and contract
renewals.
advanced analytics & ai integration
• ai-enhanced reporting: utilize ai tools and llms to automate data cleaning, trend
forecasting, and report generation, replacing manual dashboard maintenance.
• strategic fp&a: lead the annual budgeting process and monthly rolling forecasts,
providing deep-dive variance analysis directly to the operation director.
3. Requirements
experience & education
• experience: 5+ years in manufacturing fp&a, operations analysis, or supply chain
finance.
• education: bachelor's degree in finance, accounting, industrial engineering, or
business management.
languages
• english: commercially fluent — required.
• spanish: highly preferred (a plus) for local communication and vendor
management.
technical skills
• core tools: advanced excel financial modelling and dashboard development.
• data skills: erp system experience and preferred data extraction and automated
reporting workflows.
• ai & automation a plus: demonstrated ability to apply llm prompt engineering and
ai tools to enhance analytical efficiency; ability to build automated workflows that
bypass the need for traditional, static bi tools.
soft skills
• strong diplomatic skills to collaborate with the plant manager and sales director
while maintaining data integrity and independence.
• maintains an objective, data-driven stance in quotation review; able to challenge
business assumptions constructively.