JOB DESCRIPTION

Location: Warwick, Queensland | Leadership Team member
Reports to: General Manager, who reports to the Board of Directors
Functional responsibility: Finance, AR and AP, manufacturing financial control and commercial systems

Role purpose

Build a financially strong, disciplined and profitable manufacturing business. Lead the financial control and commercial systems that connect sales, marketing, design, purchasing, inventory, production and dispatch, giving OX Trailers reliable information and practical processes to improve margins, cash flow and operating performance.

This is a hands-on leadership role. The Commercial Manager must understand what happens on the factory floor, challenge the numbers, identify the causes of lost profit and work with the responsible managers to implement lasting improvements. Oversight of accounts receivable and accounts payable forms part of a much broader manufacturing financial control mandate.

Leadership accountability

The Leadership Team consists of the Sales & Marketing Manager, Operations Manager, Design Manager and Commercial Manager. All four roles report directly to the General Manager, who reports to the Board of Directors.

- Contribute to business strategy, budgets, capacity planning, investment decisions and the annual profit improvement plan as a full member of the Leadership Team.
- Drive progress towards OX Trailers' business profitability goals of 45% gross profit margin and 25% net profit margin. Work with the Leadership Team to translate these goals into budgets and departmental actions, with clear owners, deadlines and measurable results.
- Build commercial understanding across the business so managers understand how quoting, design, labour, purchasing,



stock and production decisions affect profit and cash.

Financial and manufacturing control

- Own the integrity of management accounts, balance sheet reconciliations, budgets, forecasts and financial reporting. Explain results, risks and corrective actions clearly.
- Establish reliable job costing covering materials, direct labour, design hours, subcontracting, freight and appropriate manufacturing overheads. Maintain and review costing rates.
- Control work in progress, inventory valuation, job completion and revenue cut-off so reported results reflect the actual position. Reconcile production records and stock to the general ledger.
- Compare quoted, budgeted and actual margins by job, product range and customer. Identify cost overruns, missing charges, rework and margin leakage while there is still time to act.
- Provide a monthly performance pack with profit and loss, balance sheet, cash flow, job margins, manufacturing variances and a tracked improvement action list.

Working across the manufacturing business

Work alongside each manager to improve performance and establish consistent controls from initial enquiry through to final payment. Department managers remain responsible for running their teams; the Commercial Manager owns the financial discipline and visibility supporting their decisions.





Sales Marketing and pricing

- Build accurate estimating and pricing tools, minimum margin guidelines and approval processes for discounts, special terms and commercially significant quotes.
- Review custom and project work for scope, engineering effort, materials, labour, freight and commercial risk before commitment. Ensure variations are costed, approved and charged.
- Work with Sales to improve product and customer mix, deposit and progress payment discipline, and the handover from quote to confirmed production order.
- Work with Marketing on budgets, campaign performance, agency costs and return on investment. Connect marketing spend and lead generation to sales conversion, customer acquisition cost and job profitability to guide investment decisions.

Design and engineering

- Work with Design to establish accurate bills of materials, routings, revision control and design labour allowances before jobs are released to manufacture.
- Assess the cost of customisation and design changes. Support standardisation, modular designs and component reuse where they improve cost, lead time and product quality.
- Ensure engineering changes flow through drawings, purchasing, inventory, production and costing, with explicit approval and responsibility.

Operations and production

- Work with Operations to establish realistic labour standards, usable time capture and meaningful reporting of hours, material usage, scrap, rework and warranty costs.
- Analyse bottlenecks, utilisation, overtime, subcontracting and throughput. Quantify options and support changes that improve total business profit and delivery performance.
- Run regular job ma

📌 Manufacturing Financial Controller (Warwick)
🏢 OX Trailers
📍 Warwick