Are you ready to move your career forward and help shape our company’s and customers’ futures?
If you aspire to challenge yourself, work with the best in the industry and join a successful team where you can make a meaningful contribution, then we invite you to join us at Ketjen Corporation, a provider of advanced catalyst solutions to leading producers in the petrochemical, refining, and specialty chemicals industries. Together, we can create a legacy marked by innovation, excitement, and energy.
SUMMARY
About Ketjen
Ketjen Corporation is a provider of advanced catalyst solutions to leading producers in the petrochemical, refining, and specialty chemicals industries. Our company is driven by a strong set of core values: curiosity, care, collaboration, humility, accountability, and integrity. These values guide our decisions, shape our culture, and define how we work together to deliver exceptional value to our customers and communities.
About the Role
The Operations Finance Leader leads Ketjen’s enterprise Operations Finance Center of Excellence (COE) and serves as a strategic partner to business and operations teams. This role supports improved manufacturing economics and business performance through analysis and leadership across productivity costs, inventory, capital effectiveness, and operational decision-making. The ideal candidate brings significant manufacturing operations finance experience within the specialty chemicals industry, strong financial judgment, and the ability to translate complex operational data into clear, actionable recommendations.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
Operations Finance Strategy & Leadership
- Lead and develop the enterprise Operations Finance COE, establishing consistent approaches, standards, tools, and performance measures across the organization.
- Partner with business and operations leaders to shape operational strategies and evaluate financial implications, risks, and tradeoffs.
- Provide financial leadership for operations planning, forecasting, performance management, and strategic decision support.
- Drive a data-informed approach to improving manufacturing economics, cost performance, and long-term value creation.
Manufacturing Economics & Cost Performance
- Lead financial analysis of manufacturing economics, including production costs, conversion costs, variances, yields, and other operational drivers.
- Evaluate cost performance and identify opportunities to improve productivity, efficiency, and margin.
- Partner with site and operations teams to understand performance gaps, validate improvement opportunities, and track financial impact.
- Develop and monitor meaningful operational finance metrics that improve transparency, accountability, and decision-making.
Inventory & Working Capital
- Provide financial leadership and analysis related to inventory levels, valuation, reserves, obsolescence, and working capital.
- Partner with Supply Chain, Operations, and business teams to identify opportunities to optimize inventory while supporting customer and production requirements.
- Improve inventory reporting, forecasting, controls, and visibility across the enterprise.
- Evaluate the financial impact of inventory decisions and recommend actions that balance service, risk, and cash performance.
Capital Effectiveness & Decision Support
- Lead financial evaluation of capital investments, including business cases, return analysis, scenario modeling, and post-investment reviews.
- Partner with Operations, Engineering, and business leaders to prioritize capital deployment and improve capital effectiveness.
- Provide financial insights and recommendations for capacity, reliability, productivity, and other operational investments.
- Strengthen governance, reporting, and accountability for capital planning and project financial performance.
QUALIFICATIONS
Required Qualifications
- Minimum 10 years of progressive finance experience, including significant manufacturing operations finance experience in the specialty chemicals industry.
- Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, Business, or a related field; or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
- Demonstrated expertise in manufacturing economics, cost accounting, productivity analysis, inventory, and capital investment evaluation.
- Strong financial modeling, analytical, and problem-solving skills, with the ability to connect operational performance to financial results.
- Proven ability to influence senior leaders and partner effectively across operations, business, engineering, supply chain, and finance functions.
- Ability to communicate complex financial and operational concepts clearly and translate analysis into practical recommendations.
- Strong alignment with Ketjen’s core values: curiosity, care, collaboration, humility, accountability, and integrity.
Preferred Qualifications
- Advanced degree or relevant professional certification, such as an MBA, CPA, or CMA.
- Experience leading an operations finance team, Center of Excellence, or enterprise-wide finance capability.
- Experience supporting multiple manufacturing sites or a global manufacturing network.
- Experience with enterprise financial systems, manufacturing cost systems, business intelligence tools, and operational analytics.
- Demonstrated success improving manufacturing cost performance, inventory efficiency, capital returns, or operations finance processes.
Benefits of Joining Ketjen
Competitive compensation
Comprehensive benefits package
A diverse array of resources to support you professionally and personally.
Apply today and help Ketjen unleash the POTENTIAL of advanced chemistry for industries that power the world.
Skills Required
- Minimum 10 years of progressive finance experience, including significant manufacturing operations finance experience in the specialty chemicals industry
- Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, Business, or a related field, or equivalent education and experience
- Expertise in manufacturing economics, cost accounting, productivity analysis, inventory, and capital investment evaluation
- Strong financial modeling, analytical, and problem-solving skills
- Ability to connect operational performance to financial results
- Ability to influence senior leaders and partner across operations, business, engineering, supply chain, and finance
- Ability to communicate complex financial and operational concepts clearly and provide practical recommendations
- Alignment with company values of curiosity, care, collaboration, humility, accountability, and integrity
- Advanced degree or relevant professional certification such as an MBA, CPA, or CMA
- Experience leading an operations finance team, Center of Excellence, or enterprise-wide finance capability
- Experience supporting multiple manufacturing sites or a global manufacturing network
- Experience with enterprise financial systems, manufacturing cost systems, business intelligence tools, and operational analytics
- Demonstrated success improving manufacturing cost performance, inventory efficiency, capital returns, or operations finance processes
Albemarle Corporation Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Albemarle Corporation and has not been reviewed or approved by Albemarle Corporation.
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Retirement Support — Retirement support is positioned as a standout element of the total rewards package, including a 401(k) with matching contributions and an additional automatic employer contribution with immediate vesting. This structure meaningfully boosts total compensation beyond base pay and is repeatedly emphasized as a differentiator.
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Parental & Family Support — Parental and family support appears robust, including up to 12 weeks of paid parental leave for either parent and financial support for adoption and surrogacy. Family-related programs extend into fertility and broader parenting support, reinforcing the depth of benefits beyond traditional medical coverage.
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Wellbeing & Lifestyle Benefits — Wellbeing and lifestyle benefits include dedicated wellness days, mental-health access with coaching and therapy support for employees and dependents, and a broad Employee Assistance Program. These offerings suggest the rewards package is designed to support health, resilience, and work-life needs alongside pay.
Albemarle Corporation Insights
What We Do
Albemarle Corporation (NYSE: ALB), headquartered in Charlotte, NC, is a global specialty chemicals company with leading positions in lithium, bromine, and refining catalysts. We power the potential of companies in many of the world’s largest and most critical industries, from energy and communications to transportation and electronics. Working with our customers, we develop and customize solutions using the finest technology and ingredients with the knowledge and know-how of our highly experienced and talented team of operators, scientists, and engineers. Discovering and implementing new and better performance-based sustainable solutions motivates all of us. We think beyond business-as-usual to drive innovations that create lasting value. Realize your POTENTIAL with Albemarle. At Albemarle, we believe that our people make us successful. It’s that simple. We embrace the diversity of experience, talent, and thought. We work hard to create an inclusive work environment that empowers you to openly and honestly communicate, create and innovate. Your career will reach an international reach from the United States to Australia. Your decision to join our team will be rewarded with a positive, team-oriented workplace that inspires personal and professional growth. We will make every effort to support your career goals and create opportunities for you to realize your full potential. This is our culture. This is our commitment. AS PART OF OUR GLOBAL TEAM, YOU’LL EXPERIENCE: • Competitive compensation and benefits • Hands-on technical experience • Job variety and career flexibility • Collaboration with seasoned employees at every level • A proven record of innovation • Company-wide focus on economic and environmental sustainability • Deep commitment to our communities, education and social development • Concern and compassion for fellow employees • Among the best safety records in the industry The bottom line: no matter where you apply your talent and training, Albemarle
