Nichols Farms is one of the top processors of pistachios in the United States. For more than two decades, Nichols Farms has maintained superior quality and exceptional service in supplying pistachio and almond products to major retail and wholesale clients domestically and internationally. Nichols Farms maintains a state-of-the-art processing facility at their corporate headquarters in Hanford, California, employing over four hundred employees. Join the Nichols Farms Team in their objective of continued growth. Nichols Farms possesses a strong employee-oriented environment dedicated to training and growth of team members.
The Nichols Farms Mission and Vision supports a culture of striving for mutual success of our employees, suppliers and customers through operational excellence and educational development.
POSITION SUMMARY:
The Director of Finance & Accounting is responsible for driving efficient and accurate finance and accounting processes, systems, and policies; ensuring procedures comply with U.S. GAAP, and expected to own and continually improve our accounting processes, including review and reconciliation of balance sheet accounts (inventory, fixed assets, cash, etc.), production and cost accounting, and management of depreciation and amortization. The ideal candidate will be an integral leader within the Nichols Pistachio team, expected to provide financial and accounting leadership, communicate effectively with senior management, and mentor and develop the Finance & Accounting team members. This role is also responsible for financial planning, reporting, forecasting, and strategic projects. A qualified candidate will be expected to conduct financial analyses to identify and understand business drivers, then communicate insights and recommendations to senior management.
ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Direct daily operations of the finance & accounting departments and overall development of the team.
• Review all month-end close activities including general ledger maintenance, balance sheet reconciliations, cost allocations, and financial statements.
• Partner with cost center owners to ensure transaction accounting provides data necessary to monitor and analyze monthly operating results, and to explain variances against budget in actionable terms.
• Lead reconciliation of GAAP to Management financials.
• Utilize Sage X3 financial systems and Tableau to develop, test, and implement value-added reporting tools, ensure proper controls are in place, and identify and implement system enhancements, with a goal of enabling our people to eliminate waste, better utilize talent and skills, and reduce time spent on manual processes.
• Drive key performance indicators and ongoing process improvement opportunities throughout the organization.
• Advance team's technical capabilities and business acumen while modeling Nichols Farms' values.
• Efficiently compile, organize, and analyze complex financial information and raw data; interpret data to explain past financial performance and project future results.
• Understand and articulate department-level financials with variance analysis and explanations, department-level forecasting and budgeting, and assessment of key business metrics and drivers.
• Efficiently compile, organize, and analyze complex financial information and raw data; interpret data to explain past financial performance and project future results.
• Understand financial operations of the business and educate others inside and outside the Finance/Accounting group about the financial performance of their respective area.
• Independently manage other responsibilities, including ad-hoc analytical and strategic projects, and any other tasks as required.
• Collaborate with plant-wide budget owners to ensure good financial decision-making, and to understand drivers and trends impacting their budgets.
• Take large quantities of financial data and analytic results and condense them into a coherent story with clear, easy-to-understand conclusions and implications.

JOB COMPETENCIES:

• Leadership: Ability to influence others to perform their jobs effectively and to be responsible for making decisions.
• Adaptability: Ability to adapt to change in the workplace. Capable of functioning in a fast-paced entrepreneurial corporate setting.
• People development: Ability to develop and coach team, and to identify team member opportunities and strengths.
• Detail orientated: Excellent attention to detail and accuracy.
• Interpersonal: Ability to effectively build relationships with co-workers and external customers
• Communication: Excellent verbal and written skills
• Prioritization: Ability to quickly prioritize among numerous pressing tasks and manage multiple priorities and deadlines.
• Initiative: Ability to perform in a fast-paced ever-changing work environment
• Goal orientation: Attention to establishing and achieving goals and objectives for self and team on a continuous basis.
• Motivation: Ability to be self-motivated and independently driven. Ability to lead and encourage team by inspiring and guiding toward goal achievement.
• Team involvement: Works effectively with teams and work groups. Actively participates in problem solving and interacts with team and work groups to achieve team and organizational goals.
• Continuous improvement: Active participant in continuous improvement initiatives and goals. Seeks opportunities to improve self and processes.

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE:

• Bachelor's degree in finance, Accounting, Business Administration, Economics, Statistics, or related field.
• Possess 10+ years of senior-level technical finance, FP&A, and/or accounting and leadership experience.
• Proven strong working knowledge of manufacturing cost accounting and associated GAAP matters; experience in Agriculture, Food Manufacturing, or CPG is a plus.
• Deep understanding of automated financial and accounting reporting systems.
• Excellent accounting background and knowledge of accounting and finance compliance, month end closing, general ledger, chart of account design, budgeting, forecasting and financial analysis.
• Highly skilled in analyzing financial data and preparing financial reports, statements, and projections within required deadlines, as well as in developing systematic and scalable solutions to support deliverables.
• Robust and meticulous analytics and systematic thinking, with a keen eye for continuous improvement in processes and deliverables.
• Outstanding verbal and written communication, executive presentation, organizational, and teamwork skills.

PHYSICAL DEMANDS AND WORK ENVIRONMENT
The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to sit, walk, stand for periods of time at workstation, climb stairs at high heights. Ability to work and reach with hands and arms. The employee must frequently lift and/or move up to ten pounds and occasionally lift and/or move up to fifty pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision and depth perception. Ability to wear personal protective equipment (PPE) as designated by the company. Primary work environment will be in an office setting. Some work includes being inside the plant manufacturing environment which may include high levels of noise, working outside where the environment includes exposure to hot, cold, and inclement weather.
To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. Reasonable Accommodations may be made to enable qualified individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
This job description is intended to provide guidelines for job expectations and the employee's ability to perform the position described. It is not intended to be construed as an exhaustive list of all functions, responsibilities, skills, and abilities. Additional functions and requirements may be assigned by supervisors as deemed appropriate. This document does not represent a contract of employment, and the Company reserves the right to change this job description and/or assign tasks for the employee to perform, as the Company may deem appropriate.
EOE/M/F/D/V