Senior Financial Analyst – Refinery at Astron Energy (Pty) Ltd.

Job Description

• The Senior Financial Analyst – Refinery is a key member of the Refinery Finance Team with responsibilities for the preparation of the annual budgeting, monthly forecasting, and monthly reporting of refinery’s business performance. The incumbent is also responsible for monthly financial analysis of refinery’s gross margin, performing in-depth price and volume variance analysis of actuals vs budget/forecast. This role requires close collaboration with the refinery’s gross margin planner in Business Excellence who prepares the gross margin budget/forecast. The incumbent supports special projects as they arise, performs deep-dive analysis into various focus areas, leads continuous improvement initiatives obo Finance, provides training / guidance on finance matters to the various refinery departments and is the back-up for the Refinery Finance Manager. The position interacts will all levels of staff at the Refinery and needs to be able to build collaborative relationships quickly, influence outcomes and drive for results.
• Financial Perspective
• Gross Margin Analysis
• Prepares monthly Gross Margin analysis of refinery production income vs business plan and reforecast expectations, including price and volume variance analysis with related commentaries.
• Ensures accuracy of refinery transfer pricing entries in SAP through comparison to gross margin calculations
• Collates Availability and Utilisation and other KPIs from Commercial department for inclusion in monthly reporting and validates explanations provided for reasonability.
• Responsible for ensuring accuracy of gross margin reporting in SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC) system.
• Coordinates the annual business plan and monthly reforecasting of refinery’s gross margin. Works side by side with refinery’s gross margin planner to ensure deadlines are met and validates the inputs received from the gross margin planner to ensure accuracy.
• When required, acts as interface between Oils Accounting and Refinery Commercial departments during month-end, assisting in resolving discrepancies on product yields and driving month-end to a close.

Financial and Management Reporting:

• Prepares all required monthly, quarterly, and annual financial reports and variance analysis of actual results vs business plan/forecast for the refinery for submission to the FP&A
• Collates, validates, and reports on various refinery Key Performance Indicators monthly.
• Business Planning, Forecasting and Performance Reporting: 
• Coordinates, consolidates, and prepares the presentation deck supporting the annual business plan for the refinery business unit.  Ensure the business plan is reasonable by conducting analysis and facilitating discussions with department heads and challenging their proposed business plans. 
• Coordinates, consolidates, and prepares the presentation deck supporting the monthly reforecast for the refinery business unit. 
• Responsible for the submission of the annual business plan/monthly forecast into SAP Analytics Cloud system and validation of accuracy of final product. 
• Attends monthly Business Teams’ performance meetings as Finance representative responsible for explaining gross margin and fuel cost KPIs. The role also supports Opex analysts in the team in answering queries from business and driving cost control/Opex management at the refinery.
• Prepares deck on monthly business performance and leads presentation thereof to the Refinery Leadership Team (RLT) at monthly business performance governance meeting.

CAPEX reporting 

• Reviews capex reporting prepared by the Refinery Capex planner for reasonability and supports Refinery Capex planner with guidance to ensure that reporting requirements to stakeholders are met.
• Customer Perspective
• Supports the reporting requirements to shareholders, EXCO, RLT and other refinery stakeholders.
• Leads the finance presentation at the monthly business performance governance meeting. 
• Represents Finance in the Extended Leadership Team at Refinery
• Will be sought out to support Refinery initiatives and priorities from a financial perspective from time to time.
• Internal Processes
• Special Projects
• Participate in special projects as directed by Refinery Finance Manager.  Projects may require economic/decision analysis, guidance on accounting policy, and internal control assessments and guidance. Projects are generally focused on continuous improvement initiatives.
• Month-end Coordination:
• Prepare, distribute, and coordinate/manage the refinery’s monthly reporting schedule to ensure all deadlines are met

Ad-hoc queries:

• Support the business in resolution of complex vendor/payment queries and act as interface between refinery business unit and Procurement and Accounts Payable departments.
• Assist the business with SAP data requests.
• Support the Refinery Finance Manager with resolving queries from CoCT, ESKOM, TNPA and other bills that are sent directly to Refinery Finance team.
• Support the Refinery Finance Manager in providing oversight over the Refinery Warehouse’s adherence to internal controls for warehouse inventory, ensuring compliance is achieved with UKCR and AE’s accounting policy.

People Management

• As senior member of the refinery finance team this role is expected to guide, coach, and support the analysts in the team and assist them with the resolution of any complex queries. 
• Actively influence the Refinery Leadership Team (RLT) and Extended Leadership Team (ELT) at the refinery on finance-related initiatives and objectives.
• Stand-in for the Refinery Finance Manager as and when required. May be required to review manual journals and account reconciliations of opex analysts on ad-hoc basis.
• Minimum Qualifications and Experience required
• Fully qualified CA (SA) or CIMA
• Minimum of 3 years’ post qualification accounting experience essential. Preference will be given to candidates with 5+ years  
• External auditing experience strongly preferred
• Oil and gas industry or similar manufacturing experience strongly preferred
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
• Strong interpersonal and presentation skills
• Ability to take initiative and grow with the business

Application deadline:

• 05 November 2025