Sensient Technologies — a leading global manufacturer of colors, flavors, and fragrances — is hiring a Financial Analyst (Agriculture) at its Agricultural Ingredients unit in Livingston, California. The role partners closely with field, operations, and accounting teams to analyse financial performance, monitor planting/growing/harvest operational metrics, develop reporting and dashboards, support budgeting and forecasting, assist with capital project reviews, and contribute to monthly, quarterly, and annual financial close. Salary: $95,000–$110,000. 3+ years of agricultural cost accounting or grower accounting experience preferred.
About Sensient Agricultural Ingredients — Livingston, California
Parent Company: Sensient Technologies Corporation — a leading global manufacturer and marketer of colors, flavors, and fragrances headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Agricultural Division: Sensient Agricultural Ingredients — one of the world’s largest producers and distributors of dehydrated onion, garlic, chili powder, paprika, chili pepper, and dehydrated vegetables including parsley, celery, and spinach
End Markets: Ingredients used in today’s most popular convenience foods — with customers including major international food manufacturers representing the world’s most recognised brands
Location: Turlock/Livingston, California — the heart of California’s San Joaquin Valley agricultural and food processing region
Global Reach: Sensient employs advanced technologies at facilities around the world — a growing, expanding global organisation offering career development opportunity
Compensation & Benefits
Salary: $95,000 – $110,000 per year — based on education, experience, specialised training, and labour market conditions
Benefits: Comprehensive and competitive benefits programme supporting holistic wellbeing of employees and families
Career Growth: Work for a growing global company with expanding operations — high visibility, measurable impact role
No Visa Sponsorship: US work authorisation required — visa sponsorship cannot be offered
Relocation: No relocation assistance available — must reside in or be willing to commute to Livingston, CA
Position Overview
This Financial Analyst — Agriculture role at Sensient Agricultural Ingredients in Livingston, California is a highly visible, cross-functional financial analytics and cost accounting position within one of the world’s largest producers of dehydrated onion, garlic, and vegetable ingredients. You will partner closely with field operations, production, and accounting teams to analyse financial performance across the full agricultural operations cycle — monitoring key metrics related to onion planting, growing, and harvesting, preparing and presenting KPI and spending summaries to leadership, participating in budget development and forecasting, supporting capital project reviews, assisting with journal entries and raw material cost reviews, and contributing to monthly, quarterly, and annual financial reporting. The role requires 3+ years of cost accounting experience in agricultural or field-based operations, advanced Excel proficiency, and experience with BI platforms such as Cognos. ExtendAg familiarity is a valued plus.
Why This Role Matters: As Financial Analyst Agriculture at Sensient Technologies in Livingston, California — earning $95,000–$110,000 per year in a highly visible, cross-functional role — you will provide the financial intelligence that drives operational improvement decisions across one of the world’s most important dehydrated onion and garlic ingredient production operations, work at the genuinely interesting intersection of agricultural field operations and corporate financial analytics — translating planting, growing, and harvest data into actionable financial insights, contribute directly to budget development, capital project analysis, and monthly financial close for a global food ingredients company whose products reach consumers through some of the world’s most recognisable food brands, and build a specialised and highly marketable financial analyst career in California’s dynamic agricultural food processing industry.
Key Responsibilities
Financial Performance Analysis & Cross-Functional Partnership
- Collaborate actively with field operations, production, and accounting teams to analyse financial performance across Sensient Agricultural Ingredients’ California operations — building the cross-functional relationships and shared data understanding that enable financial analysis to be practically grounded in the realities of agricultural field operations
- Monitor key operational metrics related to onion planting, growing, and harvesting — tracking cost per acre, yield per acre, raw material cost movements, field labour costs, water and input costs, and other critical agricultural performance indicators that drive the overall financial performance of the dehydrated ingredient production cycle
- Identify and investigate financial performance variances — understanding why actual results deviate from plan, what operational factors are driving cost movements, and what management actions could improve financial performance across planting, growing, harvesting, and processing activities
- Drive financial transparency and performance improvement — bringing clarity to financial data that was previously less visible or less analysed, and helping field and operations teams understand the financial implications of their operational decisions in a way that enables better, more cost-aware management choices
KPI Reporting, Spending Summaries & Leadership Presentations
- Prepare and present key performance indicator summaries and operational spending analyses to leadership — communicating financial performance data clearly, concisely, and in the business context that makes it actionable for the leadership audience reviewing it
- Develop structured KPI reporting packages that provide leadership with consistent, timely, and comparable visibility of agricultural operations financial performance across planting seasons, growing cycles, and harvest periods — enabling trend analysis and year-over-year performance assessment
- Create and maintain management reporting templates and presentations — ensuring that financial information reaches leadership in a consistently formatted, professionally presented, and analytically credible form that supports effective decision-making at the senior management level
- Contribute to further analyses of current agricultural and market developments — providing financial analysis that supports management’s understanding of how external factors such as commodity prices, water availability, input cost inflation, and crop yield variability are impacting operational and financial performance
Budgeting, Forecasting & Financial Reporting
- Participate in the annual budget development process for agricultural operations — working with field operations and accounting teams to build financially sound, operationally grounded budgets that accurately reflect the cost structure and performance expectations of each planting season and production cycle
- Support financial forecasting — updating forecasts during the operating year to reflect actual performance-to-date, changing operational conditions, and revised management expectations for the remainder of the year, ensuring the forecast remains a reliable financial planning tool
- Contribute to monthly, quarterly, and annual financial reporting cycles — supporting timely and accurate financial close activities, including journal entries, accruals, account reconciliations, and variance commentary that ensure the agricultural ingredients business unit’s financial statements are complete, accurate, and clearly explained
- Support ad-hoc financial reporting projects as requested by finance leadership, corporate teams, or operational managers — providing responsive, well-reasoned financial analysis on specific business questions, strategic decisions, or operational challenges that arise throughout the operating year
Capital Project Support & Raw Material Cost Analysis
- Support capital project reviews for Sensient Agricultural Ingredients’ California operations — coordinating capital expenditure requests and investment analysis with corporate finance teams, preparing return on investment calculations, and providing financial analysis that supports informed capital allocation decisions
- Assist with raw material cost reviews — tracking the cost of onion, garlic, chili, and other raw agricultural inputs across growing seasons, supplier sources, and purchase contracts, and providing financial analysis that supports procurement and operations teams in managing raw material cost risk
- Assist with general accounting tasks as required — including journal entry preparation, month-end accrual calculations, account balance reviews, and other routine accounting activities that contribute to the accuracy and completeness of the financial close process for the agricultural ingredients business unit
BI Tools, Advanced Excel & Data Analytics
- Leverage advanced Microsoft Excel capabilities for financial modelling, data analysis, cost accounting calculations, variance analysis, and management reporting — building well-structured, clearly documented spreadsheet models that can be efficiently updated and maintained across reporting periods and used reliably by multiple finance team members
- Apply experience with Business Intelligence platforms — specifically Cognos or comparable BI tools — to build, maintain, and enhance financial dashboards and automated reporting that improve the timeliness, accuracy, and accessibility of agricultural financial performance data for field, operations, and finance stakeholders
- Develop proficiency with ExtendAg or demonstrate existing familiarity — this agricultural operations management platform is a valued plus for candidates applying to this role, given its relevance to managing planting, growing, and harvest data in the context of agricultural cost accounting and financial analysis
- Think critically and solve problems independently — applying financial and operational data analysis skills to identify root causes of performance variances, test hypotheses about operational drivers, and develop well-supported conclusions and recommendations without requiring constant direction or oversight
Qualifications & What You Bring
Education
- Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, Business Administration, Agricultural Economics, or a closely related field from a recognised accredited university — a relevant degree qualification is required for this Financial Analyst — Agriculture role
- CPA (Certified Public Accountant) or CMA (Certified Management Accountant) qualification is an advantage — demonstrating professional accounting certification that complements the cost accounting and financial reporting requirements of this position
Experience Requirements
- 3+ years of cost accounting experience in field operations, grower accounting, agricultural supply chain, or comparable agricultural business operations — with a practical understanding of the economics of seed, planting, growing, harvesting, and processing cycles in a California or comparable agricultural production context
- 3+ years of financial data analysis and reporting experience — with a demonstrated ability to work with large, complex financial and operational datasets, identify meaningful trends and patterns, and present findings clearly and credibly to both finance and non-finance audiences
- Advanced Microsoft Excel proficiency — required for financial modelling, cost accounting analysis, budget development, and management reporting tasks that form a substantial portion of this role’s daily and periodic deliverables
- Experience with BI platforms such as IBM Cognos, Tableau, Power BI, or comparable business analytics tools — used for financial dashboard development, automated reporting, and data extraction in a corporate finance or agricultural operations finance environment; ExtendAg familiarity is a meaningful additional advantage
About Sensient Technologies & the Livingston, CA Opportunity
Sensient Technologies Corporation is one of the world’s most recognised and respected specialty ingredient companies — headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with operations across the globe that develop and manufacture specialty food and beverage systems, cosmetic and pharmaceutical products, inkjet inks, and specialty chemicals. The Agricultural Ingredients business unit — based in Turlock and Livingston, California — is one of the world’s largest producers and distributors of dehydrated onion and garlic products, as well as chili powder, paprika, chili pepper, parsley, celery, spinach, and other dehydrated vegetables that are ingredients in countless popular convenience food products consumed around the world every day.
California’s San Joaquin Valley — where Sensient’s agricultural operations are centred — is one of the most agriculturally productive and commercially significant regions in the United States, producing a substantial share of America’s fresh and processed vegetable crops and home to a sophisticated food processing industry that combines traditional agricultural heritage with modern food science and operations management. For financial analysts with agricultural cost accounting backgrounds and BI tool expertise, this role at Sensient offers a genuinely distinctive combination of operational complexity, global company exposure, and a $95K–$110K salary range that reflects the value of this specialised expertise.
Career Excellence: Join Sensient Technologies as Financial Analyst Agriculture in Livingston, California — where your agricultural cost accounting expertise, BI tool proficiency, and financial analysis capability will drive measurable performance improvement across one of the world’s most important dehydrated onion and garlic ingredient production operations and advance your career at a growing global specialty ingredients company whose products touch the lives of food consumers around the world.
Who Should Apply?
- Agricultural Cost Accountants: With 3+ years of grower accounting, field operations cost accounting, or agricultural supply chain finance experience in California or comparable US agricultural markets — ready for a highly visible Financial Analyst role at a global food ingredients company in Livingston, CA
- Food Manufacturing Financial Analysts: With cost accounting and financial reporting experience in the food processing, ingredient manufacturing, or agricultural commodities sectors — bringing understanding of raw material cost analysis, production variance analysis, and capital project support
- BI-Proficient Finance Professionals: With Cognos, Power BI, Tableau, or comparable BI tool experience and advanced Excel capability — ready to build and maintain financial dashboards, KPI reports, and management analytics for a California agricultural operations finance function
- Agricultural Economics or Finance Graduates: With 3+ years of relevant experience in agricultural finance, field operations accounting, or grower analytics — and a strong interest in the intersection of California agriculture, food ingredient production, and financial performance management
- California-Based Finance Professionals: Currently residing in or willing to commute to the Livingston/Turlock area of the San Joaquin Valley — authorised to work in the USA without visa sponsorship — ready to join one of the world’s leading dehydrated vegetable and spice ingredient producers as a strategic financial analytics partner
Recently opened JOBS 👇🏻
Agriculture Sales Manager Jobs USA 2026
Agriculture Specialist Jobs United States 2026
Agriculture Relationship Manager Jobs Marshall MN 2026
