Uriel Ávila

About Uriel Ávila

Manufacturing finance is the work of making the factory legible—to leadership, to FP & A, and to the people making decisions every day. I’ve built my career doing that in aerospace: turning production activity, engineering spend, inventory movement, and cost behavior into numbers the business can trust.My path has been a blend of finance leadership and systems execution. At Rocket Lab, I work as an ERP Business Analyst, supporting the finance team as manufacturing and R&D costs flow through Infor LN and into the income statement and FP & A structures. I spend a lot of time on the “why” behind the numbers—how manufacturing transactions were created on the floor, what cost buckets they hit, and what needs to change upstream so finance isn’t cleaning it up downstream.Before Rocket Lab, I developed manufacturing discernment at Crane Aerospace in roles that forced discipline: Credit & Collections Manager, then Financial Analyst. The thread that shaped me most, though, was being a certified Transactional Kaizen facilitator under Crane Business System. I facilitated continuous improvement while carrying my day job in finance—running Kaizen events that reduced cycle time, tightened handoffs, and removed friction between operations and the finance outcomes everyone cares about: cash, inventory integrity, and predictable execution. That experience still drives how I lead: see the work, map the flow, measure the constraint, standardize what works, and build a cadence that holds.I’m at my best when I’m bridging the plant and the P&L—keeping cost signals clean, strengthening controls without slowing production, and making margin drivers visible enough that operations can act on them.Where I focus:* ERP + finance execution: Infor LN process design, data integrity, close readiness, controls that stick* Cost and inventory signal quality: cost flows, inventory/WIP valuation, PPV and variance drivers, margin clarity* Continuous improvement leadership: Kaizen facilitation, cycle time, and WIP reduction, cross-functional alignment* Finance partnership to operations: turning floor reality into decision-ready reporting for FP & A and leadership

Experience

1. Sr ERP Business Analyst Supporting Finance

   Rocket Lab

   Jan 2024 — Present · US

   In my role as an ERP Business Analyst in Finance Systems, I work in Infor LN every day to make sure manufacturing and R&D activity turns into clean, reliable financial data. I’m the bridge between how costs are created on the floor and how they show up in the P&L and FP & A reports—so the finance team isn’t guessing at month-end, and leadership can trust the margin and inventory signals.* I lead the conversion of Sinclair Manufacturing from Moving Average Unit Cost to a Fixed Transfer Price structure, improving inventory valuation accuracy and strengthening costing governance.* I standardize Fixed Transfer Price costing for Sinclair and PSC, enabling consistent PPV visibility on purchase and production orders and improving product cost transparency.* I partner with Manufacturing, Finance, and BI to deliver Power BI reporting for in-transit inter-warehouse transfers, improving visibility into inventory flow and operational cost control.* I translate manufacturing and engineering activities into finance-ready cost flows—clarifying how transactions hit inventory, WIP, and expense —and tighten upstream behavior so month-end isn’t a cleanup exercise.* I drive alignment across Finance, FP & A, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, and BI on costing and reporting logic, ensuring definitions are consistent and inputs are clean.* I strengthen close readiness by improving process discipline around inventory movement and inter-site transfers, reducing reconciliation noise, and increasing confidence in valuation.

Education

• California State University, Los Angeles

  Master of Science - MS, Information Systems

• California State University, Los Angeles - College of Business and Economics

  Minor Economics

  2013

• California State University, Los Angeles - College of Business and Economics

  BS Computer Information Systems, Information Systems

  2013

• Woodbury University

  MBA, Finance and Information Technology

  2014 — 2016

Skills

• Kaizen
• Program Management
• Accounts Receivable
• Process Improvement
• Six Sigma
• Customer Service
• Negotiation
• Sql
• Auditing
• Lean Manufacturing
• Sarbanes-Oxley Act
• Management
• Team Building
• Analysis
• Microsoft Excel
• Continuous Improvement
• Cash Flow
• Crm
• Php
• Access
• Account Reconciliation
• Erp
• Business Process Improvement
• Cross-Functional Team Leadership
• Finance
• Avionics
• Leadership
• Business Process
• Project Planning
• Software Documentation
• Root Cause Analysis
• Aerospace
• Training
• Accounting
• Vendor Management
• Sap