Cost Accountant(Manufacturing)

About the role

Our client is a growing organization focused on innovation, operational excellence, and delivering high-quality solutions across specialized industries. With a collaborative and team-oriented environment, the company values accountability, continuous improvement, and professional development.

Why join us? Collaborative team culture with strong leadership support; opportunity to make a direct impact on financial operations and process improvements; stable, growth-focused organization with long-term career potential; exposure to cross‑functional projects in a fast‑paced environment.

Responsibilities

• Senior Cost Accountant & Financial Analyst is responsible for cost accounting, inventory accounting, management reporting, profitability analysis, and budgeting support activities.
• Serves as a key business partner to manufacturing operations by providing accurate product costing, variance analysis, operational reporting, and financial insights that support effective decision‑making.
• Works closely with senior finance leadership to support annual budgeting, periodic forecasting, monthly management reporting, and operational financial analysis.
• Cost Accounting & Inventory Management
  • Maintain standard costs for manufactured products and support periodic cost updates and cost rolls.
  • Review bills of material (BOMs), routings, labor standards, and overhead allocation methodologies for accuracy and reasonableness.
  • Analyze and explain material price, material usage, labor rate, labor efficiency, overhead spending, and overhead absorption variances.
  • Monitor inventory valuation and support compliance with U.S. GAAP.
  • Assist with evaluating and documenting reserves for excess, obsolete, and slow‑moving inventory.
  • Reconcile inventory subsidiary records to the general ledger.
  • Prepare month‑end journal entries and account reconciliations related to inventory and cost of goods sold.
  • Support annual physical inventories and ongoing cycle count programs.
  • Prepare inventory and cost accounting documentation requested by external auditors.
• Financial Analysis & Reporting
  • Prepare and maintain components of the monthly management reporting package.
  • Perform budget‑to‑actual, forecast‑to‑actual, and prior‑year variance analysis.
  • Analyze sales, gross margin, customer, product line, and manufacturing performance.
  • Develop and maintain financial and operational key performance indicators (KPIs).
  • Prepare recurring and ad hoc reports that identify trends, risks, and opportunities.
  • Communicate financial findings clearly and provide actionable insights to finance and operational leadership.
• Budgeting & Forecasting Support
  • Assist senior finance leadership with annual budgeting and periodic forecasting processes.
  • Gather and validate operational assumptions and supporting information from department leaders.
  • Maintain budget and forecast models, schedules, and supporting documentation.
  • Analyze trends and variances that may affect projected financial performance.
  • Provide supporting analysis for revenue, gross margin, operating expenses, inventory, and capital expenditures.
• Operations Finance & Business Partnership
  • Partner with Operations, Supply Chain, Engineering, and Sales to improve cost visibility and operational performance.
  • Analyze labor utilization, production efficiency, machine utilization, scrap, and manufacturing throughput.
  • Provide cost and margin analysis to support pricing and customer profitability reviews.
  • Identify opportunities for cost reduction, process improvement, inventory optimization, and margin enhancement.
  • Provide ad hoc financial analysis and decision support to senior finance leadership.
• Systems & Process Improvement
  • Maintain costing structures and related financial reporting within the ERP system.
  • Support ERP and reporting improvements related to manufacturing finance, inventory, and costing.
  • Develop and improve reports, dashboards, and data analysis tools.
  • Assist in strengthening internal controls related to inventory, costing, and financial reporting.
  • Document and maintain applicable finance and accounting procedures.

Requirements

• Education: Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, or a related field required. CPA, CMA, or MBA preferred but not required.
• Experience: 3‑5 years of progressive accounting or finance experience; minimum of 2 years of manufacturing cost accounting experience; experience with standard costing, inventory accounting, and manufacturing variance analysis; experience supporting budgeting, forecasting, or monthly management reporting preferred; experience