Senior Cost Accountant

Purpose

The Senior Cost Accountant serves as a key member of the Finance team, responsible for ensuring the accuracy, integrity, and strategic analysis of inventory, manufacturing, milk, and co-packing costs across the organization. This role partners closely with Operations, utilization, FP&A, and accounting leadership to deliver actionable financial insights, strengthen internal controls, support decision-making, and drive continuous improvement across costing and inventory processes. The position leverages the ERP system (INFOR M3) and financial analytics within a complex manufacturing environment to support operational efficiency and business performance.

Essential Responsibilities

• Month-End Close: Own the month-end close process for inventory, material movement, product costing, and related balance sheet accounts, ensuring accurate, timely, and compliant financial reporting.
• Consolidation: Prepare data to reflect milk on the consolidated financials, including inventory absorption and profit elimination between entities.
• Costing: Maintain and enhance product standard costs within the ERP system, incorporating seasonal milk trends, ingredient fluctuations, manufacturing changes, and ongoing operational improvements.
• Budgeting: Partner with FP&A and Operations to develop product cost assumptions, budgets, forecasts, and scenario analyses that support strategic business planning.
• External Production: Manage financial accounting and reconciliation activities for external production and co-packing operations, ensuring transactions are accurately recorded and supported by appropriate documentation.
• Inventory Analysis: Perform detailed inventory roll-forward analyses by facility, validating inventory accuracy, production yields, shrink, and cutoff procedures while identifying trends and potential risks.
• Business Partnership: Collaborate cross-functionally with Operations, utilization, Quality, Risk Management and Finance leaders to improve reporting, resolve inventory issues, and enhance cost visibility throughout the organization.
• Purchase Price Variances: Own the monthly Purchase Price Variance (PPV) analysis for plants, packaging, and co-pack/butter operations, proactively identifying cost drivers, investigating material variances, and providing clear explanations of financial impacts and trends.
• Reporting and Automation: Partner with IT/BI to develop and maintain SQL/SSRS and ERP (INFOR M3) reports; and advance automation of the costing and inventory processes.
• General Ledger Maintenance: Ensure the integrity of inventory-related general ledger accounts through timely reconciliations, root-cause analysis of discrepancies, and adherence to internal control requirements.
• ERP Leadership: Serve as a subject matter expert for inventory and costing processes within the ERP environment, supporting troubleshooting, process optimization, product setup, standard cost maintenance, and master data governance.

Other Required Responsibilities

• Perform other duties as assigned by the Manager of Cost Accounting, Controller and CFO.
• Provide assistance to finance management by preparing support schedules used in meeting periodic internal and external reporting requirements.
• Provide supporting documentation for audits as requested.
• Support information requests from other management personnel for responsibility areas.
• Assist with writing and maintaining SOPs to document processes for areas of responsibility.

Skills and Qualifications

• Education: BA/BS in Accounting or Finance, or an equivalent combination of education and experience, CMA certification preferred.
• Technical Skills: Advanced Excel required; experience with SQL/SSRS or other BI/reporting tools and high-volume data reconciliation preferred
• Experience: 5+ years of progressive accounting and cost accounting experience in a manufacturing environment, including inventory accounting, product costing, variance analysis, financial reporting, and ERP systems. Experience within food, beverage, dairy, or consumer packaged goods manufacturing environments preferred.

Physical Requirements

• Ability to sit and focus for extended periods of time in front of a computer screen and/or while utilizing various office equipment (calculators, copy machines, etc.).