Cost Accounting Leadership
· Lead and manage the cost accounting function for manufacturing operations, ensuring accurate and timely reporting of inventory and product costs.
· Provide day-to-day guidance, coaching, and review support to cost accounting team members.
· Support the annual standard cost roll process, including planning, validation, coordination, review, and post-roll analysis.
· Oversee standard cost maintenance, cost updates, item cost reviews, and product costing exceptions.
· Review cost structures for materials, labor, overhead, routings, bills of material, and related manufacturing cost elements.
· Support new product introductions, engineering changes, sourcing changes, and manufacturing changes through financial and cost impact analysis.
· Ensure product costing activities are aligned with company policy, and financial reporting requirements.
Manufacturing Variance and Cost Analysis
· Analyze and explain manufacturing performance, including material usage, labor, overhead, purchase price variance, and work order variance.
· Identify trends, risks, opportunities, and root causes of cost variances and provide actionable recommendations to management.
· Analyze the standard margin and gross margin performance across product lines to explain variances versus forecast.
· Partner with cross-functional stakeholders to drive cost visibility, accountability, and corrective action.
Financial Close, Controls, and Compliance
· Support month-end, quarter-end, and year-end close activities related to cost accounting and inventory.
· Review and approve journal entries, reclassifications, inventory reconciliations, and supporting schedules.
· Ensure cost accounting and inventory accounting activities comply with company policies and accounting standards.
· Support internal and external audit requests related to inventory, costing, standard costs, and manufacturing variances.
· Identify control gaps, recommend corrective actions, and support implementation of sustainable process improvements.