Cost Accountant

Location: St. Louis, Missouri
Employment Type: Full-time, Exempt
Salary Range: $85,000–$100,000 annually, based on qualifications and experience
Reports To: Chief Financial Officer

Turn financial data into meaningful business decisions.

Kennelwood Pet Resorts is seeking a Cost Accountant who can look beyond the numbers and explain what is driving business performance. This newly created position will help Kennelwood translate company-wide financial information into detailed reporting by resort, department, and service line.

Working closely with the Chief Financial Officer, external accounting partner RubinBrown, and Kennelwood’s Directors of Resort Performance, the Cost Accountant will develop cost-allocation methodologies, analyze revenue and operating expenses, evaluate service-line profitability, and provide actionable financial guidance to operational and executive leadership.

This is an excellent opportunity for an experienced accountant who enjoys building processes, solving complex problems, partnering with business leaders, and influencing decisions. As Kennelwood continues to expand its internal accounting capabilities, this position offers potential progression toward an Assistant Controller role.

WHAT YOU WILL DO

Cost Accounting and Financial Analysis

• Collect, validate, and analyze financial and operational data to determine costs by resort, department, and service line.
• Develop and maintain methodologies for allocating shared expenses across Kennelwood locations and lines of business.
• Analyze labor, supplies, occupancy, administrative support, and other direct and indirect operating costs.
• Perform cost-volume-profit, contribution-margin, break-even, and scenario analyses.
• Evaluate actual performance against budgets, forecasts, historical results, and operating targets.
• Identify the factors driving revenue, expenses, utilization, and profitability.
• Evaluate the financial impact and potential profitability of new services, programs, locations, and business opportunities.

Financial Reporting and Accounting Support

• Translate company-level financial information into meaningful reporting by resort, department, and service line.
• Prepare recurring financial reports, dashboards, reconciliations, journal entries, allocations, accruals, and supporting schedules.
• Review invoices, payroll reports, general-ledger information, revenue data, and other source records used in financial analysis.
• Identify incomplete or inconsistent financial information, research discrepancies, and coordinate necessary corrections.
• Support monthly, quarterly, and annual close processes, audit preparation, capital-expenditure tracking, and other accounting activities.
• Maintain clear documentation supporting cost allocations, financial analyses, reconciliations, and reporting methodologies.

Operational Business Partnership

• Partner with the Directors of Resort Performance and other operational leaders to review financial results and understand the business factors affecting      each resort.
• Advise leadership regarding labor costs, staffing efficiency, operating expenses, pricing, capacity, utilization, and service-line profitability.
• Investigate significant financial variances, identify root causes, and recommend corrective action.
• Recommend process, policy, reporting, and operational improvements that reduce costs, strengthen controls, and improve profitability.
• Support budgeting and forecasting by developing cost assumptions and preparing location- and service-line projections.
• Present financial findings, risks, opportunities, and recommendations to the CFO and other leaders in a clear, practical, and actionable manner.
• Develop tools and explanations that help non-financial leaders understand results and make informed business decisions.

BENEFITS

Kennelwood offers a comprehensive benefits package designed to support employees’ health, financial well-being, and work-life balance. Benefits available to eligible employees include:

• Comprehensive health and welfare benefits
• 401(k) retirement savings plan
• Paid time off
• Company-paid holidays
• Employee discounts on Kennelwood products and services
• Career-growth opportunities

Benefit eligibility, coverage, and plan provisions are governed by the applicable plan documents and company policies.

WHY JOIN KENNELWOOD?

This is a newly created position with the opportunity to make an immediate and visible impact. The successful candidate will help build the financial reporting and cost-accounting structure Kennelwood needs to better understand profitability, strengthen decision-making, and support future growth.

The position also offers exposure to executive and operational leadership and the potential to assume broader responsibilities associated with an Assistant Controller role as Kennelwood’s internal accounting needs evolve. Advancement will be based on organizational need, demonstrated performance, and readiness for expanded responsibility.

The Cost Accountant will work primarily in a professional office environment and periodically travel to Kennelwood resort locations to meet with operational leaders, observe business processes, and support financial analysis. Additional availability may be required during month-end, year-end, budgeting, audit, and other critical reporting periods.

Kennelwood Pet Resorts is an equal opportunity employer. Employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status, or any other status protected by applicable law. Reasonable accommodations are available to qualified individuals with disabilities throughout the application and employment process.

WHAT YOU WILL BRING

• Bachelor’s degree in accounting, finance, or a closely related field.
• Three or more years of progressively responsible experience in cost accounting, general accounting, financial planning and analysis, operational finance,  or a related area.
• Experience preparing account reconciliations, journal entries, supporting schedules, variance analyses, and financial models.
• Strong knowledge of cost accounting, general accounting, and financial-reporting principles.
• Advanced Microsoft Excel skills, including formulas, pivot tables, data validation, financial modeling, and analysis of large data sets.
• Demonstrated ability to identify financial and operational trends and translate findings into practical business recommendations.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to explain financial information to leaders without accounting backgrounds.
• Excellent judgment, intellectual curiosity, problem-solving ability, organization, accuracy, and attention to detail.
• Ability to work effectively with executive leadership, operational leaders, employees, and external accounting partners.
• Ability to maintain confidentiality when handling sensitive financial, payroll, vendor, employee, and business information.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Experience in a multi-location, service, hospitality, retail, healthcare, or other operationally complex organization.
• Experience partnering directly with operational leaders and presenting financial findings to management.
• CPA, CMA, or progress toward a relevant professional certification.
• Experience improving accounting processes, internal controls, or financial-reporting practices.