Cost Accounting Manager

Salary: 131K - 146K

Location - Vista, CA

POSITION SUMMARY

The Cost Accounting Manager is an experienced cost accounting leader responsible for building and leading the cost accounting function within Operations Finance, including standard costing, inventory valuation, manufacturing variance analysis, multi-plant inventory reconciliation, and margin reporting in SAP S/4HANA. This role partners closely with Manufacturing, Procurement, Supply Chain, and Warehouse teams across multiple manufacturing plants to ensure product costs are accurately captured and reported, and plays a key role in strengthening cost accounting processes and controls as the Operations Finance function scales.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

Reasonable Accommodations Statement

To accomplish this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform, with or without reasonable accommodation, each essential function satisfactorily. Reasonable accommodations may be made to help enable qualified individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Essential Function Statements

Standard Costing & Inventory Valuation

• Maintain and update standard costs for raw materials, packaging, and finished goods in SAP S/4HANA, ensuring costs reflect current bills of materials (BOMs) and routings across all manufacturing plants.
• Oversee annual and periodic standard cost rolls in SAP S/4HANA, including labor and overhead rate development.
• Ensure inventory is properly valued in SAP S/4HANA and reconciled to the general ledger across all manufacturing plants and distribution locations, including raw materials, WIP, and finished goods.
• Review and approve journal entries related to inventory, cost of goods sold, and manufacturing overhead absorption.

Variance Analysis & Reporting

• Analyze and report monthly manufacturing variances — purchase price variance (PPV), material usage/yield variance, labor efficiency variance, and overhead absorption variance — by plant and product line.
• Partner with plant and manufacturing leadership to identify root causes of variances and drive corrective action plans.
• Stand up and own the slow-moving and obsolete (SLOB) inventory reserve process, including monitoring scrap and obsolescence, ensuring reserve calculations are timely and well-supported, and driving timely write-off of inventory no longer usable through the Material Review Board (MRB) process.
• Prepare product margin and cost analysis to support pricing decisions, new product introductions, and manufacturing/operational decision-making.
• Develop and maintain variance reporting analyses in SAP S/4HANA and BI tools to give plant and executive leadership visibility into cost performance trends.

Month-End Close & Internal Controls

• Lead month-end close activities related to inventory and cost accounting across all manufacturing plants, ensuring accuracy and timeliness.
• Maintain and strengthen internal controls over inventory valuation, cost accounting, and physical inventory processes.
• Coordinate and support physical inventory counts and cycle counts across all plants, including reconciliation of count results to perpetual inventory and the general ledger.
• Ensure compliance with GAAP, company policy, and audit requirements related to cost accounting and inventory.
• Perform multi-plant inventory reconciliation each close cycle, reconciling perpetual inventory, inter-plant/intercompany transfers, and in-transit inventory in SAP S/4HANA to the general ledger.
• Establish and manage a documented month-end close calendar, ownership matrix, and deliverable-review process for cost accounting.

Cross-Functional Partnership & Process Improvement

• Serve as the finance partner to Manufacturing, Warehouse, and Supply Chain across all manufacturing plants on cost-related questions and decisions.
• Identify and lead process improvement initiatives to increase the accuracy, efficiency, and scalability of cost accounting processes.
• Support the build-out of the Operations Finance function, including documentation of policies, procedures, and controls.
• Establish consistent documentation, file-management, and workpaper standards so analyses and close support are complete, traceable, and readily accessible.
• Directly supervise, coach, and develop cost accounting staff; set clear priorities, deadlines, and quality expectations for the team.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

POSITION QUALIFICATIONS

Competency Statements

• Analytical -- Ability to gather, interpret, and draw sound conclusions from complex cost and financial data.
• Detail Oriented -- Ability to pay close attention to the accuracy of costs, variances, and financial data.
• Problem Solving -- Ability to identify root causes of issues and drive them to resolution.
• Leadership -- Ability to lead, coach, and develop staff, and to influence cross-functional partners without direct authority.
• Communication -- Ability to clearly communicate financial concepts to non-finance audiences.
• Initiative -- Ability to make decisions or take action to solve a problem or reach a goal.
• Organized -- Possessing the trait of being organized or following a systematic method of performing a task.
• Reliability -- The trait of being dependable and trustworthy.

SKILLS & ABILITIES

Education:

• Required: Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, Economics, or a related field.
• Preferred: CPA, CMA, or MBA.

Experience:

• 7-10+ years of progressive cost accounting or manufacturing accounting experience, including standard costing, inventory valuation, variance analysis, and multi-plant inventory reconciliation.
• 3+ years of experience in a supervisory or people-management capacity, leading cost accounting or manufacturing accounting staff.
• Hands-on experience with SAP S/4HANA strongly preferred, including the Materials Management (MM) and Controlling (CO) modules, standard cost estimates, and month-end close processes.
• Manufacturing environment experience required, ideally within a multi-plant/multi-site organization; food, supplements, or CPG industry experience strongly preferred.
• Strong understanding of GAAP as it relates to inventory and cost accounting.
• Experience supporting or leading physical inventory and cycle count processes across multiple locations.

Computer Skills:

• Advanced Excel skills, including financial modeling and large data set analysis.
• Hands-on proficiency with SAP S/4HANA (Controlling and Materials Management modules) and cost/inventory transactions; familiarity with other ERP/MRP systems (Oracle, NetSuite, etc.) a plus.
• Experience with BI/reporting tools (Power BI, Tableau) a plus.