Cost Accountant

Chariot Defense•San Bruno, CA

5d•Onsite

About The Position

Chariot Defense is seeking a Cost Accountant to join its Finance team and own the accuracy of product and program costs as hardware production scales. Reporting to the Head of Operations, this role sits at the intersection of Finance, Manufacturing, and Supply Chain. The Cost Accountant will value inventory, track work in process, allocate overhead, and ensure products and contracts are costed accurately and in compliance with government contracting standards. The role is suited to a hands-on, detail-driven accountant comfortable working both on the production floor and in an ERP, with an interest in building cost accounting processes.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Accounting or Finance.
2–5 years of cost or inventory accounting experience at a hardware, defense, aerospace, automotive, or industrial manufacturing company.
Solid understanding of U.S. GAAP, standard costing, inventory valuation, and overhead absorption.
Familiarity with government contracting cost principles, including FAR Part 31, CAS, DCAA, and job or program costing.
Hands-on experience with an ERP/MRP system such as NetSuite, Costpoint, SAP, or a similar system.
Advanced Excel skills, including lookups, pivot tables, and building cost models.
Willingness to work onsite in the San Bruno, California office five days per week and work extended and weekend hours when necessary, such as during close or physical inventory.
Strong conscientiousness, follow-through, precision, curiosity about manufacturing, collaboration, resilience, adaptability, transparency, diligence, and responsive communication.

Nice To Haves

CPA, CMA, or progress toward either.
Experience supporting indirect rate development, incurred cost submissions, or DCAA audits.
Exposure to ASC 606 revenue recognition on milestone-based hardware contracts.
Experience in an early-stage or high-growth company helping build processes from scratch.
NetSuite experience.

Responsibilities

Build and maintain standard costs, bills of materials costing, and routings for power products; perform periodic standard cost roll-ups and revaluations.
Manage accounting for raw materials, work in process, and finished goods, including cycle-count reconciliations, physical inventory support, and excess and obsolete reserve analysis.
Prepare cost-related journal entries, accruals, and reconciliations for inventory, cost of goods sold, work in process, and overhead to support an accurate month-end close under U.S. GAAP.
Analyze purchase price, labor, material usage, and overhead variances, and communicate findings as actionable insights for Operations and leadership.
Develop and maintain overhead allocation methodologies and indirect rate pools, including fringe, overhead, and G&A, consistent with FAR Part 31 and CAS requirements.
Track costs by program and contract, support estimates-at-completion, and provide cost data for pricing proposals and milestone-based revenue recognition under ASC 606.
Maintain DCAA-compliant timekeeping and job-costing practices and prepare schedules and documentation for financial audits and DCAA/DCMA reviews.
Improve cost accounting workflows in the ERP/MRP system, including item costing, work orders, and assembly builds, and identify opportunities to automate manual reporting.
Partner with Manufacturing, Supply Chain, and Engineering to understand production flows, validate bill of materials accuracy, and support make-versus-buy and margin analyses.