Cost Accountant

TriMark•Winston-Salem, NC

3d•Onsite

About The Position

The Cost Accountant is based in Winston-Salem, works full-time in office, and reports to the General Manager. The company is a custom manufacturer of engineered-to-order products built to customer specifications. This role tracks, analyzes, and reports project costs from quote through shipment and owns standard costs, job cost variance analysis, work in process (WIP), and inventory valuation. The Cost Accountant partners with estimators, production, shipping, and other teams to support margin performance and cost accuracy. The position also supports monthly financial reporting and close, inventory controls, audits, and compliance with US GAAP requirements applicable to inventory, WIP, and revenue recognition for custom-manufactured goods. The work is split between the office and active production floor, with occasional extended hours during month-end close, year-end, and physical inventory.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, or a related field.
3–5 years of cost accounting experience in a manufacturing environment.
Working knowledge of standard costing, job/project costing, WIP accounting, variance analysis, and inventory valuation methods such as standard, weighted average, and FIFO.
Proficiency in an ERP used in discrete or make-to-order manufacturing, such as SAP, Oracle, Epicor, Infor, NetSuite, or comparable software.
Advanced Excel skills, including pivot tables, XLOOKUP/INDEX-MATCH, SUMIFS, and financial modeling.
Solid understanding of US GAAP as applied to inventory and manufacturing.
Ability to walk the production floor and communicate with shop supervisors and other operational partners.
Ability to successfully pass a background check after offer acceptance.

Nice To Haves

Experience in job-shop, custom, or make-to-order manufacturing.
Experience in a custom or engineered-to-order manufacturing environment.
Exposure to project-based accounting for installed or delivered products.
CMA or CPA certification, or actively pursuing certification.
Familiarity with lean manufacturing or continuous improvement.
Working knowledge of BI/reporting tools such as Power BI or Tableau.
Comfort reading engineering drawings and BOMs well enough to have substantive conversations with estimators and production.

Responsibilities

Own project cost tracking for active jobs from released work order through final invoice.
Reconcile estimated and actual job costs, including materials, components, hardware, subcontract services, freight-in, direct labor, and shop overhead.
Analyze margin performance by product family, customer, and channel, and identify margin leakage.
Partner with estimators on post-shipment quote-to-actual reviews and feed findings into standard costs and future bids.
Track and report change orders, scope adjustments, punch-list work, and warranty or rework costs by job.
Maintain standard costs for raw materials, components, hardware, and purchased parts, refreshing them as commodity prices change.
Calculate and explain monthly material price, material usage/yield, labor rate, labor efficiency, and overhead absorption variances.
Track scrap and yield by material type and work with production on yield improvement.
Support development of burdened labor and shop overhead rates by work center.
Own inventory valuation for raw materials, WIP, and finished goods.
Oversee cycle counts and annual physical inventory, reconcile variances, and drive root-cause corrections.
Monitor aged WIP and escalate stalled projects or projects awaiting field data to operations.
Ensure proper cutoff for material receipts, subcontract services, and outbound freight.
Prepare monthly COGM and COGS reports with variance commentary.
Post journal entries for inventory adjustments, WIP roll-forward, scrap, freight, and overhead absorption.
Reconcile inventory, WIP, and cost-related general ledger accounts.
Deliver KPI reporting on gross margin, labor and machine utilization, scrap, on-time-ship cost impact, and quote accuracy.
Serve as the finance contact for shop supervisors, project managers, estimators, and purchasing.
Support large or strategic project bid reviews and provide cost inputs for value engineering and material substitution decisions.
Contribute financial analysis to make-versus-buy decisions.
Provide costing input on capital expenditure requests.
Support internal and external audits, including inventory observation, cost testing, and WIP substantiation.
Ensure adherence to US GAAP for inventory, WIP, and revenue recognition on custom-manufactured goods.
Document cost accounting methodologies, standard cost roll procedures, and month-end SOPs.
Walk the production floor, observe work centers, and translate observations into cost insight.
Successfully pass a background check after offer acceptance.