Cost Accounting Manager

Infinitum•Austin, TX

16h•Hybrid

About The Position

We are seeking a hands-on Cost Accounting Manager to lead cost accounting, inventory accounting, manufacturing financial controls, and inventory working capital initiatives for a rapidly growing manufacturing organization with operations in the United States and Mexico. This role will own the company's product costing framework, including costed bills of materials (CBOMs), standard costs, inventory valuation, manufacturing variances, overhead absorption, routings, labor standards, and related month-end close activities. The Cost Accounting Manager will also play a key role in improving inventory efficiency and reducing Days Inventory Outstanding (DIO). This individual will partner with Supply Chain, Operations, Procurement, Engineering, FP&A, and Finance leadership to improve visibility into inventory drivers, identify excess and slow-moving inventory, and support actions that improve working capital without compromising customer service or manufacturing continuity. The role will directly manage the Senior Plant Accountant supporting our Mexico manufacturing operation and will travel to the plant at least once per quarter.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, or a related field.
7+ years of progressive accounting experience with significant manufacturing and cost accounting responsibility.
Strong hands-on experience developing, maintaining, and reviewing costed bills of materials.
Demonstrated experience with standard costing, inventory valuation, WIP, routings, labor standards, overhead absorption, and manufacturing variance analysis.
Experience partnering with Engineering and Operations on BOM and routing accuracy.
Strong experience with manufacturing ERP systems required, NetSuite preferred.
Strong Excel and analytical skills.
Experience managing month-end close and balance sheet reconciliations.
Experience supervising and developing accounting professionals.
Ability to identify process gaps and build new processes rather than simply maintain existing ones.
Comfortable operating in a fast-paced, rapidly scaling manufacturing environment.
Ability and willingness to work onsite in Austin Tuesday through Thursday each week.
Ability and willingness to travel to the Saltillo, Mexico manufacturing facility at least once per quarter and more frequently when business needs require.

Nice To Haves

Experience supporting international manufacturing operations preferred.
Experience working with Mexico manufacturing operations or a maquiladora environment is a plus.
Spanish language proficiency preferred, but not required.
Strong communication and cross-functional partnership skills.

Responsibilities

Own the creation, maintenance, review, and approval process for costed bills of materials (CBOMs). Ensure every manufactured product has a complete and accurate CBOM reflecting current materials, quantities, labor, routings, outside processing, and applicable manufacturing overhead. Partner with Engineering to ensure engineering BOMs and manufacturing BOMs are accurately translated into financial product costs. Establish a formal process for reviewing and updating CBOMs for new products, engineering changes, supplier changes, material substitutions, and manufacturing process changes. Reconcile CBOM costs to ERP standard costs and investigate discrepancies. Identify missing, outdated, or inaccurate BOM components and drive corrective action with Operations and Engineering. Maintain appropriate documentation and controls over product cost changes. Support new product introductions by developing preliminary and final product costs before production launch. Provide visibility into the impact of design, sourcing, and manufacturing changes on product cost and margin.
Own accounting and financial analysis for raw materials, work in process, and finished goods inventory. Partner with Supply Chain, Operations, Procurement, and FP&A to develop and execute initiatives to reduce Days Inventory Outstanding (DIO). Develop reporting that provides visibility into DIO by inventory category, product, location, and other relevant operational drivers. Identify excess, obsolete, slow-moving, and aged inventory and drive cross-functional action plans to reduce exposure. Analyze inventory purchasing patterns, production schedules, safety stock levels, lead times, and demand assumptions to identify opportunities to reduce working capital. Evaluate raw material, WIP, and finished goods levels to identify where cash is unnecessarily tied up in inventory. Monitor inventory turns and DIO trends and provide clear explanations of key drivers to Finance and Operations leadership. Quantify the cash flow impact of inventory reduction opportunities. Partner with Procurement on order quantities, purchasing cadence, supplier terms, and material lead times where these affect inventory levels. Partner with Operations on production scheduling, batch sizes, WIP levels, scrap, and yield improvements. Support development of inventory targets and working capital KPIs. Ensure inventory reduction initiatives maintain appropriate controls over customer service levels, production continuity, and financial reporting accuracy. Establish processes for excess and obsolete inventory reserves and net realizable value assessments. Oversee cycle counts and physical inventory accounting procedures. Ensure inventory subledgers reconcile to the general ledger.
Own the company's standard costing methodology and standard cost roll process. Establish and maintain standard material, labor, subcontract, freight, and manufacturing overhead costs. Review labor and machine routings to ensure standards reflect current manufacturing processes. Develop and maintain labor and overhead rates in partnership with Operations and Finance. Validate standard costs before they are loaded into the ERP system. Perform periodic reviews of standard versus actual costs and recommend updates when assumptions materially change. Maintain controls around standard cost changes and approvals.
Analyze material usage, labor efficiency, manufacturing overhead, scrap, yield, purchase price, and other production variances. Investigate significant variances and work with Operations to identify root causes. Distinguish operational performance issues from BOM, routing, costing, or system-data issues. Provide clear monthly explanations of manufacturing variances and their impact on gross margin. Develop reporting that allows management to identify cost trends and manufacturing inefficiencies.
Own the manufacturing and inventory portions of the monthly close. Prepare and review manufacturing-related journal entries, accruals, reconciliations, and supporting schedules. Review inventory and cost-related balance sheet accounts. Ensure manufacturing variances are properly recorded, analyzed, and explained. Partner with the VP of Accounting to improve the speed, accuracy, and scalability of the close. Provide gross margin, inventory, DIO, and product cost analysis to Finance leadership.
Directly manage and develop the Senior Plant Accountant supporting the Saltillo manufacturing facility. Travel to the Saltillo plant at least once per quarter to review manufacturing activity, accounting processes, inventory controls, and operational performance. Establish clear accounting procedures and controls for Mexico plant activity. Review inventory, WIP, production, scrap, and manufacturing activity associated with the facility. Oversee reconciliation of activity managed through the company's maquiladora service provider. Review significant provider charges and pass-through expenses for accuracy and completeness. Ensure consistent accounting policies and costing methodologies across U.S. and Mexico operations. Partner directly with plant leadership during site visits to identify accounting, costing, inventory, and working capital improvement opportunities.
Partner closely with Engineering on BOM accuracy and engineering change controls. Partner with Operations on routings, labor standards, overhead absorption, yield, scrap, production cadence, and WIP. Partner with Procurement on material costs, supplier changes, purchase price variance, lead times, and purchasing quantities. Partner with Supply Chain on inventory accuracy, demand assumptions, safety stock, inventory turns, and DIO reduction. Partner with FP&A to support gross margin forecasting, inventory planning, working capital forecasting, and product profitability analysis. Provide product cost and inventory information for pricing, sourcing, make-versus-buy, and operational decisions.
Establish scalable cost accounting processes capable of supporting significant company growth. Own cost accounting data integrity within the ERP system. Develop controls around BOM creation, cost changes, item setup, routings, and inventory transactions. Identify gaps in existing manufacturing accounting processes and implement corrective actions. Develop written procedures for costing, inventory, physical counts, and manufacturing close activities. Identify opportunities to automate costing and inventory processes and improve reporting. Support internal and external audit requirements related to inventory and cost accounting.