Plant Accountant

Primus Aerospace•Reisterstown, MD

43d•Onsite

About The Position

Primus Aerospace is a leading manufacturing partner to aerospace, defense, and space OEMs, Primes, and Tier I suppliers. We specialize in producing high-tolerance, complex geometry components machined from standard and exotic metals. Our team supports major aerospace manufacturers—including Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman—by delivering precision parts for mission-critical civilian and defense programs. Position Summary The Plant Accountant is the on-site financial leader for the manufacturing facility, responsible for delivering accurate financial reporting, strong cost accounting discipline, and actionable insights to drive operational and financial performance. This role partners closely with operations, purchasing, supply chain, corporate finance and head office leadership to ensure rigorous management of production costs, inventory, and plant-level KPIs. Ideal candidates have deep experience in precision machining, metal fabrication, or other high-mix, low-volume manufacturing environments with complex routings and cost structures.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, or related discipline
5+ years of experience in manufacturing accounting; precision metal parts, CNC machining, or fabrication strongly preferred.
Solid understanding of cost accounting, inventory accounting, and manufacturing variances.
Hands-on experience in a plant environment interacting directly with production teams.
Strong Excel skills; proficiency in ERP systems.
Ability to communicate complex financial issues clearly to non-financial stakeholders.
Demonstrated ability to drive process improvement and operational discipline.

Nice To Haves

Experience in private equity-owned manufacturing environments.
Knowledge of Lean manufacturing, Six Sigma, or other CI methodologies.
Experience with job-shop or high-mix, low-volume environments.

Responsibilities

Own month-end close for the plant, including customer invoicing, journal entries, accruals, reconciliations, and variance analyses.
Prepare plant-level P&L, balance sheet, and cash forecasts; explain performance drivers to local and corporate leadership.
Ensure compliance with corporate accounting policies, GAAP, annual audit, and internal controls.
Maintain fixed asset accounting, capital project tracking, and depreciation schedules.
Maintain accurate standard job costs, including labor, burden, and material rates.
Lead BOM/Routings and Jobs/Work Order reviews with engineering and operations.
Perform detailed manufacturing variance analysis (labor efficiency, scrap, purchasing price variance, overhead absorption).
Analyze machine utilization, job costing, and margin performance by product line, customer, or work center.
Conduct physical inventory counts and develop cycle count programs; lead reconciliation and root-cause analysis of discrepancies.
Provide financial leadership to the Plant Manager and operations team; participate in daily/weekly Gemba/operations reviews.
Support continuous improvement initiatives (Lean, Six Sigma, Kaizen) by quantifying savings and validating benefits.
Develop and monitor KPIs such as OEE, scrap rates, labor productivity, throughput, and cost per machine hour.
Evaluate make-vs-buy decisions, quoting assumptions, and margin improvement opportunities.
Partner with supply chain on vendor cost management and inventory reduction initiatives.
Lead the plant’s annual budgeting process and quarterly forecasts.
Develop cash flow projections and track working capital performance.
Prepare scenario analyses for production volumes, pricing changes, and operational initiatives.
Drive utilization and optimization of ERP/MRP systems (e.g., JobBOSS, Global Shop, etc.).
Improve accuracy and timeliness of shop floor data capture (labor reporting, scrap, routings).
Implement stronger controls around material movement, job closure, and WIP tracking.
Automate reporting and improve visibility into financial and operational performance.