Senior Cost Accountant – Manufacturing

HuFriedyGroup•Northbrook, IL

1d•$120,000 - $135,000•Onsite

About The Position

HuFriedyGroup is seeking a Senior Cost Accountant to serve as a finance partner to Operations and Plant leadership teams. The role focuses on helping leaders understand plant performance, identify cost and productivity opportunities, and convert financial data into actionable insights. Responsibilities include standard costing, inventory valuation, manufacturing variance analysis, plant performance reporting, financial controls, budgeting, capital investments, cost-reduction initiatives, and continuous improvement across manufacturing operations. The position is based in Northbrook, Illinois and requires travel to and close collaboration with manufacturing and operations teams.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, or a related field.
At least 4 years of related finance or accounting experience, including hands-on standard costing and variance analysis.
Experience partnering with Operations or manufacturing leaders and communicating and constructively challenging financial performance.
Experience working with ERP systems.
Demonstrated experience supporting process-improvement and cost-savings initiatives.
Advanced Microsoft Excel skills.
Strong analytical and problem-solving capabilities.
Strong attention to detail and excellent organizational and communication skills.
Ability to travel to and work closely with manufacturing and operations teams.

Nice To Haves

At least 3 years of experience in a manufacturing environment.
At least 2 years of direct cost accounting experience.
SAP experience.

Responsibilities

Maintain and analyze standard costs to support accurate costing and inventory valuation.
Co-own the annual cost roll process, including cost pools, rates, simulations, and analysis of year-over-year changes.
Analyze manufacturing performance, including absorption, spending, efficiency, and other production variances.
Partner with Plant Managers and Operations leaders to provide financial analysis and actionable business insights.
Support daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly business and plant performance reporting.
Track plant productivity and cost-savings initiatives against budget.
Maintain inventory controls, including cycle counts, physical inventory, inventory adjustments, and review of slow-moving and obsolete inventory.
Support CAPEX requests, including business case development and post-investment financial follow-up.
Manage fixed assets and capital expenditures.
Support month-end closing activities, including journal entries, balance sheet reconciliations, analysis, and reporting.
Participate in special projects such as ERP/SAP conversions, SKU initiatives, process improvement, and cost-reduction programs.