Senior Cost Accountant

JRG Partners•Miami, FL

11d•Onsite

About The Position

The Senior Cost Accountant is a hands-on, analytical financial partner to Operations, Production, Maintenance, Supply Chain, and Finance at a growing food manufacturing company. The role analyzes manufacturing costs, product and customer profitability, operational KPIs, manufacturing variances, inventory, forecasting, and capital expenditures. It works closely with plant personnel to identify operational performance issues, quantify their financial impact, determine root causes, and support corrective actions and cost-saving initiatives. The position regularly spends time on the plant floor learning how products are manufactured and building relationships with Production, Maintenance, Quality, Warehouse, and Supply Chain teams. It is expected to move beyond reporting results by partnering with Operations to identify issues, measure savings, improve accountability, and support continuous improvement and profitability. The role also supports budgeting and forecasting, capital project tracking and investment analysis, month-end close, inventory accounting, and manufacturing accounting. Within the first 6–12 months, the successful candidate is expected to improve KPI reporting, product costing, cost forecasting, variance analysis, CapEx tracking, inventory processes, and measurable cost-reduction efforts, while becoming a trusted financial business partner to plant and Operations leadership.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, Business, or a related field.
3–7+ years of accounting or finance experience in a manufacturing environment.
Strong understanding of manufacturing cost accounting.
Experience with standard costing and manufacturing variance analysis.
Understanding of direct labor, material usage, manufacturing overhead, yield, scrap, and production efficiency.
Experience with inventory accounting.
Experience with budgeting and forecasting.
Strong Microsoft Excel and financial modeling skills.
Experience working with an ERP or accounting system.
Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
Ability to work effectively with Operations and translate financial information into operational actions.
Ability and willingness to work full-time on-site at the Miami, Florida manufacturing facility.

Nice To Haves

Food manufacturing experience; strongly preferred in the required qualifications.
Experience with activity-based costing.
SKU and customer profitability analysis.
Manufacturing KPI development.
Production yield and scrap analysis.
CapEx tracking and forecasting.
Capital investment analysis, including ROI and payback calculations.
Continuous improvement or cost-reduction experience.
Experience with Power BI or other business intelligence tools.
CPA, CMA, or another relevant certification.

Responsibilities

Develop a detailed understanding of manufacturing costs by SKU, product family, production line, and customer.
Develop and maintain product costing models covering materials and ingredients, packaging, labor, manufacturing overhead, and other manufacturing-related costs.
Maintain activity-based cost allocations by SKU and customer where appropriate.
Analyze product and customer profitability and identify low-margin or unprofitable products and customers.
Ensure standard costs reflect manufacturing processes and update costing assumptions as needed.
Develop and maintain weekly and monthly manufacturing KPI reporting with Operations leadership.
Analyze production output and hours, labor efficiency and cost, yield and material usage, scrap and rework, downtime and changeovers, overtime, production efficiency, line utilization, schedule attainment, conversion costs, and budget or forecast performance.
Identify missed operational targets, quantify their financial impacts, and translate operational data into useful financial information for management.
Analyze manufacturing variances and work with Operations to identify root causes and corrective actions, including labor, material price and usage, yield, scrap, volume, overhead, downtime, overtime, rework, production losses, and packaging variances.
Work with Operations, Maintenance, Quality, and Supply Chain on cost-saving and continuous-improvement projects; quantify expected savings and track actual results against business cases.
Support annual budgeting and ongoing financial forecasting of manufacturing costs based on production volumes, product mix, labor rates, material costs, yields, and operating efficiency.
Partner with Operations to develop production and cost assumptions, analyze results against budget and forecast, explain significant variances, and provide analysis for production, pricing, capacity, and operational decisions.
Track and report capital projects, including approved budgets, commitments, actual spending, remaining budget, and projected final cost.
Develop and update CapEx forecasts with Operations and Maintenance, identify potential overruns, reconcile spending to the general ledger and supporting documentation, and assist with capitalization-versus-expense determinations.
Analyze proposed capital investments, including labor savings, yield and scrap improvements, maintenance savings, downtime reduction, capacity, contribution margin, cash savings, ROI, payback, and NPV or IRR when appropriate.
Compare completed capital project results with the original investment business case.
Participate in monthly close activities, including manufacturing cost and inventory accounting, reconciliations, raw material, WIP and finished goods analysis, standard costs and variances, accruals, fixed assets and depreciation, cost of goods sold, overhead, general ledger reconciliations, and journal entries.
Assist with physical and cycle inventory counts, investigate inventory variances, and analyze obsolete, damaged, or slow-moving inventory.
Regularly work on the plant floor and build effective working relationships with Production, Maintenance, Quality, Warehouse, Supply Chain, Operations, and Finance personnel.
Partner with Operations to identify issues, quantify impacts, determine root causes, implement corrective actions, and measure savings.