Senior Cost Analyst - manufacturing

National Carwash Solutions•Grimes, IA

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Senior Cost Analyst is responsible for analyzing, monitoring, and improving manufacturing costs across multiple production facilities. This role partners closely with plant operations, supply chain, and finance leadership to ensure accurate, consistent product costing and actionable financial insights across sites. The position plays a critical role in driving cost transparency, operational efficiency, and margin improvement in a complex, multi-plant manufacturing environment.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, or a related field required
5–8+ years of progressive cost accounting or financial analysis experience in a manufacturing environment
Demonstrated experience supporting multiple manufacturing plants or complex operations
Strong knowledge of standard costing, inventory accounting, variance analysis, and manufacturing KPIs
ERP experience (e.g., SAP, Oracle, JD Edwards, Dynamics, or similar)
Advanced Excel skills
Strong analytical and problem-solving capabilities
Ability to communicate financial results clearly to plant and non-finance leadership
Ability to manage competing priorities across multiple sites in a fast-paced environment

Nice To Haves

MBA, CPA, CMA, or equivalent certification preferred
BI/reporting tools (Power BI, Tableau, etc.) preferred

Responsibilities

Develop, maintain, and govern standard costs for materials, labor, and overhead across multiple manufacturing locations.
Perform detailed cost and variance analysis by plant, product line, and cost center; identify trends, risks, and improvement opportunities.
Analyze and explain inter-plant cost differences, efficiencies, and capacity utilization.
Support month-end and year-end close activities related to inventory, manufacturing costs, and COGS for all facilities.
Partner with plant managers, operations leadership, and engineering teams at multiple sites to drive cost reduction, productivity, and process improvements.
Support make/buy decisions, inter-plant sourcing strategies, and footprint optimization analyses.
Develop cost models for new products, transfers between plants, and manufacturing process changes.
Support budgeting, forecasting, and long-range planning at both the plant and consolidated manufacturing level.
Monitor inventory valuation, excess and obsolete inventory, and reserve recommendations across all locations.
Create standardized cost reporting, KPIs, and dashboards to enable consistent performance measurement across plants.
Ensure costing methodologies, policies, and procedures are consistently applied across all facilities.
Maintain data integrity within ERP systems and support system implementations, upgrades, or plant integrations.
Document and enforce internal controls and cost accounting practices in compliance with GAAP and company policies.
Serve as a manufacturing cost accounting subject matter expert for multi-plant operations.
Act as the primary finance liaison for assigned plants while supporting enterprise-wide manufacturing initiatives.
Mentor and review work of junior analysts or plant-level finance staff, as applicable.
Collaborate with FP&A, supply chain, procurement, operations, and executive leadership.