Cost Accounting Manager

Job Title: Cost Accounting Manager Job Description
The Cost Accounting Manager leads all aspects of 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 hands-on role owns the product costing framework, including costed bills of materials, standard costs, inventory valuation, manufacturing variances, and related month-end close activities. The position plays a key role in improving inventory efficiency, reducing Days Inventory Outstanding (DIO), and enhancing visibility into inventory drivers to support working capital improvements while maintaining strong customer service and manufacturing continuity. The Cost Accounting Manager directly manages the Senior Plant Accountant for the Mexico manufacturing operation and travels to the plant at least once per quarter.
Responsibilities
- Own the creation, maintenance, review, and approval process for costed bills of materials, ensuring every manufactured product has a complete and accurate bill of materials reflecting current materials, quantities, labor, routings, outside processing, and applicable manufacturing overhead.
- Partner with Engineering to translate engineering bills of materials and manufacturing bills of materials into accurate financial product costs and establish formal processes for reviewing and updating bills of materials for new products, engineering changes, supplier changes, material substitutions, and manufacturing process changes.
- Reconcile bill of material costs to ERP standard costs, investigate discrepancies, identify missing or inaccurate components, and drive corrective actions with Operations and Engineering while maintaining documentation and controls over product cost changes.
- Support new product introductions by developing preliminary and final product costs prior to production launch and provide clear 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, partnering with Supply Chain, Operations, Procurement, and FP&A to develop and execute initiatives to reduce Days Inventory Outstanding.
- Develop inventory reporting that provides visibility into DIO by inventory category, product, location, and other operational drivers, and identify excess, obsolete, slow-moving, and aged inventory while driving 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 and evaluate raw material, WIP, and finished goods levels to highlight where cash is unnecessarily tied up in inventory.
- Monitor inventory turns and DIO trends, provide clear explanations of key drivers to Finance and Operations leadership, and quantify the cash flow impact of inventory reduction opportunities.
- Partner with Procurement on order quantities, purchasing cadence, supplier terms, and material lead times that affect inventory levels and partner with Operations on production scheduling, batch sizes, WIP levels, scrap, and yield improvements.
- Support the development of inventory targets and working capital KPIs, ensuring inventory reduction initiatives maintain appropriate controls over customer service, 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, and ensure inventory subledgers reconcile to the general ledger.
- Own the companys standard costing methodology and standard cost roll process, establishing and maintaining standard material, labor, subcontract, freight, and manufacturing overhead costs.
- Review labor and machine routings to ensure standards reflect current manufacturing processes, and develop and maintain labor and overhead rates in partnership with Operations and Finance.
- Validate standard costs before loading them into the ERP system, perform periodic reviews of standard versus actual costs, and recommend updates when underlying assumptions materially change.
- Maintain strong controls around standard cost changes and approvals to ensure accuracy and compliance.
- Analyze material usage, labor efficiency, manufacturing overhead, scrap, yield, purchase price, and other production variances and investigate significant variances in partnership with Operations to identify root causes.
- Distinguish operational performance issues from bills of materials, routing, costing, or system data issues and provide clear monthly explanations of manufacturing variances and their impact on gross margin.
- Develop reporting that enables management to identify cost trends and manufacturing inefficiencies and take informed action.
- Own the manufacturing and inventory portions of the monthly close, preparing and reviewing 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, and partner with Accounting leadership to improve the speed, accuracy, and scalability of the close.
- Provide gross margin, inventory, DIO, and product cost analysis to Finance leadership to support decision-making.
- Directly manage and develop the Senior Plant Accountant supporting the Mexico manufacturing facility, including performance guidance and professional development.
- Travel to the Mexico plant at least once per quarter to review manufacturing activity, accounting processes, inventory controls, and operational performance, and establish clear accounting procedures and controls for plant activity.
- Review inventory, WIP, production, scrap, and manufacturing activity associated with the Mexico facility, oversee reconciliation of activity managed through the maquiladora service provider, and 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 and partner directly with plant leadership during site visits to identify accounting, costing, inventory, and working capital improvement opportunities.
- Partner closely with Engineering on bills of materials accuracy and engineering change controls, and 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, and with Supply Chain on inventory accuracy, demand assumptions, safety stock, inventory turns, and DIO reduction.
- Collaborate with FP&A to support gross margin forecasting, inventory planning, working capital forecasting, and product profitability analysis, and 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 and own cost accounting data integrity within the ERP system.
- Develop controls around bill of material creation, cost changes, item setup, routings, and inventory transactions, identify gaps in existing manufacturing accounting processes, and implement corrective actions.
- Create 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, ensuring compliance with established policies and controls.
Essential Skills
- Bachelors degree in Accounting, Finance, or a related field.
- 7+ years of progressive accounting experience with significant manufacturing and cost accounting responsibility.
- Cost accounting and accounting management experience in a manufacturing environment.
- Strong hands-on experience developing, maintaining, and reviewing costed bills of materials.
- Demonstrated experience with standard costing, inventory valuation, work in process accounting, routings, labor standards, overhead absorption, and manufacturing variance analysis.
- Experience partnering with Engineering and Operations on bills of materials and routing accuracy.
- Strong experience with manufacturing ERP systems, with at least 2+ years of deep NetSuite experience.
- Strong Excel and analytical skills, including the ability to interpret complex data and present clear insights.
- Experience managing month-end close processes and balance sheet reconciliations related to manufacturing and inventory.
- Experience supervising and developing accounting professionals.
- Strong communication skills and the ability to build effective cross-functional partnerships.
- Ability to identify process gaps and design and implement new processes rather than simply maintaining existing ones.
- Comfort 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 Mexico manufacturing facility at least once per quarter and more frequently when business needs require.
Additional Skills & Qualifications
- Experience in hardware manufacturing and inventory-intensive environments is a strong plus.
- Experience supporting international manufacturing operations is preferred.
- Experience working with Mexico manufacturing operations or in a maquiladora environment is a plus.
- Spanish language proficiency is preferred.
- Familiarity with inventory working capital management, including Days Inventory Outstanding (DIO) and inventory turns, is beneficial.
Work Environment
This role is based onsite in north Austin within a fast-paced, rapidly scaling manufacturing environment. The Cost Accounting Manager works closely with cross-functional teams across Engineering, Operations, Supply Chain, Procurement, FP&A, and Finance, leveraging a manufacturing ERP system, including NetSuite, as well as Excel and other analytical tools. The position requires working onsite in Austin Tuesday through Thursday each week to collaborate with stakeholders and maintain close engagement with manufacturing operations. The role also involves regular travel to a manufacturing facility in Mexico at least once per quarter, and more frequently as business needs require, to review plant activity, inventory controls, and operational performance and to work directly with plant leadership and the Senior Plant Accountant. The environment emphasizes strong financial controls, scalable processes, and continuous improvement in costing, inventory management, and working capital efficiency.
Job Type & Location
This is a Permanent position based out of Austin, TX.
Pay and Benefits
The pay range for this position is $100000.00 - $155000.00/yr. Individual compensation offered for this position within this range will depend on many factors, including qualifications, skills, relevant experience, job knowledge, geographic location, internal equity, and other pertinent job-related factors. Comprehensive Health Coverage (Medical/Dental/Vision)
Short-Term & Long-Term Disability Coverage
Health Savings Account (HSA) includes employer contributions.
Flexible Spending Account (FSA) & Limited Purpose Flexible Spending Account
401(k) Traditional and Roth
Stock Options
Open Paid Time Off (PTO)
12 Paid Holidays
Potential Relocation Assistance
Flexible schedule including hybrid possibilities
Company Paid Lunch on Thursdays
Community Give-back Opportunities
Job Type & Location
This is a Permanent position based out of Austin, TX.
Application Deadline
This position is anticipated to close on Nov 12, 2026.
Workplace Type
This is a fully onsite position in Austin,TX.

About Aston Carter

Aston Carter provides world-class corporate talent solutions to thousands of clients across the globe. Specialized in accounting, finance, human resources, talent acquisition, procurement, supply chain and select administrative professions, we extend the capabilities of industry-leading companies. We draw on our deep recruiting expertise and expansive network to meet the evolving needs of our clients and talent community with agility and excellence. With offices across the U.S., Canada, Asia Pacific and Europe, Aston Carter serves many of the Fortune 500. We are proud to be a ClearlyRated Best of Staffing® Platinum Award winner for both client and talent service.

The company is an equal opportunity employer and will consider all applications without regard to race, sex, age, color, religion, national origin, veteran status, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information or any characteristic protected by law.

If you would like to request a reasonable accommodation, such as the modification or adjustment of the job application process or interviewing process due to a disability, please email [email protected] for other accommodation options.

San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance: Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, for all positions located in the city and county of San Francisco, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

Massachusetts Lie Detector: It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI): We may use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to support parts of our hiring process, including sourcing, screening, and evaluating candidates. AI helps assess applications and qualifications, but final decisions are made by our hiring team. By applying, you acknowledge and agree that your application may be reviewed using AI tools.