Cost Accounting Manager

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Full Time Professional Dallas, TX, US

Position Summary

The Cost Accounting Manager is responsible for establishing, leading, and continuously improving the cost accounting function for American Leather. This role serves as the Company's subject matter expert for manufacturing costing, inventory valuation, product profitability, margin analysis, and operational financial performance. The position will develop and maintain the processes, controls, methodologies, and reporting necessary to provide accurate product costing, profitability analysis, and meaningful financial insights that support strategic and operational decision-making.

Working closely with Engineering, Operations, Purchasing, Sales, and Finance, the Cost Accounting Manager will own the standard costing process, manufacturing variance analysis, product profitability reporting, inventory reserve assessments, and cost reporting activities. This individual will partner with Engineering to translate product specifications, labor standards, and manufacturing processes into accurate financial cost models while ensuring inventory and manufacturing costs are properly reflected in the Company's financial statements.

This is an individual contributor role with no direct reports. The successful candidate will bring deep manufacturing cost accounting expertise, strong analytical capabilities, and a proven ability to build scalable processes and controls within a manufacturing environment. This position will play a key role in strengthening financial visibility, improving margin performance, and driving data-based decision making throughout the organization.

Essential Functions & Responsibilities

• Establish, lead, and continuously improve the Company's cost accounting function, including processes, governance, controls, reporting, and performance metrics.
• Own the standard costing system in Oracle ERP for all products, materials, labor, and overhead, including periodic cost reviews and updates to keep standards aligned with actual manufacturing operations.
• Serve as the primary subject matter expert for manufacturing cost accounting, inventory valuation, and product costing.
• Partner with Engineering to review, validate, and maintain bills of material (BOMs), routings, labor standards, and manufacturing assumptions, and to evaluate the cost impact of design changes, engineering change orders, new product introductions, and process improvements.
• Develop and maintain documented methodologies, governance procedures, and internal controls for the development, maintenance, and approval of material, labor, and overhead standards.
• Lead the transition of costing ownership from operational teams to Finance, and evaluate the financial impact of sourcing decisions, process improvements, capital investments, and operational initiatives.

Product Profitability & Margin Analysis

• Develop and maintain profitability and gross margin reporting across product line, collection, customer, channel, and manufacturing process to support business decisions.
• Identify drivers of margin fluctuations and communicate actionable recommendations to leadership.
• Partner with Sales, Operations, Engineering, and Purchasing teams to evaluate opportunities for margin improvement and cost reduction.
• Support pricing decisions through detailed cost and profitability analysis.
• Evaluate the financial impact of material cost changes, labor efficiencies, sourcing decisions, and manufacturing process improvements on product profitability.
• Develop margin reporting tools, dashboards, and KPIs that provide visibility into business performance.
• Assist leadership in identifying and prioritizing initiatives that improve profitability and operational performance.

Manufacturing Cost Analysis & Reporting

• Analyze manufacturing variances (material, labor, overhead, scrap, purchase price, and production), identify root causes, and collaborate with operational leaders to develop corrective actions.
• Develop and maintain manufacturing cost reports,…