Cost Accountant

Cost Accountant

$95000 - $110000 per year | Scioto Mills, IL | On-site | Permanent

cheese and dairy manufacturer based in Illinois, producing authentic, high-quality products for retail and food service customers.

This role offers real ownership as the onsite finance leader, direct visibility with Corporate Finance, and the chance to make a measurable impact on how the plant operates. You'll join a growing manufacturer with a hands-on culture where your work is seen and valued.

If you offer specific benefits (health coverage, 401(k) match, bonus eligibility, PTO), listing them here will strengthen the posting.

Department:
Finance

Location:

Onsite, Manufacturing Facility

Reports To:

Corporate Finance

The Plant Cost Accountant is the lead onsite finance partner for our manufacturing facility. This role is responsible for accurate plant financial reporting, cost accounting, inventory valuation, standard costing, variance analysis, budgeting and forecasting support, internal controls, management reporting, and capital project accounting. You will partner closely with plant leadership to improve cost visibility, strengthen transaction discipline, and support fact-based operating decisions.

This is a hands-on manufacturing finance role. The right candidate is comfortable working in the details of reconciliations, transaction accuracy, and ERP costing, and can translate plant performance into practical insight for operations leadership.

Lead plant month-end close activities and ensure production-related transactions, accruals, inventory movements, and expenses are recorded accurately and in the correct period.

Prepare and maintain plant balance sheet reconciliations, investigate reconciling items, and drive timely resolution.

Improve close quality by strengthening cutoff discipline, reducing manual adjustments, and improving the timeliness and accuracy of plant reporting.

Prepare monthly plant financial reporting packages, including key variances, emerging risks, and management commentary.

Own plant reconciliations that support accurate cost and inventory reporting, including production yield, inventory roll forwards, and subledger-to-general-ledger tie-outs.

Develop reporting that highlights unusual inventory movements, aged balances, and transaction timing gaps.

Partner with receiving, warehousing, scheduling, and operations to improve transaction timeliness throughout the month.

Own plant cost accounting processes, including standard costing, manufacturing cost analysis, product costing, and visibility into material, labor, and overhead performance.

Maintain and improve costing assumptions and ERP cost drivers, including bills of material and other cost-relevant master data.

Support new item costing, margin analysis, and pricing decisions with accurate cost estimates and review of launch assumptions.

Analyze production, conversion, and overhead costs to identify trends, opportunities, and risks affecting profitability.

Lead analysis of material usage, purchase price variance, labor efficiency, overhead absorption, scrap, yield, and departmental budget variances.

Communicate significant variances to plant leadership, identify root causes, and support corrective action planning.

Partner with plant leadership to identify, quantify, validate, and track cost-reduction and productivity initiatives against plan.

Lead inventory accounting and valuation for raw materials, work-in-process, finished goods, packaging, and other inventory categories.

Reconcile inventory subledgers to the general ledger and investigate differences from receiving, usage, scrap, production reporting, or cycle counts.

Review cycle count adjustments per company policy and support physical inventory planning and observation.

Monitor aged, slow-moving, non-sellable, and excess inventory and provide reserve recommendations as appropriate.

Partner with Operations and Supply Chain to improve inventory accuracy and reduce working capital risk.

Lead and support plant budgets,…