Cost Accountant

Description We are looking for a Cost Accountant to support manufacturing operations by delivering accurate product costing, inventory valuation, and financial insight that strengthens profitability. This role partners closely with production and leadership teams in Ocean Springs, Mississippi to evaluate cost drivers, explain performance trends, and identify practical ways to improve material usage, labor efficiency, and overall plant performance. The ideal candidate brings strong analytical ability, hands-on manufacturing accounting experience, and a disciplined approach to maintaining reliable cost data.

Responsibilities:

- Build, update, and manage standard costs for manufactured items while ensuring core cost inputs such as bills of materials, routing details, labor assumptions, machine rates, and overhead allocations remain current and accurate.

- Develop cost models for materials, labor, and production activity to support product launches, pricing discussions, quotation requests, and management decision-making.

- Examine actual material consumption against expected usage, identify unfavorable trends in scrap or yield, and quantify the financial effect of waste, rejects, startup loss, and other production variances.

- Review direct labor performance by comparing actual hours and spending to established standards, highlighting efficiency gaps, overtime impact, and staffing patterns that influence cost performance.

- Assess machine and production efficiency by analyzing cycle times, downtime, setup activity, utilization levels, and capacity constraints to determine their effect on unit cost and output.

- Prepare and interpret manufacturing variance reports across materials, labor, overhead, inventory adjustments, volume, and operational efficiency, then communicate findings and recommended actions to management.

- Maintain accurate inventory valuation for raw materials, work in process, finished goods, and packaging, including reconciliation between inventory records and the general ledger.

- Participate in physical counts and cycle count activities, investigate discrepancies, and recommend stronger controls for material issuance, production reporting, scrap tracking, and finished goods receipt processes.

- Monitor slow-moving, excess, obsolete, or impaired inventory and provide analysis to support reserve recommendations and inventory management decisions. Requirements

- 3+ years of experience in cost accounting, with a strong preference for manufacturing or plant-based accounting environments.

- Demonstrated knowledge of standard costing principles, product costing methods, inventory accounting, and variance analysis.

- Experience analyzing material usage, labor efficiency, overhead absorption, and production-related cost drivers.

- Ability to interpret operational data and translate financial results into clear recommendations for cross-functional stakeholders.

- Proficiency in reconciling inventory balances, supporting physical inventory processes, and investigating count or valuation discrepancies.

- Strong analytical, organizational, and problem-solving skills with close attention to accuracy and detail.

- Effective communication skills and the ability to work collaboratively with operations, production, and management teams.

For confidential consideration, please reach out to Emily Schneller, Robert Half Recruiting Manager, at . Thank you for your interest in Robert Half.

Robert Half is the world's first and largest specialized talent solutions firm that connects highly qualified job seekers to opportunities at great companies. We offer contract, temporary and permanent placement solutions for finance and accounting, technology, marketing and creative, legal, and administrative and customer support roles.

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All applicants applying for U.S. job openings must be legally authorized to work in the United States. Benefits are available to contract/temporary professionals, including medical, vision, dental, and life and disability insurance. Hired contract/temporary professionals are also eligible to enroll in our company 401(k) plan. Visit  for more information.

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