Cost Accounting Manager

Cost Accounting Manager

Gradian is an engineering-led, full-line thermal solutions partner serving data center and other mission-critical, commercial, and industrial markets. The Cost Accounting Manager is responsible for leading and standardizing cost accounting processes across multiple manufacturing facilities while directly managing all cost accounting activities for two assigned plants. This role will serve as the organization's subject matter expert for manufacturing costing and will lead the implementation of a standardized cost accounting system, including the company's first-time adoption of standard costing.

The Cost Accounting Manager will partner closely with Operations, Supply Chain, Engineering, Sales, and Finance leadership to improve cost visibility, strengthen margin analysis, establish consistent costing methodologies, and support strategic decision-making. The role will also provide project-specific costing support for customer quotations and sales opportunities while driving actionable variance analysis related to labor, materials, manufacturing overhead, and inventory performance.

Essential Responsibilities:

• Cost Accounting Leadership
• Lead the development, implementation, and ongoing management of standard costing across a low volume high cost manufacturing organization as well as our purchased finished good product lines.
• Design and deploy standardized costing policies, procedures, and controls across multiple manufacturing facilities.
• Establish governance and consistency in inventory valuation, labor costing, overhead allocation methodologies, and product costing processes.
• Develop and maintain standard cost models for raw materials, purchased components, labor, and manufacturing overhead.
• Ensure alignment of costing methodologies across all plants and business units.
• Plant Cost Accounting
• Serve as the primary cost accounting resource for two manufacturing plants with support of cost accounting team.
• Partner with plant management teams to monitor manufacturing performance, inventory accuracy, and cost improvement opportunities.
• Review and analyze inventory transactions, cycle count results, physical inventory adjustments, and inventory reserves.
• Ensure accurate valuation of raw materials, work-in-process, and finished goods inventories.
• Support month-end close activities related to inventory and manufacturing accounting.
• Variance Analysis and Financial Performance
• Prepare and analyze labor, material, purchase price, usage, yield, and overhead variances.
• Identify root causes of unfavorable variances and partner with plant leadership to develop corrective actions.
• Provide monthly reporting and actionable insights regarding manufacturing cost performance.
• Develop dashboards and key performance indicators to improve operational visibility.
• Monitor project profitability and manufacturing efficiency trends.
• Project and Sales Costing
• Support Partner with Sales, Engineering, and Operations teams to develop accurate cost estimates for customer projects and quotations.
• Review material requirements, labor content, production processes, and overhead impacts to support pricing decisions.
• Analyze project profitability and compare actual results to estimated costs.
• Assist commercial teams in evaluating margin opportunities and business cases for new products and projects.
• Support large customer bids and strategic commercial initiatives through detailed cost modeling.
• Process Improvement and Systems Development
• Lead the organization's transition from current costing methodologies to a comprehensive standard costing environment.
• Collaborate with ERP and IT teams to configure and optimize cost accounting functionality within enterprise systems.
• Establish cost control processes that improve data accuracy and decision-making.
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives related to costing, reporting, inventory management, and operational performance.
• Develop training programs and documentation to support adoption of standardized costing practices.
• Cross-Functional Partnership
• Work closely with Operations, Engineering, Procurement, Supply Chain, and Sales teams to ensure costing assumptions remain accurate and current.
• Support annual budgeting, forecasting, and financial planning processes.
• Assist with capital investment evaluations through cost and return analyses.
• Provide support for internal and external audits related to inventory and cost accounting matters.

Qualifications:

• Education:
  
  Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, or related field required. CPA, CMA, or equivalent professional certification preferred.
• Experience:
  
  7+ years of progressive manufacturing cost accounting experience. 3+ years of leadership or management experience preferred. Demonstrated experience supporting multiple manufacturing facilities. Experience implementing and maintaining standard costing systems. Experience in a complex manufacturing environment, preferably multi-site operations. Strong understanding of inventory accounting, BOMs, routings, labor standards,…