Job Description

Cost Accountant

Location: Waverly, Iowa

Salary: $85,000–$115,000

Position Overview

We are seeking an experienced Cost Accountant to support the financial performance of a growing manufacturing operation. This role will focus heavily on cost accounting, inventory, gross margin analysis, manufacturing variances, and month-end close activities.

The Cost Accountant will partner closely with Finance and Operations to analyze manufacturing costs, improve cost visibility, maintain accurate inventory reporting, and identify opportunities to improve profitability and operational performance.

This is an excellent opportunity for an accounting professional with strong manufacturing experience who enjoys working beyond the numbers and partnering directly with plant and operational teams.

Key Responsibilities

• Support month-end and year-end financial close activities, with a particular focus on inventory, transfers, manufacturing variances, and related journal entries.
• Calculate, analyze, and report gross profit margins to Finance and Operations leadership.
• Partner with manufacturing facilities on cycle counting, inventory accuracy, labor and overhead rates, bills of material (BOMs), and routings.
• Analyze manufacturing costs, labor absorption, overhead, and production variances to identify trends and opportunities for improvement.
• Review completed shop orders and investigate significant cost variances.
• Assist in developing and maintaining work center rates for manufacturing operations.
• Apply cost accounting principles to improve inventory management, margin analysis, cost reporting, and operational decision-making.
• Support the development of budgets, forecasts, and manufacturing cost standards.
• Perform annual standard cost roll processes, including year-over-year cost change analysis.
• Identify opportunities to improve costing processes, controls, and reporting accuracy.
• Assist the Corporate Controller and CFO with special projects, financial analysis, and operational reporting as needed.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, Business, or a related field; Accounting degree preferred.
• 5+ years of accounting or finance experience.
• Cost accounting experience required.
• Manufacturing industry experience required.
• Strong understanding of inventory accounting, standard costing, manufacturing variances, labor absorption, and overhead allocation.
• Experience working with ERP systems such as SAP, Deacom, NetSuite, Epicor, or similar platforms.
• Advanced Microsoft Excel skills and proficiency with Microsoft Office applications.
• Experience with QuickBooks is beneficial.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving capabilities.
• High level of accuracy and attention to detail.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to work effectively with Finance, Operations, and plant-level teams.
• Highly organized, self-directed, and capable of managing multiple priorities and deadlines.
• Proactive mindset with the ability to identify issues, investigate root causes, and recommend solutions.

Ideal Candidate

The ideal candidate is a hands-on manufacturing Cost Accountant who understands how activity on the plant floor ultimately impacts inventory, margins, variances, and financial results. You should be comfortable digging into the details, questioning unusual variances, and working directly with Operations to improve both financial accuracy and business performance.