Cost Accountant/Financial Analyst

Job Description

Job Description

Job Summary

Responsible for job costing, financial analysis, and reporting in a CNC machining and gear cutting job shop environment. This role owns job-level cost tracking from quote to close — analyzing actual vs. estimated costs on machined and gear-cut parts, maintaining machine and labor rates, and partnering with and shop floor leadership to protect margins on every job.

Key Responsibilities

• Maintain job cost records for each work order, capturing material, direct labor, machine time, tooling, and outside processing (heat treat, plating, grinding, gear inspection)

• Analyze actual vs. quoted/estimated costs at job close-out; report margin erosion and root causes (setup overruns, cycle time variances, scrap, rework)

• Develop and maintain machine hour rates by work center (CNC lathes, mills, hobbing, shaping, gear grinding) including depreciation, tooling, and overhead

• Support estimating/quoting with cost data on setup times, run times, material yield, and outside service costs; perform quote vs. actual analysis to improve future quoting accuracy

• Track and analyze setup vs. run time by job and machine; identify low-margin part numbers and customers

• Reconcile WIP by job and perform monthly WIP valuation, including percent-complete assessment on long-running jobs

• Monitor scrap, rework, and first-pass yield by job, machine, and operator; quantify cost impact

• Track perishable tooling costs (inserts, hobs, cutters, grinding wheels) and allocate to jobs/work centers

• Cost and reconcile raw material (bar stock, forgings, castings) 

• Analyze capital requests for new machines (ROI, payback, capacity impact on machine rates)

• Support month-end close: WIP-to-finished goods transfers, COGS, inventory reserves (slow-moving, obsolete), and job cost journal entries

• Assist with physical inventory and cycle counts of raw material, WIP, tooling, and finished goods

• Partner with operations and purchasing on cost reduction and pricing decisions

• Provide backup & support to Division Controller on critical job functions (Banking, payroll, financial close, KPI & Scorecard reporting, special projects & initiatives as assigned)

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, or related field

• 2–5 years of cost accounting experience in a job shop, machine shop, or manufacturing environment

• Working knowledge of job costing, machine hour rate development, and WIP accounting

• Familiarity with routings, work orders, and shop floor data collection (labor/machine time reporting)

• ERP experience with job shop systems (e.g., JobBOSS, E2/ProShop, Global Shop, Epicor, Infor, or similar)

• Advanced Excel skills (pivot tables, lookups, cost models)

• Solid understanding of GAAP as applied to inventory and cost of sales

• CPA, CMA, or progress toward certification a plus

• Ability to walk the shop floor and communicate effectively with machinists and supervisors 

Preferred Experience

• Exposure to gear manufacturing processes (hobbing, shaping, gear grinding, heat treatment) and their cost drivers

• Experience supporting quoting/estimating in a make-to-order environment