Senior Cost Accountant

Kforce's client, a growing consumer products organization in Cincinnati, OH, is seeking a Senior Cost Accountant to play a key role in strengthening cost visibility, improving operational performance, and supporting strategic business decisions across the enterprise. Key Responsibilities:

• Lead the monthly manufacturing close process, ensuring accurate recording of costs, journal entries, reconciliations, and financial reporting
• Analyze plant and operational cost performance to provide meaningful business insights and support decision-making
• Prepare recurring manufacturing and operational reporting packages for leadership
• Monitor supply chain cost drivers, including vendor pricing, freight, import duties, and procurement activity to ensure accurate financial treatment
• Analyze and explain cost of sales variances against budget and forecast
• Evaluate Purchase Price Variance (PPV), manufacturing efficiencies, labor utilization, scrap, and yield performance to identify trends and opportunities
• Partner with operations teams to improve financial visibility and support operational excellence initiatives
• Lead annual standard cost updates and support development of cost of sales budgets
• Maintain and enhance standard product costing methodologies
• Develop and manage Bills of Materials (BOMs), routings, and cost structures for new and existing products
• Support new product launches through detailed product costing and margin analysis
• Partner with commercial and business teams to evaluate pricing and profitability opportunities
• Support annual audit activities related to inventory, manufacturing operations, and cost accounting
• Assist with financial and tax-related reporting requirements
• Coordinate and oversee physical inventory counts and cycle count processes across internal and third-party locations
• Ensure strong financial controls and inventory accuracy across operations
• Bachelor's degree in Accounting or Finance; CPA, CMA or MBA a plus
• 5+ years of accounting experience, with at least 3 years in manufacturing cost accounting (CPG industry highly preferred)
• Financial Analysis Skills: Proficient financial modeling and analysis skills
• ERP System Proficiency: Experience working with ERP systems (Oracle preferred)
• BPM System Proficiency: Experience working with Business Performance Management systems (IBM COGNOS TM1 preferred)
• Technical Proficiency: Proficient in Microsoft Office Suite with advanced Excel skills (Pivot tables, v-lookups, and complex formulas)
• Communication Skills: Utilizes strong verbal and written skills to provide Finance and Leadership with clear cost variance narratives and analyses that explain the primary drivers of cost
• Business Travel: Ability and willingness to travel domestically