Cost Accountant

Job Summary The Cost Accountant serves as a business partner to Ghirardelli’s Operations department, responsible for balanced financial support and oversight. The role requires ownership of operations financials with the ability to provide visibility and strategic financial insight, innovate new processes, and manage change while earning respect as a cross‑functional employee. Responsibilities Process order variances: collaborate with Production to collect accurate data, investigate variances, and conduct root cause analysis. Support operations with reconciling and closing process orders weekly and monthly. Prepare and present weekly and monthly operations KPIs for variance tracking and process order status. Drive Loss Eradication and Cost Savings initiatives in Operations. Analyze day‑to‑day data to support operational decisions. Month end close and forecasting: perform efficient month‑end close with accounting and cross‑functional partners; reconcile inventory and variance accounts; explain monthly process order variances, stock adjustments, and variances to budget and forecasts; maintain monthly KPI dashboard. Annual budgets for direct materials, consumption variance, and inventory: develop spending trends and variances, communicate risks and opportunities. Product costing: understanding all components of supply‑chain costs, roll‑up costing in ERP, validate standard costs, manage cost runs in SAP for budget, forecasts, and ad‑hoc simulations; maintain and improve cost component reports. Support the FI pillar: develop operations financial reporting, improvement projects, material variance analysis, and scrap rate development; full knowledge of routings and scrap rates and impact on gross profit. Inventory management: understand transactional flow of raw materials, WIP, finished goods; identify gaps in cycle count, consumption, receipts; forecast future month variances. Influence operations, supply chain, and finance leadership in business case analysis, investment requests, waste, and other areas. Ad‑hoc decision support work for Operations Team, VP Operations, and Finance leadership. Minimum Education and Experience Bachelor’s degree in accounting, finance, or related field. 2–4 years of relevant cost accounting experience. Exposure to CPG or Retail industry preferred. Product costing and process (work) order variance analysis experience. Knowledge of SAP S/4HANA (standard cost, inventory transactions, General Ledger). Strong MS Office skills, including financial modeling and business management tools. Experience with PowerBI and SAP integrated tools preferred. Strong root‑cause analysis and problem‑solving skills. Ability to prepare analysis and presentations for cross‑functional partners and senior management. Excellent analytical and communication skills. Other Job Requirements Regularly sit at a workstation. Work seated or standing for at least 8 hours in a normal office environment. Concentrate for extended periods, paying close attention to detail. Work from the office at least three days per week. Occasionally lift or move up to 25 pounds. Occasional travel may be required. Compensation Salary: $69,548 to $86,961 per year. #J-18808-Ljbffr Ghirardelli Chocolate Company