Cost Accountant Jobs in Appleton, WI (NOW HIRING)

About the Role

Jor-Mac is looking for a highly capable Manufacturing Cost Accountant who wants to play a meaningful role in improving how a growing manufacturing business understands cost, margin, operational performance, and profitability.

This is not a traditional accounting role limited to month-end close and routine reporting. We are looking for someone who is curious, analytical, hands-on, and comfortable working directly with operations to understand what is really happening on the plant floor. The right person will help connect quoting, routings, labor, material, ERP data, and actual job performance into clear financial insight that drives better business decisions.

Jor-Mac uses an average costing methodology, so this role requires someone who can work effectively in an average cost environment while still helping the business understand true job profitability, margin trends, costing accuracy, and operational performance. The focus is not simply maintaining cost records, but improving the quality of cost information and making it more actionable across the business.

This role is ideal for someone with strong manufacturing accounting experience who wants to help build better systems, improve visibility, challenge assumptions, and create scalable processes inside a growing organization.

Key Responsibilities

• Perform detailed margin analysis by customer, job, product family, process, work center, and business segment.

• Analyze quote vs. router vs. actual job performance to identify margin leakage, costing issues, routing errors, pricing concerns, and operational improvement opportunities.

• Work within an average costing environment to improve cost visibility, inventory accuracy, job profitability analysis, and management reporting.

• Partner with operations, estimating, production, purchasing, and leadership to improve cost accuracy, margin visibility, and overall profitability insight.

• Support ERP cleanup and data integrity efforts, including item costs, routings, labor assumptions, and job costing inputs.

• Develop practical reporting tools that improve plant performance visibility and help leadership understand what is driving financial results.

• Help build dashboards, reports, and recurring analysis that translate complex manufacturing data into simple, actionable insights.

• Use Excel, ERP data, AI tools, and automation techniques to eliminate manual work and improve the speed, accuracy, and usefulness of financial reporting.

• Support month-end close activities related to inventory, job costing, WIP, cost of goods sold, cost trends, and manufacturing performance.

• Identify process gaps and recommend solutions that improve costing accuracy, operational discipline, and management reporting.

• Communicate findings clearly to both financial and non-financial leaders.

• Challenge assumptions respectfully and constructively when data shows a process, estimate, router, cost model, or operating practice needs to change.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, or a closely related field.

• Minimum of 3 years of accounting experience in a manufacturing environment.

• Strong understanding of job costing, inventory, cost of goods sold, labor, material, WIP, cost trends, and manufacturing performance analysis.

• Advanced Excel skills, including the ability to work with large data sets, build models, analyze trends, and create repeatable reporting tools.

• Strong analytical ability with a practical, business-oriented mindset.

• Comfortable working directly with operations and spending time understanding processes on the plant floor.

• Strong communication skills, including the ability to explain complex financial and operational issues in simple, actionable terms.

• Demonstrated ability to improve processes, solve problems, and create better ways of working.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in metal fabrication, sheet metal manufacturing, custom fabrication, or job shop manufacturing.

• Experience working in an average costing environment.

• Experience with MIE Trak or another manufacturing ERP system.

• Experience with Power BI or other business intelligence/reporting tools.

• Experience using AI tools, automation, or workflow improvements to reduce manual reporting and improve decision-making.

• Exposure to quote-to-cash, estimating, routing, production reporting, and job performance analysis.

• Experience supporting multi-site manufacturing operations.

What Makes Someone Successful in This Role

The successful candidate will be someone who does not simply report the numbers but wants to understand what is behind them.

You should be naturally curious, solutions-oriented, process-minded, and willing to dig into the details. You should be comfortable asking questions, walking the floor, validating assumptions, and working cross-functionally with people in accounting, operations, estimating, purchasing, and leadership.

This role requires someone who can balance accuracy with practicality. We need someone who can identify problems, simplify complexity, and help the organization make better decisions faster.

The right person will be comfortable working in imperfect systems, improving data quality over time, and building reporting that helps the business move from reactive analysis to proactive decision-making.

Why Join Jor-Mac

Jor-Mac is a growing manufacturing company with significant opportunities ahead. Following a recent acquisition, we are working to integrate two operating locations, strengthen our processes, improve visibility across the business, and operate as one unified company.

This role will be directly involved in that transformation. The Manufacturing Cost Accountant will help improve how we analyze margins, evaluate job performance, clean up ERP data, understand plant performance, and use financial information to drive better operational decisions.

Jor-Mac is also investing in process modernization, automation, and smarter use of technology. We are looking for someone who can help us use tools like Excel, ERP data, Power BI, AI, and automation to reduce manual work, improve reporting speed, and create better insight for leadership and operations.

This is a high-impact role with direct visibility to executive leadership. For the right person, it is an opportunity to help shape better systems, stronger processes, and more useful financial reporting inside a business that is actively investing in its future.

As Jor-Mac continues to grow, this role has the potential to grow with the organization and evolve into new opportunities within the business.

Work Arrangement

This role may be based onsite at either Jor-Mac location. A hybrid schedule may be available, but the role requires a minimum of 3 days per week onsite. Because this position works closely with manufacturing operations, regular in-person interaction with the plant, leadership, and cross-functional teams is essential.

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS:

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to sit, use hands to finger, handle, or touch objects, tools, or controls; and talk and hear. The employee is occasionally required to stand, walk, and reach above shoulders. The employee will occasionally lift and/or move drawings, files, parts, components, and manuals weighing up to 25 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this position include close vision and the ability to adjust focus.