Cost Reduction Manager Jobs in Longview, TX (NOW HIRING)

About the Opportunity

A well-established and growing manufacturer is seeking a Senior Cost Accountant to play a key role in plant financial operations, product costing, inventory accounting, and manufacturing performance analysis.

This is a hands-on position for an accounting professional who understands how activity on the manufacturing floor translates into financial results. The Senior Cost Accountant will work closely with Accounting, Operations, Supply Chain, Engineering, and Plant Leadership to maintain accurate product costs, analyze manufacturing variances, improve inventory accuracy, and identify opportunities to improve profitability.

The ideal candidate has strong manufacturing cost-accounting experience and enjoys working directly with operations rather than solely from a corporate accounting environment.

Key Responsibilities

Cost Accounting & Manufacturing Analysis

• Maintain and improve standard costs for materials, labor, overhead, and manufactured products.
• Perform product cost roll-ups and support new-product costing.
• Maintain and analyze bills of material (BOMs), routings, labor standards, overhead rates, and work-center costs.
• Analyze manufacturing variances including:
• Material usage
• Purchase price
• Labor efficiency
• Yield
• Scrap
• Volume
• Mix
• Overhead absorption
• Investigate significant cost variances and partner with operations to identify root causes and corrective actions.
• Monitor product margins, manufacturing costs, labor productivity, and cost-per-unit trends.
• Support pricing analysis, make-versus-buy decisions, and operational improvement initiatives.
• Validate cost savings and productivity improvements.

Inventory Accounting

• Manage accounting for raw materials, work in process (WIP), and finished goods inventory.
• Perform inventory valuation and reconciliation between production systems, subledgers, and the general ledger.
• Support and/or lead cycle counts and annual physical inventory.
• Research inventory discrepancies and recommend corrective actions.
• Analyze slow-moving, excess, and obsolete inventory and assist with reserve calculations.
• Partner with Production, Purchasing, Planning, and Warehouse teams to improve inventory accuracy.

Month-End Close & Financial Reporting

• Support the monthly and year-end financial close.
• Prepare and review journal entries, accruals, reconciliations, and financial schedules.
• Prepare entries and analysis related to COGS, inventory, WIP, labor, overhead, and manufacturing variances.
• Prepare monthly manufacturing reports and variance explanations for management.
• Ensure manufacturing accounting activity is accurately reflected in the general ledger.
• Assist with financial statement preparation and management reporting.

Budgeting, Forecasting & Financial Analysis

• Support the annual budgeting and periodic forecasting processes.
• Develop manufacturing cost, labor, overhead, and inventory forecasts.
• Analyze actual results against budget, forecast, and prior periods.
• Identify financial risks, opportunities, and trends affecting plant performance.
• Develop models and analysis to support operational and strategic decisions.

Operations Partnership

• Serve as a financial partner to plant and operations leadership.
• Translate manufacturing performance into clear financial insights.
• Work with Operations and Engineering to evaluate production efficiency, scrap, labor utilization, yields, and manufacturing costs.
• Provide financial analysis for continuous-improvement and cost-reduction projects.
• Help promote greater cost awareness and financial accountability throughout the plant.

Capital & Fixed Assets

• Support financial analysis for capital expenditure requests.
• Prepare ROI, payback, and cost-benefit analyses for capital and operational projects.
• Track capital spending against approved budgets.
• Support fixed-asset accounting, including additions, transfers, depreciation, and disposals.

Controls & Audit Support

• Maintain strong internal controls over inventory, manufacturing costs, purchasing, and accounting transactions.
• Ensure compliance with GAAP and company accounting policies.
• Provide cost and inventory documentation for internal and external audits.
• Identify opportunities to strengthen accounting controls and improve processes.
• Maintain accurate and complete supporting documentation.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, Business, or related field.
• 3+ years of progressive accounting experience, preferably within manufacturing.
• Hands-on manufacturing cost-accounting experience.
• Strong knowledge of:
• Standard costing
• BOMs
• Inventory accounting
• WIP
• COGS
• Labor and overhead allocation
• Manufacturing variance analysis
• Experience with month-end close, journal entries, reconciliations, and general ledger accounting.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Advanced Microsoft Excel skills.
• Experience using an ERP or manufacturing accounting system.
• Ability to communicate financial information effectively to both accounting and operational teams.
• Strong attention to detail and ability to manage multiple priorities.

Preferred Qualifications

• CPA, CMA, MBA, or progress toward certification.
• Experience with SAP, Oracle, NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics, JD Edwards, Epicor, or another manufacturing ERP.
• Experience with Power BI or other business-intelligence/reporting tools.
• Exposure to Lean manufacturing, Six Sigma, or continuous-improvement programs.
• Experience supporting multiple plants or manufacturing locations.
• Experience with audit support and internal controls.

What Success Looks Like

The successful Senior Cost Accountant will:

• Deliver accurate and timely manufacturing cost information.
• Improve visibility into product costs and manufacturing variances.
• Strengthen inventory accuracy and controls.
• Build strong relationships with plant and operations leadership.
• Identify meaningful cost and profitability opportunities.
• Improve the efficiency and accuracy of cost-accounting processes.
• Provide actionable financial information that helps operations make better decisions.
• Demonstrate the ability to grow into broader plant-finance or Controller-level responsibilities.

Why Consider This Opportunity?

This position offers significant visibility within the organization and the opportunity to work directly with both finance and manufacturing leadership. The Senior Cost Accountant will have a meaningful impact on product costing, plant performance, inventory management, profitability, and continuous improvement while developing the experience needed for future advancement within the finance organization.