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Manufacturing Cost Accountant

Location: Sealy, Texas
Company: Hailiang Copper Texas Inc. (HCTI)
Department: Finance / Accounting
Employment Type: Full-Time

Position Summary

Hailiang Copper Texas Inc. is seeking a Manufacturing Cost Accountant to support our rapidly growing manufacturing operations in Sealy, Texas. This position will be responsible for analyzing, maintaining, and reporting manufacturing costs to ensure accurate product costing, inventory valuation, financial reporting, and operational decision-making.

The Manufacturing Cost Accountant will work closely with Finance, Production, Procurement, Warehouse, Engineering, and other operational departments to understand the true cost of manufacturing our products and identify the factors driving material, labor, overhead, scrap, yield, and production variances.

This is a hands-on position requiring an individual who is comfortable working with both financial data and manufacturing operations. The successful candidate should be willing to spend time on the production floor understanding processes, material flow, inventory, and the operational activities behind the financial results. Fluency in both English and Chinese (Mandarin) is required for this position. The Manufacturing Cost Accountant will regularly communicate financial and operational information with both English-speaking and Chinese-speaking employees and management and will serve as an important communication bridge between HCTI's U.S. operations and Chinese-speaking leadership.

Essential Duties and ResponsibilitiesManufacturing Cost Accounting

• Develop, maintain, and analyze manufacturing costs for raw materials, direct labor, and manufacturing overhead.

• Maintain accurate standard costs for manufactured products.

• Compare standard costs to actual manufacturing costs and investigate significant variances.

• Analyze material usage, purchase price, labor, efficiency, overhead, scrap, yield, and other manufacturing variances.

• Prepare regular cost and variance reports for Finance and operational management.

• Identify trends, unusual transactions, and cost drivers affecting manufacturing performance.

• Assist management in understanding the financial impact of production decisions and operational changes.

• Review manufacturing processes and cost structures to identify opportunities for improved cost control and profitability.

Inventory & Product Costing

• Support accurate valuation of raw materials, work-in-process (WIP), and finished goods inventory.

• Reconcile inventory records to the general ledger and investigate discrepancies.

• Work with Warehouse and Production personnel to research inventory differences and manufacturing transactions.

• Participate in and support physical inventories and cycle counts.

• Review inventory adjustments and identify recurring causes of inventory discrepancies.

• Assist with analysis of obsolete, slow-moving, damaged, or excess inventory.

• Maintain and review product costing information within the company's ERP system.

• Review Bills of Materials (BOMs), production routings, material consumption, labor assumptions, and overhead allocations for costing accuracy.

• Support costing for new products, new manufacturing processes, and changes to existing products.

Manufacturing Variance Analysis

• Analyze and report variances between planned, standard, and actual manufacturing results.

• Investigate significant:

  • Material price variances

  • Material usage variances

  • Labor rate and efficiency variances

  • Manufacturing overhead variances

  • Scrap and yield variances

  • Inventory variances

  • Production volume and absorption variances

• Work directly with Production and department leadership to identify the operational causes behind significant variances.

• Translate financial results into clear information that operational managers can use to improve performance.

• Track corrective actions and recurring cost issues when appropriate.

Month-End & Financial Reporting

• Support the monthly and year-end financial close processes.

• Prepare manufacturing and inventory-related journal entries and account reconciliations.

• Support accurate calculation and reporting of Cost of Goods Sold (COGS).

• Reconcile manufacturing, inventory, WIP, and cost-related accounts.

• Prepare monthly manufacturing cost reports and supporting schedules.

• Assist with gross-margin and product profitability analysis.

• Research unusual financial results and provide explanations to Finance leadership.

• Ensure manufacturing transactions are recorded accurately and in the appropriate accounting period.

Budgeting, Forecasting & Operational Support

• Assist with annual manufacturing budgets and periodic forecasts.

• Develop and maintain labor and manufacturing overhead rates.

• Analyze actual manufacturing costs against budgets and forecasts.

• Provide financial analysis for production improvements, equipment investments, process changes, sourcing decisions, and other operational initiatives.

• Support management with product profitability, cost reduction, and operational efficiency analysis.

• Assist with capital expenditure analysis and tracking as needed.

• Develop reports and KPIs that improve visibility into manufacturing cost performance.

Internal Controls & Audit Support

• Maintain appropriate documentation supporting manufacturing costing methodologies and calculations.

• Assist with the development and improvement of internal controls related to inventory and manufacturing accounting.

• Support internal and external audits by preparing documentation, reconciliations, reports, and supporting schedules.

• Help ensure accounting practices comply with applicable GAAP requirements and company accounting policies.

• Identify opportunities to improve accounting processes, reporting accuracy, ERP utilization, and financial controls.

QualificationsRequired

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

• Bilingual fluency in English and Chinese (Mandarin) is required. Candidates must be able to communicate effectively in both languages in a professional business and manufacturing environment.

• Ability to discuss accounting, cost, inventory, production, and financial matters with both English-speaking and Chinese-speaking employees and management.

• Minimum 3 years of accounting experience, preferably including cost accounting experience within a manufacturing or industrial environment.

• Strong understanding of manufacturing cost concepts, including:

  • Standard costing

  • Inventory accounting

  • Work-in-process

  • Cost of Goods Sold

  • Material, labor, and overhead costs

  • Manufacturing variance analysis

• Strong Microsoft Excel skills, including experience working with large datasets, PivotTables, lookups, formulas, and financial analysis.

• Experience working with an ERP or manufacturing accounting system.

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.

• Excellent attention to detail and commitment to financial accuracy.

• Ability to communicate financial information effectively to employees and managers outside of Finance.

• Ability to work independently while collaborating across multiple departments.

Preferred

• 3–5+ years of manufacturing cost accounting experience.

• Experience in a high-volume or process-manufacturing environment.

• Experience with metals, copper, tubing, extrusion, casting, rolling, fabrication, or other industrial manufacturing is highly desirable.

• Experience maintaining standard costs, BOMs, routings, and manufacturing overhead rates.

• Experience with inventory control, cycle counts, and physical inventories.

• Experience working in a rapidly growing or evolving manufacturing organization.

• CPA, CMA, MBA, or progress toward a professional accounting certification is a plus.

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities

• Strong understanding of the relationship between production activity and financial results.

• Ability to investigate a cost variance beyond the accounting system and determine what occurred operationally.

• Strong financial and quantitative analytical abilities.

• Ability to organize and analyze large amounts of manufacturing and financial data.

• Ability to establish productive working relationships with Production, Warehouse, Procurement, Engineering, and Finance personnel.

• Ability to serve as a communication bridge between English-speaking and Chinese-speaking Finance, Production, and management teams.

• Comfortable working in both an office and manufacturing-floor environment.

• Ability to manage multiple priorities and meet month-end and reporting deadlines.

• Strong sense of ownership and accountability.

• Ability to identify problems, investigate root causes, and recommend practical solutions.

Work Environment

This position is based onsite at Hailiang Copper Texas Inc. in Sealy, Texas. While the position primarily performs professional accounting and analytical work in an office environment, regular interaction with manufacturing operations is expected.

The Manufacturing Cost Accountant should be willing to spend time in production and warehouse areas to understand manufacturing processes, inventory movements, material consumption, scrap, labor utilization, and other operational activities affecting product costs.

Ideal Candidate

The ideal candidate is more than a traditional accountant. We are looking for someone who wants to understand how the factory operates and why the numbers look the way they do.

A successful Manufacturing Cost Accountant at HCTI will be able to take a manufacturing variance, trace it back to the underlying production activity, work with operations to understand what happened, and explain the financial impact clearly to management.

This individual should be analytical, curious, detail-oriented, comfortable challenging inconsistencies, and interested in helping a rapidly growing manufacturing organization develop stronger cost controls and greater visibility into its manufacturing performance. The ideal candidate will also be fully comfortable communicating complex financial and manufacturing information in both English and Chinese (Mandarin) and working across HCTI's U.S. and Chinese management teams.