The Senior Cost Accountant is a key member of Spindrift’s finance team, responsible for building and maintaining the cost accounting framework that supports informed decision-making across the business. This role is ideal for a detail-oriented, analytically minded professional who thrives in a fast-moving CPG environment and is passionate about driving financial clarity across manufacturing, supply chain, and operations.
Responsibilities
Reporting to the Controller, the Senior Cost Accountant’s primary responsibilities are:
Cost Accounting & Inventory Management
• Own and maintain standard costing for all SKUs, including raw materials, packaging, co-manufacturing, and overhead; update standards on a defined cycle and analyze variances.
• Manage inventory accounting, including periodic physical inventory counts, cycle counts, and reconciliations between the ERP and warehouse management systems.
• Record and analyze cost of goods sold (COGS) on a monthly basis; investigate and explain variances vs. standard and prior periods.
• Maintain accurate bill of materials (BOMs) and routing data in the ERP system in collaboration with Operations and Supply Chain.
• Support month-end close by preparing COGS schedules, inventory roll-forwards, and related journal entries.
Financial Planning & Analysis (Cost-Focused)
• Partner with Operations, Supply Chain, and Procurement to develop annual cost budgets and quarterly forecasts.
• Provide variance analysis and actionable insights on manufacturing costs, freight, waste, and yields to support operational efficiency initiatives.
• Model cost impacts of new product launches, packaging changes, sourcing shifts, and contract manufacturing agreements.
• Support the annual operating plan (AOP) process by building detailed cost build-ups by product and channel.
Controls, Documentation & Continuous Improvement
• Ensure cost accounting activities comply with GAAP and internal control standards; support audit requests and external audit procedures related to inventory and COGS.
• Partner with the broader accounting team to ensure accurate financial reporting and consistent application of accounting policies.
• Identify and lead opportunities to improve cost accounting processes, reporting tools, and data integrity across systems.
• Document cost accounting policies and procedures to support scalability and cross-functional knowledge sharing.
• 3+ years of accounting experience, with at least 2 years in cost accounting or manufacturing finance; CPG, food & beverage, or consumer products experience strongly preferred.
• Strong understanding of cost accounting principles, average costing, variance analysis, and inventory valuation (FIFO/weighted average).
• Experience managing month-end close processes and preparing COGS and inventory-related schedules.
• Intermediate to advanced Excel skills (pivot tables, lookups, financial modeling); experience building reports from ERP data.
• Strong analytical, organizational, and communication skills; comfortable presenting financial data to non-finance stakeholders.
• CPA or CMA preferred but not required.
• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting required.
Preferred Tools & Experience
• Experience with NetSuite or similar ERP/accounting systems (NetSuite strongly preferred).
• Familiarity with co-manufacturing or contract manufacturing environments.
• Prior exposure to trade promotion accounting or deduction management in a CPG environment is a plus.
Working Conditions
• Must be able to work from our Newton, MA office at least 4 days a week.