Manager of Cost Accounting

Overview:

Reporting to the VP of Finance, Howmet, Howmet Structures Systems (HSS) is seeking a Cost Accounting Manager in the Cleveland area to support multiple manufacturing locations in driving and delivering continuous product costing improvement, timely and accurate work order closure and overall product portfolio profitability analysis and forecast by location.

The manufacturing locations within the Cleveland area are in Niles, Canton and Cleveland. Additional locations are in Minnesota, Missouri, Texas, Georgia, West Virginia and Laval, Canada. The position is at our Cleveland offices, but the successful candidate is expected to travel to support on-site at others as needed.

Specific Responsibilities Include:

• Work closely with Location Finance, Operations and Commercial teams to build, analyze and distribute monthly DVP report (Direct Variable Profit) by business/location. The DVP report is an essential tool utilized to understand product and customer profitability and is used to inform strategic decision making.
• Assist Location teams with improving ERP reporting and data utilization with the goal of better understanding custom/product profitability, driving process productivity and strengthening inventory and cost controllership.
• Be a strong business partner to the locations/businesses by developing a deep understanding of their systems, products and processes. Partner to drive a continuous improvement mindset and establish best practices.
• Guide Senior Leadership on strategic commercial decisions related to new contract bids, pricing decisions and productivity cost actions.
• Establish a common set of controls and procedures to ensure compliance with Howmet Accounting Standards and Guidelines.
• Manage and co-ordinate the standard costing environments at each manufacturing location to ensure congruence in a standard approach and validate accuracy of calculations for financial and business reporting.
• Ensure raw materials is appropriately costed and regularly reviewed/updated.
• Ensure inflationary costs are appropriately reflected in standards and that the frequency/cadence of updates is suitable.
• Support location Controllers with preparing standard cost rolls and challenging assumptions to align best practices across the division.
• Support Product Management with margin analysis to improve understanding of true profitability and pricing decisions.
• Be the conduit between Product Management, Operations, Engineering, IT and Finance in ensuring the accuracy of standard costs, communicating changes, and driving cost reduction initiatives.
• Understand and report reasons for locations outside of the 5% absorption tolerance for financial accounting compliance, providing supporting analysis where required.
• Educate finance and non-finance employees at manufacturing locations in cost accounting principles, approaches, analytics etc. to upskill talent.
• Provide general support to location finance teams as required, especially during periods of staff turnover.

Minimum:

• 7+ years of related experience in a manufacturing costing environment.
• Substantial experience of working with ERP systems.
• Working knowledge of US GAAP.
• Employees must be legally authorized to work in the United States. Verification of employment eligibility will be required at the time of hire. Visa sponsorship is not available for this position.
• This position is subject to the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) which requires U.S. person status. ITAR defines U.S. person as an U.S. Citizen, U.S. Permanent Resident (i.e., 'Green Card Holder'), Political Asylee, or Refugee.

Preferred:

• 10+ years of related experience in a manufacturing costing environment.
• BA or equivalent in Business, Finance or Engineering discipline.
• SAP and Oracle ERP experience desirable.
• Advanced knowledge of Microsoft Office applications.
• Accounting license/certification.

Skills:

1. 10+ years in a manufacturing environment, preferably in multiple disciplines.
2. Motivated and able to work independently with initiative to determine priorities and execute accordingly.
3. Excellent interpersonal communication skills. Equally adept at communicating with finance and non-finance colleagues with varying levels of subject understanding.
4. Efficient in summarizing findings and observations then proposing remedial actions to achieve goals.
5. Must be proficient with computer systems and programs (MS-Word, MS-Excel, MS-PowerPoint etc.) and possess analytical spreadsheet ability.
6. Flexible in meeting the needs of the role (travel, competing priorities etc.).