Cost Accountant - Manufacturing

Cost Accountant – Manufacturing

Location: Peterborough area
Salary: £55,000 – £60,000 per annum
Hours: Monday to Friday
Type: Permanent

The Role

This is not your typical desk-based Cost Accountant role .

Yes, there are spreadsheets. Yes, there is analysis. And yes, there will be plenty of numbers.

But a big part of this job is getting out onto the actual manufacturing floor , understanding how products are being made, talking to the people running the operation and working out exactly where money is being spent — and where it doesn’t need to be.

You’ll work closely with Production Managers, Operations Managers and senior leaders to understand the true cost of manufacturing.

That means looking at everything from raw materials, labour and machine time through to waste, downtime, productivity, packaging, energy and overheads.

You’ll be following the process from one end to the other.

What does this stage cost? Why does it cost that much? Why has it increased? Where are we losing money? Can we manufacture it differently? Can we make it more efficiently?

This business isn’t looking for someone to simply report the numbers after the event.

They want someone who will get underneath them .

Someone commercially minded enough to understand what the figures are telling them, but operational enough to walk onto the shop floor, speak to the managers and teams involved and understand what is actually happening in real life.

Because Excel will tell you there’s a problem.

It won’t necessarily tell you why.

What You'll Be Doing

• Working directly with manufacturing and production teams to understand the true cost of producing each product
• Spending time on the shop floor observing manufacturing processes and understanding how each stage operates
• Breaking manufacturing costs down by individual process, product, production line or department
• Analysing raw material, labour, machinery, energy, packaging, waste and overhead costs
• Working closely with Production Managers and Operations Managers to understand where costs are being generated
• Reviewing manufacturing processes and identifying opportunities to reduce cost without compromising quality
• Investigating cost variances and establishing the operational reason behind them
• Comparing actual manufacturing costs against standard costs, budgets and forecasts
• Analysing material usage and investigating adverse material variances
• Reviewing labour efficiency, overtime, productivity and overall production performance
• Analysing machine utilisation, downtime and the financial impact of lost production
• Reviewing scrap, rework and waste and calculating exactly what this is costing the business
• Understanding product profitability and identifying products or processes where margins are being squeezed
• Working with managers to develop practical cost-saving initiatives
• Putting financial values against operational improvements and proposed process changes
• Tracking savings and measuring whether improvement projects are delivering what was expected
• Reviewing existing product costing models and making sure they accurately reflect what is happening within production
• Updating costs when materials, labour rates, manufacturing processes or production volumes change
• Supporting new product costing and helping establish realistic manufacturing costs before products move into full production
• Challenging assumptions where manufacturing costs don’t stack up
• Producing meaningful costing reports and management information
• Presenting findings clearly to both finance and non-finance managers
• Supporting budgeting, forecasting and financial planning
• Analysing manufacturing KPIs and translating operational performance into financial impact
• Working collaboratively across Finance, Manufacturing, Operations, Procurement, Engineering and Supply Chain
• Supporting continuous improvement and efficiency projects across the manufacturing operation

What You’ll Need

There is one requirement that really isn't negotiable:

You MUST come from a manufacturing or production environment.

This role needs someone who already understands manufacturing costing and has worked closely with the operational side of a business.

You need to be comfortable getting out from behind the desk.

We’re looking for someone who has previously walked the factory floor, sat down with Production Managers, challenged costs, investigated variances and properly understood how the product is being manufactured before trying to explain what it costs .

You’ll ideally have strong experience in:

• Manufacturing cost accounting
• Product costing
• Standard costing
• Actual versus standard cost analysis
• Cost variance analysis
• Material cost and usage analysis
• Labour costing and efficiency analysis
• Manufacturing overhead allocation
• Scrap, waste and rework analysis
• Product profitability and margin analysis
• Working closely with Production and Operations Managers
• Identifying cost reduction opportunities
• Supporting continuous improvement projects
• Budgeting and forecasting within a manufacturing operation
• ERP / MRP systems
• Advanced Excel and detailed financial analysis

You’ll also need to be confident enough to challenge.

Not for the sake of challenging — nobody needs that person.

But if the numbers don’t make sense, you need to keep asking questions until they do.

What You Might Not Like

If you want a traditional accounting role where you spend most of your week behind a desk producing reports, this probably isn't it.

You’ll be out in the operation.

You could be standing next to a production line discussing material usage one minute, sitting with a Production Manager investigating labour costs the next, and then back at your desk putting the numbers around what you've discovered.

You’ll need to be comfortable getting into the detail.

Sometimes really into the detail.

One cost variance might lead you through materials, labour, machine efficiency, downtime and waste before you finally find the answer.

And when you do find something that doesn't look right, you'll be expected to challenge it.

This isn't a role for somebody who wants to simply report:

"Costs have increased by 8%."

They want the person who asks:

"Why have they increased by 8%, what's causing it and what are we going to do about it?"

Big difference.

What To Do Next

If you’re an experienced Cost Accountant from a manufacturing or production environment and enjoy getting beyond the spreadsheet to understand how a business actually works, I want to speak to you.

You don't need a CV containing every buzzword known to finance.

What I want to understand is:

• What type of manufacturing environment have you worked in?
• How closely have you worked with Production and Operations?
• Have you physically spent time on the shop floor understanding processes?
• What areas of manufacturing cost have you analysed?
• Have you identified genuine cost savings or efficiencies?
• Can you give examples of where your analysis actually changed the way something was done?

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