Cost Accountant

Cost Accountant

• Co. Kildare
• Hybrid Working

Our client, a leading food manufacturing business, is seeking a qualified Cost Accountant to join their finance team.

This is a fantastic opportunity to join a fast-paced manufacturing environment, partnering with Operations, Procurement, NPD and Commercial teams to deliver robust product costing, financial insight and process improvement. You'll also play a key role in an exciting systems implementation project.

Hybrid working is available following an initial short training period, and the role comes with a genuinely attractive salary and benefits package.

The Role:

Product Costing & Financial Insight

• Own end-to-end costing for New Product Development, including product costings, recipe and packaging changes, and post-launch reviews.
• Maintain accurate product, BOM and routing costings.
• Support pricing, tenders and commercial proposals through costing, scenario modelling and sensitivity analysis.
• Lead the annual Costs of Production (COPs) budget process.
• Develop and enhance the product costing framework to support strategic decision-making and margin optimisation.
• Maintain strong controls, governance and documentation across costing processes.
• Act as a finance business partner to Operations and NPD, providing timely cost insight.
• Partner with Procurement to validate cost changes, monitor savings initiatives and maintain a clear audit trail.
• Support the implementation of a new NPD/Recipe system, including testing, data validation, go-live support and post-implementation review.

Operational Performance

• Review and analyse weekly material and labour variance reports, identifying trends and opportunities for improvement.
• Analyse and report weekly Purchase Price Variance (PPV).
• Support monthly performance reviews with commentary on cost movements, operational drivers and corrective actions.

About You:

• Professionally qualified accountant (ACA, ACCA or CIMA).
• Experience in standard costing within a manufacturing environment.
• Strong ERP systems experience, ideally IFS, including product costing, BOMs, inventory and reporting.
• Advanced Excel skills with strong analytical and reconciliation ability.
• Confident communicator, able to build relationships across Finance, Operations, Sales, Procurement and other business functions.
• Proactive, organised and solutions-focused, with the ability to thrive in a busy manufacturing environment.

What's on Offer:

• Competitive salary and benefits package.
• Hybrid working following the training period.
• Opportunity to play a key role in a major systems implementation.
• A collaborative, business-partnering finance environment.
• Excellent long-term career development within a successful and growing organisation.