Cost Accounting Manager

Company Description

*This position can be located in either Paso Roles or Bakersfield, CA.*

In beautiful California wine country, JUSTIN Vineyards & Winery country operates with a desire to make world class wines that reflect the unique soils and climate of the area. We take great pride in making Bordeaux-style blends and single varietals, combining Old World tradition with New World techniques.  

As our wine business continues to grow, we are currently seeking a Cost Accounting Manager to provide gold-standard cost accounting for all of our wine brands, including JUSTIN Vineyards & Winery, Lewis Cellars and Landmark Winery. The Cost Accounting Manager is responsible for leading the cost accounting function, including standard cost rollups & analysis of actuals, month-end close entries, and reconciliation of inventory accounts. This position will lead process improvement initiatives across departments to improve the accuracy and efficiency of our costing processes. The Cost Accounting Manager ensures financial accuracy and crafts presentations for senior management on cost of wine processes, inventory value, trends, and P&L impacts. If you are a seasoned manufacturing Cost Accountant eager to lean into new technology and drive continuous improvement in Costing processes, this is a terrific opportunity for you.

Our Cost Accounting Manager is expected to provide subject matter expertise in costing and inventory management, to communicate effectively with senior management, and to grow key stakeholders’ understanding of our end-to-end costing processes, from grape harvest through winemaking, cellaring, bottling, warehousing, and shipping. This role partners closely with our Winemakers, Grower Relations, Logistics, Planning, Sourcing, IT, and Finance teams. The Cost Accounting Manager reports to our Controller in Paso Robles and is eligible for our hybrid work model.

From a cultural standpoint, the successful candidate seeks to build strong relationships and trust across functional lines and role levels, thrives on adding value to their team and to business partners, and will "roll up their sleeves" to produce high quality work products. This role requires a seasoned Cost Accountant with outstanding interpersonal, verbal, and written communication skills, as well as a strong drive to nourish and develop an understanding of cost accounting across our business.

Job Description

• Manage daily production accounting and monthly, quarterly, and year end cost accounting close processes including all required journal entries, analytical review of inventory and production costs (balance sheet and P&L), and explain cost drivers
• In partnership with key stakeholders, refine and document processes to define the standard cost of finished goods, and to validate and update standards to actuals as wines are bottled
• Refine and improve the valuation process for bulk wine, i.e. work-in-process inventory (grapes, allocated labor and overhead, and barrels), maintaining clear documentation to support financial adjustments to inventory
• Oversee inventory valuation by account and location, and research/resolve discrepancies, including partnering with Production teams to understand inventory activity and production variances
• Partner with Logistics and Hospitality teams to ensure finished goods accuracy at 3rd party warehouses and Hospitality locations, including coordinating and conducting periodic full-physical inventory counts, auditing cycle counts, reviewing transfer processes, and validating inventory adjustments to ensure financial accuracy
• Partner with Planning team to identify Excess and Obsolete inventory, quantify risks, and recommend inventory reserves
• Partner with FP&A team to analyze and communicate cost drivers, trends, and variances for monthly, quarterly, and year-end financial reporting
• Leverage our Oracle financial systems and Crafted/NetSuite production system to develop, test, and implement value-added reporting tools, ensure proper costing controls are in place, and identify and implement system enhancements to improve processes and efficiencies
• Identify and drive continuous improvement initiatives across our business, with a goal of enabling our people to eliminate waste, better utilize talent and skills, and reduce time spent on manual processes

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in business, accounting, or finance
• CPA, CMA, or master’s degree is a plus
• 5+ years of hands-on experience in manufacturing cost accounting
• Familiarity with US GAAP accounting and reporting with respect to inventory
• Cost accounting experience in the food/beverage industry preferred
• Ability to organize, analyze and interpret financial data and proactively research and resolve complex accounting issues
• Robust and meti