Accounting Manager

Job Overview

The Haulage Cost Accounting Manager is responsible for leading cost accounting, standard cost governance, product cost analysis, and financial support for the Haulage product portfolio. This role partners closely with Operations, Engineering, Supply Chain, Commercial, and Finance leadership to ensure accurate product costing, strengthen cost transparency, support new product development decisions, and identify opportunities to improve profitability.

The position serves as a key finance business partner to the Haulage organization, providing financial insight into standard costs, manufacturing performance, design changes, sourcing decisions, cost reduction initiatives, and margin improvement opportunities. The role also leads efforts to standardize costing processes, reporting metrics, controls, and forecasting capabilities across the North America manufacturing footprint.

Key Job Responsibilities

Major Responsibilities 

1. Lead standard cost maintenance, governance, and accuracy for Haulage original equipment and related aftermarket parts in the U.S.
2. Own Haulage original equipment standard costs, including support for New Product Development, product changes, and sold-order decisions.
3. Partner with Operations, Engineering, Supply Chain, and Commercial teams to evaluate the financial impact of design concepts, sourcing strategies, manufacturing decisions, and product cost changes.
4. Manage cost estimates for engineering concepts, new product introductions, and modifications to existing Haulage products.
5. Lead cross-functional efforts to identify cost drivers, develop cost-out action plans, and support profitability improvement initiatives across the Haulage portfolio.
6. Partner with finance and operations teams to standardize cost accounting practices, reporting metrics, policies, forecasting processes, and internal controls.
7. Provide financial analytics, operational metrics, and business insights through data visualization, product cost analysis, and management reporting.
8. Ensure compliance with accounting policies, SOX requirements, audit expectations, and internal control standards.

Key Responsibilities

• Manage Haulage standard costing (master data, BOMs, routings, production versions, info records).
• Ensure accurate, timely costing of new materials to support end-to-end operations and reporting.
• Own standard cost reviews (monthly estimates, changes, cost driver analysis).
• Improve cost accuracy, consistency, transparency, and accounting processes/systems.
• Lead cost estimation for NPD, upgrades, and design changes; analyze BOMs, routings, and inputs.
• Partner cross-functionally to assess cost impacts and support business cases, pricing, and strategy.
• Identify and execute cost reduction and cost-out initiatives with Operations and Supply Chain.
• Lead make-vs-buy analysis, evaluating total landed cost and supply chain impacts.
• Deliver insights on cost trends, variances, margins, and operational drivers.
• Standardize costing, reporting, and forecasting with Accounting and Operations; support integration.
• Develop analytics/visualizations to improve cost and performance transparency.
• Ensure compliance with accounting policies, SOX controls, and audit requirements; manage auditors.
• Identify control gaps, data issues, and risks; drive corrective actions.
• Provide accounting guidance and ensure responsible, controlled use of AI and data tools.

Qualifications/Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in accounting, Finance, Business, or related field required.
• CPA, CMA, or MBA preferred.
• Extensive experience in cost accounting, manufacturing finance, operations accounting, or product costing.
• Strong understanding of standard costing, inventory accounting, manufacturing variances, BOMs, routings, labor and overhead rates, and product cost structures.
• SAP experience is strongly preferred.
• Experience supporting manufacturing operations, engineering, supply chain, and commercial teams.
• Strong analytical, communication, and business partnering skills.
• Ability to lead process improvement, standardization, and cross-functional initiatives.
• Strong understanding of internal controls, SOX compliance, audit support, and accounting policy application.
• Strong experience with data visualization, reporting tools, and operational analytics.
• Experience with AI-enabled analytics, automation tools, data visualization, or digital finance transformation preferred.

Additional Information

Leadership Expectations

• The Haulage Cost Accounting Manager is expected to lead with business partnership, ownership, and continuous improvement mindset. This role should challenge existing processes, improve cost transparency, and help the organization make better decisions through accurate financial data and practical business insight.
• The successful candidate will be comfortable operating across functions, influencing without direct authority, translating complex cost information into clear business recommendations, and driving standardization across teams, plants, systems, and processes.