Cost Accountant

Location: Kildare (car required for this location)

Hybrid/Remote: Hybrid - 2 days WFH

Compensation: €70-75k basic plus benefits

Our client, a leading and well-known FMCG Group, is seeking to appoint a Cost Accountant who will play a key role in supporting operational and commercial teams through robust product costing, financial analysis and commercial insight. Working cross-functionally with Operations, Purchasing, Product Development and Commercial teams, you'll help drive informed decision-making, improve cost control and support long-term profitability.

Key Responsibilities

Product Costing & Commercial Support

• Take ownership of end-to-end costing for new product introductions, including initial costings, recipe and packaging changes, and post-launch financial reviews.
• Maintain accurate product, BOM and routing costings, ensuring they reflect operational data and coordinating required updates.
• Support pricing decisions, commercial proposals and tender submissions through detailed costing, scenario modelling and sensitivity analysis.
• Lead the annual Cost of Production (COP) budgeting process, ensuring robust assumptions, cross-functional collaboration and clear accountability.
• Continuously enhance the product costing framework to support strategic decision-making and margin optimisation.
• Maintain strong controls, governance and documentation across all costing processes.
• Partner with operational and product development teams, providing timely financial insight to support business decisions.
• Work closely with Procurement to validate cost changes, monitor savings initiatives and maintain a clear audit trail of cost movements.
• Support the implementation of new systems, including testing, data validation, go-live activities and post-implementation reviews.

Operational Performance & Analysis

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

Key Skills

• Qualified accountant (ACA, ACCA or CIMA).
• Experience in standard costing and variance analysis within a manufacturing or product-based environment.
• Strong ERP systems experience, with knowledge of product costing, BOMs, routings, inventory and reporting.
• Excellent analytical skills with a high level of accuracy and attention to detail.
• Confident communicating financial information to both finance and non-finance stakeholders.
• Advanced Excel skills.
• Proactive, organised and solutions-focused, with the ability to work collaboratively across multiple functions.

What's on Offer

• Opportunity to play a commercially focused role with significant cross-functional exposure.
• Broad involvement across costing, operational finance and strategic decision-making.
• Hybrid working available following an initial onboarding and training period.

Due to the high volume of applications received, we regret that we are unable to respond to all applications. Only those suitable for this position will be contacted.