Cost Accountant

Position Summary

As an innovation leader, we look for ambitious, forward thinking, open-minded and well-rounded individuals to join our global team. Located in our Santa Fe office, this position performs basic to mid-level accounting activities and financial analysis and is primarily responsible for standard costing and transfer pricing for US Operations.  This includes working cross-functionally with product teams, partners and other groups to create and maintain standard costs. This is an exciting opportunity if you are looking to expand into all other aspects of operations accounting and financial reporting.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Acts as the primary contact for Gates US standard costing. This involves the annual rolling of costs, intermittent product costing for manufacturing sites throughout the year, primary supplier error correction, monthly reporting requests to site leaders and other Gates employees.
• Work with Gates affiliate partners outside of US to create transfer prices based on intercompany markup rates. Maintain transfer price lists for purchase and sale of items to and from Gates US.
• Partners with product teams, plant accountants, affiliate partners, engineering teams, etc. to streamline new product development. Specifically, this role will work to understand where product costing fits into product development workflows, improve communication and turnaround time.
• Works cross-functionally with IT to implement improvements to Oracle ERP system, specifically to improve standard costing.
• Support financial and operations management reporting, including but not limited to the following activities: intercompany purchase price variance, booking substantial journal entries, performing ad-hoc analysis, reconciliations and reporting as requested based on business needs.
• Reconciles assigned general ledger accounts. Collects supporting documentation in compliance with Gates controls and submits for review and approval. Resolves reconciling items within a reasonable timeframe and prepares data for balance sheet review processes.
• Participate in special projects as assigned.  Examples: Inventory counts at Gates US locations (potential travel), Annual budget support and Variance explanation - e.g. Purchase Price Variance.
• Plans, initiates, and completes work assignments with a minimum of direction.
• Understands and applies legal requirements and administrative policies to departmental accounting functions. Interprets and analyzes complex fiscal data, drawing logical conclusions.
• Detects possible weaknesses in the internal control of standard accounting procedures and recommends revisions.
• Solves complex problems by taking a new perspective on existing solutions; exercises judgment based on the analysis of multiple sources of information
• Performs complex professional accounting duties
• Impacts a range of customer, operational, project or service activities within own team and other related teams; works within broad guidelines and policies
• Verbally communicate accounting procedures and policies to staff and others;
• Write memos and reports clearly and concisely;
• Establish and maintain effective working relationships with others

Keys to Success

• Keeps self-control in hard situations.
• Strong Communication skills
• Problem Solving and decision making.
• Costumer focus (internal and external)
• Negotiation skills
• Creativity, proactivity, and teamwork.
• Problem Solving process.
• Exceptional attention to   internal and external customer requests
• Negotiation skills
• Requires conceptual and practical expertise in own area and general knowledge of related areas.
• Has knowledge of best practices and how own are area integrates with others; is aware of the competition and the factors that differentiate the company in the market

Supervisory Responsibilities

• None
• Acts as a resource for other team members; may lead projects with limited risks and resource requirements

Requirements and Preferred Skills

• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting or Finance
• 5 to 7 years of general/cost accounting experience
• Strong accounting knowledge with experience in all areas of general accounting
• Exceptional attention to detail and accuracy
• Strong team player: proactively able to step in to support other team members as needed and share knowledge to allow cross training of all functions, builds collaborative relationships
• Demonstrated problem solving skills: understanding of appropriate escalation points
• Works well under pressure, effectively handles conflict and demonstrates flexibility in work style to accommodate changing priorities and fixed deadlines.
• Willingness to work under time sensitive deadlines
• Strong communication skills, written and verbal
• Solid organizational capability of tasks and processes
• Takes responsibility for personal development
• Self-motivated, capable of seeking quality solutions and continuously focusing on process improvements, while keeping the needs of the business in the forefront
• Understanding of standard cost accounting, preferred
• Knowledge of Oracle financial modules, multi-site manufacturing company experience and hands-on experience doing inventory counts, preferred
• Highly proficient in Excel and PowerPoint