Junior Cost Accountant

Precision; United Arab Emirates; On-site; AED 60,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading manufacturing company in the United Arab Emirates is seeking a detail-oriented individual to oversee costing and pricing processes. This role requires a Bachelor's degree in Accounting or Finance, with 1-2 years of relevant experience. The ideal candidate will manage standard costs, monitor profitability, and support budgeting and forecasting initiatives. The position demands strong analytical skills, proficiency in Excel, and effective communication to work with various stakeholders. Excellent opportunities for professional growth are provided.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, Commerce or a related field is mandatory.
• 1-2 years of experience in costing, variance analysis, and budgeting.
• Ability to analyze complex data and provide insights.

Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain standard costs of finished goods.
• Monitor key customer/product profitability.
• Support in business process improvements.

Skills

Cost accounting principles

MS Excel tools

Analytical skills

Communication skills

Time management

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Accounting

Professional certification in Cost Accounting

Job description

Job Description

Responsible for the ongoing analysis of process constraints, target costing projects, margin analysis, and tracing costs back to underlying activities. Support Manager in preparing budgets and rolling forecasts, loading and unloading costs and expenses to correct projects/jobs, participate in the audit program to facilitate the finalization of financial statements, inventory management, costing and finance projects reporting.

Key Responsibilities

Costing and pricing

• Develop and maintain standard costs of finished goods and production components.
• Stay abreast of best cost matrices and trends in the packaging industry and advise management of same.
• Pricing/costing of new and existing products and submit to GM and FM for review.
• Managing price revision cycle, ensuring timely and accurate price update.
• Close coordination with project manager and sales team.

Portfolio management

• Monitor key customer/product profitability, perform analysis to identify profit improvement opportunities and work cross functionally to monetize the ideas and define corrective actions to drive profit.
• Responsible for tracking value generated by Cost Improvement & Value Generation activities. Identify value opportunities and cost leakages.
• Develop and implement tools and processes to guarantee the maintenance of account profitability as per contractual agreement. Including the reflection of cost variations in material and conversion, in the regularly updated price lists.
• Overall responsibility of product and customer portfolio analysis. Proactively foster initiatives for portfolio optimization and support key account financial reviews.
• Capex investment preparation and initial assessment against Company's KPI's.

Process continuous improvement

• Support in business process improvements, implementing best practices and fully utilizing ERP system capabilities.
• In close collaboration with Finance team, present tool and process improvement ideas for a faster and more accurate response to customer enquiries. Identify issues with existing procedures and use these findings to improve them or remove processes that aren’t generating value.
• Oversee the planning, development, and implementation of project efforts that utilize information technology solutions, principles, standards, and best practices.
• Critical assessment of processes and formats with a continuous improvement eye to enhance current practices, improve efficiency and fully embed way of working.
• Develop and implement best practices, processes, and toolsets for effective portfolio/project management, and take initiatives to educate staff on best practices and effective project execution.
• Ensure all documents and records are up to date and that record traceability and retrieval is upheld at all times. Ensure all processes, procedures & activities comply with ISO and management procedures.
• Lead from commercial perspective the Budgeting / Forecasting processes.

Management reports

• Prepare various financial analysis related to manufacturing costs, inventory, and expense information for various customers as needed for decision making support. Provide critical assessment of all cost projections.
• Analyzes changes in product design, raw materials, manufacturing methods, or services provided, to determine effects on costs. Analyzes actual production costs and prepares periodic reports comparing standard costs to actual production costs.
• Provides management with reports specifying and comparing factors affecting prices and profitability of products or services.
• Weekly/monthly actual reporting, assessment of performance vs Budget, previous period, SOP. Updating and maintaining databases, including pcs and tonnage.
• Work with all levels of leadership and relevant stakeholders to ensure project initiatives are managed and maintained; develop executive level presentations of the portfolio and project budget.
• Ensure compliance to Safety, Quality, Food Safety and Environment requirements as specified in the global QHSE Management System with strict adherence to ISO and local regulatory authority.

Requirements

Education/Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, Commerce, or a related field is mandatory.
• Professional certification in Cost Accounting preferred (CMA

Experience

• 1-2 years of experience in costing, variance analysis, product costing, budgeting, inventory management in Manufacturing/Engineering/Industrial or production-driven environments.

Functional Skills & Specific Knowledge

• Cost accounting principles and financial reporting standards in line with International Financial Reporting Standards.
• Knowledge of MS Excel tools and techniques.
• Knowledge and understanding of standard project management tools.
• Analytical & Detail-Oriented – Ability to analyze complex data and provide insights.
• Communication Skills – Ability to explain financial information clearly to non-financial stakeholders.
• Time Management & Organization – Handle multiple projects or deadlines.