Manufacturing Finance & Costing Director - Scale & Impact

Saildrone; Alameda (CA); On-site; USD 225,000 - 264,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity grants

401(k) retirement plan

Professional development reimbursement

Relocation assistance

Comprehensive health coverage

Job summary

Saildrone is seeking a Director, Manufacturing Finance & Cost Accounting to lead cost accounting, standard costing, inventory valuation, and manufacturing analytics as the company scales its defense manufacturing operations. You will partner with Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Engineering, and Executive Leadership to improve cost visibility and drive data-driven decisions.

You will own capital planning, asset accounting, and manufacturing finance processes, ensuring robust controls and scalable

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or higher in a related field.
• 12+ years of progressive experience in manufacturing finance, cost accounting, or operations finance.
• Experience leading teams in complex manufacturing environments with BOMs and inventory-intensive operations.
• Deep expertise in standard costing, inventory accounting, variance analysis, and manufacturing financial controls.
• Strong understanding of US GAAP related to inventory, capitalization, and manufacturing accounting.
• Demonstrated success building scalable processes, systems, and teams in high-growth organizations.
• Advanced ERP experience and strong analytical capabilities.
• Excellent communication and cross-functional leadership skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead the Manufacturing Finance, Fixed Assets and Cost Accounting organization, including hiring, mentoring, and developing a high-performing team.
• Own standard costing methodologies, cost rollups, inventory valuation, variance analysis, and overhead allocation processes.
• Partner with Manufacturing and Supply Chain leadership to improve operational efficiency, capacity planning, utilization, and profitability.
• Analyze material, labor, overhead, yield, scrap, and absorption performance and drive corrective actions.
• Develop product costing models to support pricing, business cases, new product introductions, and strategic investments.
• Establish periodic cost reviews to ensure standards reflect operational realities.
• Oversee inventory accounting, cycle counts, physical inventories, reserves, excess and obsolete inventory analyses, and inventory health metrics.
• Support monthly close, forecasting, budgeting, long-range planning, and executive reporting activities.
• Develop manufacturing KPIs and dashboards covering yield, throughput, utilization, labor efficiency, inventory turns, and cost performance.
• Drive ERP, MES, PLM, and reporting automation initiatives to improve data quality and scalability.
• Ensure compliance with US GAAP, SOX-style internal controls, audit requirements, and corporate accounting policies.
• Partner with Engineering and Program Management to evaluate capital investments and ROI opportunities.

Skills

Cross-functional leadership

Data-driven decision making

Analytical capabilities

Communication skills

Strong accounting knowledge

Education

Bachelor's degree in Accounting/Finance/Engineering/Business

MBA and/or CPA

Tools

ERP systems

MES

PLM

Job description

Saildrone is seeking a Director, Manufacturing Finance & Cost Accounting to lead cost accounting, standard costing, inventory valuation, and manufacturing analytics as the company scales its defense manufacturing operations. You will partner with Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Engineering, and Executive Leadership to improve cost visibility and drive data-driven decisions.

You will own capital planning, asset accounting, and manufacturing finance processes, ensuring robust controls and scalable