Cost Accountant

The opportunity

Cyclic Materials is building a circular supply chain for rare earth elements and other critical materials. We are seeking a hands-on Cost Accountant to strengthen cost visibility, inventory integrity, and financial decision-making across our Canadian and US manufacturing operations.

This role is ideal for a manufacturing finance professional who enjoys working close to the plant floor. You will own core cost-accounting processes, partner with Operations and Supply Chain, and turn production data into practical insights that improve margins, working capital, and operational performance.

What you will do

• Maintain and continuously improve the standard cost system for raw materials, work in process, finished goods, labour, burden, and manufacturing overhead.
• Prepare and explain monthly production variances, including purchase price, material usage, labour efficiency, yield, scrap, volume, and overhead absorption.
• Lead cost-accounting activities for month-end close, including inventory valuation, accruals, journal entries, account reconciliations, and cost-of-goods-sold analysis.
• Perform inventory reconciliations and cycle-count analysis; investigate discrepancies and support corrective actions that strengthen inventory accuracy and controls.
• Develop product, process, and customer profitability analysis to support pricing, make-versus-buy decisions, sourcing choices, and capacity planning.
• Support annual budgeting, forecasting, and periodic reforecasting for manufacturing costs, inventory, capital projects, and plant performance.
• Support capital-expenditure tracking, project cost reviews, fixed-asset accounting, and post-investment analysis in collaboration with project owners.
• Contribute to external audits, internal controls, accounting-policy compliance, and the documentation of scalable processes as the business grows.

What you bring

• Bachelor’s degree in accounting, finance, business, or a related discipline; CMA strongly preferred.
• Four to five years of progressive accounting experience in an industrial manufacturing environment, with meaningful responsibility for cost accounting and inventory.
• Strong knowledge of standard costing, manufacturing variances, inventory valuation, cost of goods sold, and month-end close.
• Hands-on experience using Microsoft Dynamics – Business Central ERP is a definite advantage.
• Experience working with ERP and manufacturing systems; comfort extracting, reconciling, and analysing high-volume operational and financial data.
• Advanced Excel skills, including pivot tables, lookup functions, data modelling, and clear management reporting.
• Sound understanding of Canadian accounting requirements and internal-control principles; experience with USGAAP and IFRS is an asset.
• Strong analytical judgment and the ability to move from a variance or data issue to root cause, business impact, and practical action.
• Clear communication skills and the confidence to work constructively with production, engineering, procurement, and senior finance stakeholders.
• Demonstrated attention to detail, ownership, and the ability to manage deadlines in a dynamic, scaling organization.

Professional designation

Highly preferred: a US or Canadian CMA designation, or active and demonstrable progress toward completing the Cost Accounting program. Equivalent combinations of relevant education and directly applicable manufacturing cost-accounting experience may be considered.

What will help you succeed

• A practical, floor-to-finance mindset: you are comfortable validating assumptions where work happens, not only in spreadsheets.
• Curiosity about manufacturing processes and the discipline to connect operational drivers with financial outcomes.
• A continuous-improvement orientation and the ability to design controls and reporting that scale with a growing operation.
• Comfort operating with evolving systems, priorities, and processes while maintaining accuracy and accountability.
• A collaborative, service-minded approach and genuine interest in Cyclic Materials’ circular-economy mission.

Measures of success

• Accurate, timely standard costs and inventory valuation.
• Reliable month-end reporting with clear variance explanations and actionable follow-through.
• Improved inventory accuracy, controls, and visibility into cost drivers.
• Trusted partnership with plant and functional leaders.
• Scalable processes and decision-support tools that keep pace with operational growth.