MPI Engineered Technologies is a 50+ year Leader in Fine Blanking Products. MPI is located in Deerfield WI, and we are focused in the automotive and industrial markets with customers such as Ford, GM, and John Deere. As a tier one supplier, we are dedicated to producing high quality products while maintaining the highest standards of safety and environmental health. Our commitment to safety is integral to our operations ensuring a zero - tolerance working environment and fostering a culture of safety across our facilities.

Overview:

Ensures the plant's financial control processes and systems comply with company policies, applicable regulations, and provide required information. Creates and analyze labor variance, product mix variances and material variances. Monitors plant operation results against operating plans and prepares financial, production output, and other reports used to measure and control plant activities and costs. Assists General Manager and Plant Controller in financial and capital budgeting process. Recommends and implements programs to improve productivity, increase efficiencies, and reduce costs.

About the role

We are looking for a hands-on Cost Accountant to be the finance partner on the floor at Deerfield. You will own the plant's product costing, inventory and variance analysis, and turn the numbers into explanations that plant leadership and the corporate finance team can act on. The role reports to the Plant Controller and works closely with operations, engineering, purchasing and quality, as well as the corporate finance team in Troy.

This is a role for someone who wants to understand why the numbers moved, not just record them. You will build part-level analyses that tie actual results back to forecast, help the plant see where margin is being made or lost, and shape the cost data behind quotes, budgets and improvement projects.

What you will do

• Own the plant's month-end cost close, including inventory valuation, work in process, scrap, overhead absorption, accruals and balance sheet reconciliations.
• Maintain standard costs, bills of material and routings in the ERP system, and keep them current as processes, material prices and tooling change.
• Analyze and explain variances against standard and forecast, including purchase price variance, material usage, scrap, labor efficiency and overhead absorption.
• Build the monthly EBITDA bridge from forecast to actual at part level, separating volume, pricing and mix, material, labor and overhead impacts.
• Prepare part- and customer-level contribution margin analysis to support pricing, quoting and make-versus-buy decisions.
• Support the weekly operations review and monthly forecast updates with labor, factory overhead and spending analysis.
• Lead physical inventory and cycle count programs, investigate inventory adjustments, and maintain excess and obsolete reserves.
• Track tooling, die maintenance and capital project spending, and support fixed asset additions.
• Contribute to the plant's annual operating plan, including volume, labor, overhead and SG&A assumptions.
• Support external audits, strengthen internal controls, and find ways to make the close faster and the reporting cleaner.

What you bring

• Bachelor's degree in accounting or finance.
• Three to five years of cost or plant accounting experience in a manufacturing environment; metal forming, stamping, machining or automotive supply experience is a strong plus.
• Solid working knowledge of standard costing, inventory accounting and U.S. GAAP.
• Advanced Excel skills, including pivot tables, lookups and models that others can follow.
• Experience pulling and reconciling data from an ERP system; Plex experience is a plus.
• Comfort spending time on the shop floor and asking operators, supervisors and engineers how the work actually gets done.
• Clear written and verbal communication, with the ability to explain a variance to a non-finance audience.
• Strong attention to detail, ownership of deadlines and the judgment to know which questions matter.

Preferred qualifications

• CPA or CMA, or progress toward either.
• Experience in an IATF 16949 or other automotive quality environment.
• Exposure to multi-plant reporting, including consolidation of plant results.

Physical Requirements:

Sedentary work. Exerting up to 10 pounds of force occasionally. Repetitive motion. Substantial movements (motions) of the wrists, hands, and/or fingers. Required to have close visual acuity to perform an activity such as: preparing and analyzing data and figures; transcribing; viewing a computer terminal; extensive reading.