Cost Accounting Manager

CHAOS Inc. is a global technology company delivering next-generation capabilities to the defense and critical industrial sectors. Founded in 2022 by a seasoned leadership team, CHAOS has quickly become the place where world-class multi-disciplinary engineers come to build mission-critical technologies. CHAOS has a mission-focused culture, dedicated to solving the toughest technical challenges. Its unique agile engineering approach enables rapid prototyping, while deep partnerships with defense and industry ensure real-world solutions.

Role Overview:

The Cost Accounting Manager’s primary responsibility is to own and lead the cost and inventory functions within the accounting team. They will provide significant input to the company within costing projects, margin analysis, tracing costs to activities, month end close, and budget processes as well as supporting business decision making and other accounting processes. They will organize and monitor inventory counting. The Cost Accounting Manager works under the supervision of the Director of Accounting. The role is highly visible and will partner with various team members throughout the organization.

Responsibilities:

• Responsible for all manufacturing cost accounting related activities: costing projects, month end close, maintaining accurate costs, labor & overhead absorption, inventory management, freight and duty tracking and monitoring.
• Establish relationships with key stakeholders cross-functionally within the production team to develop deep understanding of processes, business drivers, costs and revenue
• Analyze trends in cost variances, production volumes, and material usage and implement timely adjustments with cross functional team. Troubleshoot and research unexplained inventory transactions
• Strong ability take ownership of the cost accounting function, build processes from the ground up, and implement process improvements including focus on change management
• Drive operational improvements and efficiencies on labor & overhead burden to improve business profitability
• Perform variance analysis such as margin analysis, purchase price to cost variance, cost revaluation, invoice to PO price variances and work order variances, and system to system variances
• Ensure validity and accuracy of ERP through analysis, internal audit, and coordination with inventory control, and production. Own ERP process enhancements and continue to scale the system to meet new processes and requirements
• Collaborate with the FP&A to identify cost drivers and develop models as the basis for forward looking plans and forecasts. Partner with FP&A and production to ensure Bill of Material accuracy including knowledge of cost reduction impact on financials
• Prepare accounting schedules routinely and as requested for internal and external reporting requirements
• Support audit as requested
• Work 4-5 days per week out of our office in Hawthorne, cA

Minimum Requirements:

• 5+ years of work experience in in Cost Accounting preferably in a manufacturing and/or R&D environment
• Bachelor’s Degree in accounting or finance related field
• Ability to understand the production environment and the associated financial processes
• Profound knowledge of supply chain, receiving, inventory flow, operations process and manufacturing principles
• Ability to effectively analyze transactional level detail in an enterprise resource planning system and articulate the key findings to leadership
• Strong business skills and effective understanding of financial, distribution and manufacturing systems
• Excellent analytical abilities, problem-solving skills and business acumen
• Exceptional attention to detail and accuracy
• Exceptional written and verbal communications skills
• Excellent project and time management abilities
• Ability to work under pressure within short time constraints and in a complex high growth organization

Preferred Requirements:

• CPA/MBA
• Supervisory experience
• Financial reporting experience

Why CHAOS?

• Health Benefits: Your medical, dental and vision benefits will be 100% paid for by the company
• Additional benefits: life, FSA, HSA, 401k (+ Company match), and more
• Our Perks: free daily lunch, ‘No meeting Fridays’, unlimited PTO (for exempt employees), casual dress code
• Compensation Components: competitive base salaries, generous pre-IPO stock option grants, relocation assistance + (coming soon!) annual bonuses
• Company Size: 85 employees and counting!
• More About Us: We're building the next generation of aerospace, defense and critical industry technologies with a seasoned team of mission-focused individuals. We were founded in June 2022 and our goal is to become the platform where world-class engineers come to solve critical, real-world problems. We use agile engineering approaches which enable rapid prototyping, deep partnerships with the defense industry ensuring real-world application, and our newly-invented Coherence platform (through which we’ve made a fundamental breakthrough) improves sensor performance and decision-making in real-time. As of September 2024 we have raised ~$240M with 8VC and Accel as leading investors. With a managing team that includes Epirus’ founding members (responsible for building a $1.5B company from scratch) + key drivers from Palantir (instrumental in Palantir’s growth to $1B in revenue), we are well-positioned to become one of the fastest growing companies to date!

The stated compensation range reflects only the targeted base compensation range and excludes additional earnings such as bonus, equity, and benefits. If your compensation requirements fall outside of the range, we still encourage you to apply. The salary range for this role is an estimate based on a range of compensation factors, inclusive of base salary only. Actual salary offer may vary based on (but not limited to) work experience, education and/or training, critical skills, and/or business considerations.

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