Manager, Manufacturing Costing, North America

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

WHAT TO EXPECT

As an innovation leader, we look for ambitious, forward thinking, open-minded and well-rounded individuals to join our global team. Gates has an exciting opportunity for a Manager, Manufacturing Costing, North America. This position may be based in Denver, CO, Rochester Hills, MI, or one of our North American manufacturing locations. 

The Manager, Manufacturing Costing, North America, serves as the regional leader for manufacturing costing processes and governance across our NA manufacturing network. This individual is responsible for establishing and maintaining standardized costing methodologies, ensuring accurate inventory valuation, driving manufacturing cost analytics, and supporting strategic business decisions through reliable product costing and financial insight.

Working closely with Operations, Engineering, Procurement, Product Line Management, IT, FP&A, and Accounting, this role will drive continuous improvement in manufacturing costing processes, strengthen financial controls, and support initiatives that improve profitability and operational performance.

Key responsibilities:

Manufacturing Costing Strategy & Governance

• Own the manufacturing costing framework and governance across all North American manufacturing locations
• Establish and maintain standard costing policies and procedures in partnership with Global Corporate Accounting
• Develop, standardize, and continuously improve costing methodologies across multiple ERP platforms
• Serve as the North American subject matter expert for manufacturing costing, inventory valuation, and cost accounting
• Ensure strong internal controls over product costing, inventory valuation, and manufacturing accounting processes

Standard Cost Management

• Lead the annual standard cost roll process across North America
• Maintain accurate product costs by partnering with Engineering, Operations, and Supply Chain to ensure Bills of Material (BOMs), routings, labor standards, overhead rates, and manufacturing assumptions remain current
• Ensure appropriate documentation exists for all standard cost assumptions, including productivity, scrap rates, labor standards, machine rates, overhead allocations, and production volumes
• Maintain accurate costing structures within ERP systems, while partnering with IT to enhance costing capabilities and improve automation
• Monitor inventory transactions, manufacturing variances, and costing processes to ensure compliance with corporate policies and US GAAP

Additional Responsibilities

Manufacturing Analytics Support & Business Partnership

• Support monthly analysis of manufacturing variances, including material usage, purchase price variance, labor efficiency, overhead absorption, production volume, mix, and scrap
• Partner with plant finance and operations leaders to identify root causes, implement corrective actions, and share best practices across the manufacturing network
• Partner with operations finance to build reporting and analytics that improve visibility into manufacturing performance, product profitability, and cost drivers
• Support make-versus-buy analyses, manufacturing footprint optimization, capital investment decisions, and strategic operational initiatives
• Partner with Procurement to ensure material cost assumptions align with purchasing strategies and corporate policy
• Support Pricing, Product Line Management, Commercial Finance, and FP&A by providing accurate product cost information that enables informed pricing and margin expansion decisions
• Provide and validate product costs supporting cost-based customer contracts, transfer pricing, and other strategic business initiatives

Continuous Improvment 

• Drive continuous improvement of manufacturing costing processes, reporting, ERP capabilities, and data quality
• Educate finance and operational business partners on standard costing principles and manufacturing financial performance
• Act as the regional costing expert to resolve complex costing issues and manufacturing accounting questions
• Support acquisitions, manufacturing transfers, new product introductions, and other strategic initiatives by ensuring accurate costing methodologies are established

Requirements and Preferred Skills

ABOUT YOU

• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, or a related business discipline
• 7+ years of progressive experience in manufacturing finance, cost accounting, or operations finance within a complex manufacturing environment
• Strong knowledge of US GAAP, particularly inventory accounting and standard costing
• Deep understanding of manufacturing cost accounting, standard costing, inventory valuation, and product costing methodologies
• Experience supporting multiple manufacturing facilities in a regional or corporate manufacturing finance role
• Strong understanding of manufacturing master data including Bills of Material (BOMs), routings, labor standards, work centers, and overhead structures
• Experience partnering effectively with Operations, Engineering, Procurement, Supply Chain, and Commercial teams
• Demonstrated ability to influence cross-functional stakeholders and drive process improvements without direct authority
• Experience leading ERP costing implementations, enhancements, or major process improvement initiatives
• Experience with Oracle or another Tier 1 ERP platform (SAP, JD Edwards, etc)
• Advanced Microsoft Excel skills are required; experience with Power BI or similar analytics tools is preferred
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, communication, and project management skills
• Willingness to travel approximately 25% throughout North America
• Excited to work in office with our amazing teammates
• Must be legally authorized to work in the United States without company 

Desired Attributes: 

• Strong communication skills, ability to present financial information in a meaningful understandable way and a capability to understand the big picture in terms of the Company's business process is important.
• Self-motivated with an ability to work independently and collaboratively and strong organizational skills are all essential.
• Good team building skills including trust, professionalism, the ability to garner consensus across diverse groups; ability to think strategically; yet have the desire to be hands-on when needed are all attractive qualities.
• Ability to drive results in a rapidly changing business environment is the key to future advancement.
• The successful candidate will join a team committed to manufacturing excellence, continuous improvement, and member development.
• This person will enjoy developing solid business relationships with their counterparts in the materials, operations, and quality roles to facilitate collaboration and knowledge sharing.
• Play a key role in providing impartial financial analysis and guidance, decision support, and development of financial acumen across the operations team and quality teams.