Cost Analyst - Operations

Job Summary

The Operations Cost Analyst supports manufacturing performance by maintaining reliable plant cost information, analyzing operational drivers and translating results into clear actions. The role executes enterprise costing, planning, control and reporting standards; strengthens product-cost and inventory data; and provides decision-ready analysis to Plant Controlling, Operations, Supply Chain, Engineering, Procurement and Product Costing. The position is designed as a hands-on analytical role that builds broad manufacturing-finance capability while operating within clearly defined accounting, costing and approval authorities.

Key Accountabilities

Plant Cost Reporting and Close Support

• Prepare and validate recurring plant cost, inventory and manufacturing schedules supporting the monthly close, including assigned accruals, reconciliations, journal-entry support and variance explanations in accordance with the corporate close calendar.

• Reconcile analytical outputs to governed financial results; investigate exceptions, document support and escalate unresolved or non-routine accounting matters to the Plant Controller and Corporate Controllership.

Standard Cost and Master-Data Integrity

• Execute assigned standard-cost activities and annual cost-roll tasks under enterprise methods, calendars, validation requirements and approval workflows established by Product Cost Controlling. Product Cost Controlling designs and governs the costing model; the Operations Cost Analyst executes, validates, explains and improves costing within the assigned operations scope.

• Validate bills of material, routings, labor and machine rates, overhead rates, yields, scrap factors and related production master data; identify missing, stale or inconsistent inputs and coordinate corrections with Operations, Engineering, Supply Chain and IT.

Manufacturing Variance Analysis

• Analyze purchase price, material usage, labor efficiency, scrap, overhead spending, absorption, job-close and other standard-to-actual manufacturing variances.

• Translate variances into operational root causes, financial implications and practical follow-up actions; distinguish supported facts from assumptions and escalate policy, methodology or system issues to the appropriate owner.

Inventory and Working Capital Analytics

• Support inventory valuation, cycle counts and physical inventories; analyze reconciliations, adjustments, aging, reserves, excess and obsolete exposure, turns and working-capital trends.

• Partner with Plant Controlling, Operations and Supply Chain to identify inventory risks and actions while preserving service, resilience, control integrity and approved accounting treatment.

Planning and Performance Support

• Prepare plant planning inputs for volume, mix, labor, material, overhead, inventory and capital using governed definitions, approved assumptions and traceable source data. Maintain assigned operations cost and manufacturing assumptions for the forecast, evaluate forecast-to-actual performance, and identify recurring bias or unsupported assumptions.

• Maintain scorecards, cost bridges and recurring operating analyses that connect production drivers to gross margin, operating profit, inventory and cash; clearly explain what happened, why it happened, what is expected next and what action is required.

Operational Decision Support and Continuous Improvement

• Provide cost, capacity, productivity and margin analysis for labor planning, sourcing, make-versus-buy, automation, capital, footprint, product-mix, new-product and continuous-improvement decisions.

• Quantify expected benefits, implementation costs, timing and dependencies, and track approved productivity, sourcing, automation and continuous-improvement initiatives from business case through realized P&L, working-capital and cash impact. Improve standard work, documentation, controls, data quality, analytics and automation to reduce manual effort and site-specific dependency.

Controls, Governance and Collaboration

• Perform assigned activities in accordance with GAAP, J-SOX, corporate policy, delegated authority, segregation-of-duties requirements and AFL environmental, health and safety expectations. Retain clear support for calculations, assumptions, approvals and changes.

Decision Rights and Role Boundaries

The Operations Cost Analyst owns the accuracy, completeness, traceability and timely delivery of assigned analyses and costing inputs. The Plant Controller owns plant financial results and local finance processes; Product Cost Controlling owns enterprise costing policy, methodology and system governance, including the design and governance of the costing model; the Operations Cost Analyst executes, validates, explains and improves costing within the assigned operations scope; Corporate Controllership owns accounting policy, official close, consolidation and external reporting; Enterprise Performance owns planning standards; Market Finance owns customer pricing; and plant leadership owns operating execution. The analyst recommends actions and escalates exceptions but does not independently establish accounting policy, costing methodology, customer pricing or final financial approval.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, Business, Economics, Supply Chain, Engineering or a related analytical discipline.

• Typically two or more years of relevant experience in cost accounting, manufacturing finance, plant operations analysis, inventory, supply chain analytics or a comparable role; equivalent practical experience will be considered.

• Working knowledge of standard costing, inventory valuation, manufacturing variances, absorption concepts, financial controls and production economics.

• Proficiency with ERP and reporting systems, advanced Excel and analytical or visualization tools; Oracle and Power BI experience preferred.

• Ability to work with detailed operational and financial data, reconcile to governed sources, identify root causes, communicate implications and manage multiple deadlines in a matrix organization.

Personal Qualities

High integrity and accountability; analytical curiosity; disciplined attention to detail; practical problem solving; clear communication; constructive challenge; collaboration; adaptability; and a commitment to continuous learning, standardization and responsible use of automation and AI-enabled tools.

Key Relationships

Plant Controller and plant leadership team; Director of Finance, Operations & Supply Chain; Product Cost Controlling; Corporate Controllership; Enterprise Performance; Operations; Supply Chain; Procurement; Engineering; Quality; IT; Internal Audit; Compliance; Market Finance; and Human Resources.

Working Conditions

Primarily office-based in support of one or more manufacturing facilities, with regular interaction in production and inventory areas and periodic participation in physical inventory, cycle-count and plant-control activities. The role applies common definitions, standard work and comparable analyses across its assigned operations scope. Reasonable accommodations may be made consistent with applicable requirements.