Senior Cost Accountant

Description

Central Garden & Pet Company (NASDAQ:CENT and CENTA), is a leading innovator, marketer and producer of quality branded products for the pet, lawn and garden supplies markets.  The Central Life Sciences (CLS) business unit is dedicated to delivering insect management solutions for challenging pests in livestock, grain storage and processing, horticulture, turf, specialty food crops, along with mosquito control for municipalities throughout the United States.

We are seeking a highly motivated, organized, and collaborative professional to join our Finance organization. The Senior Cost Accountant is a key member of the Finance team who is based at our Dallas, TX plant and supports manufacturing, inventory, and warehouse operations across that plant and other CLS plant locations. This role helps maintain the Company’s cost accounting systems and processes, including standard product costing and cost estimates, production order accounting, manufacturing variance analysis, and inventory valuation and reporting. This position partners closely with Operations, Supply Chain, Procurement, and S&OP teams to ensure accurate financial reporting and provide actionable business insights.

The Senior Cost Accountant performs key period-end close activities, including plant expense accruals, journal entries, account reconciliations, and cost center reporting and analysis. The role also supports budgeting and forecasting, capital expenditure administration and analysis, inventory controls, and continuous improvement initiatives, while helping strengthen financial controls and improve cost visibility and decision-making across the organization.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES           

• Maintain SAP costing data and support the development, maintenance, and analysis of accurate standard product costs.
• Perform and analyze product costing, production/work order close, manufacturing variances, labor and overhead absorption, purchase price variances (PPV), and other plant KPIs.
• Analyze and reconcile inventory, including physical inventories, cycle counts, adjustments, and related controls and documentation.
• Perform period-end close activities, including journal entries, accruals, account reconciliations, cost center reporting, spending analysis, and analytical reviews.
• Identify trends, investigate variances, and provide meaningful financial and operational insights.
• Partner with Plant Operations, Supply Chain, Procurement, S&OP, and Finance teams to support business decisions and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Support ongoing planning activities for plant operating expenses and manufacturing costs.
• Provide cost accounting support to CLS plant locations as needed, including periodic travel.
• Support internal controls, SOX compliance, and internal and external audit requirements.
• Assist with Capital planning, trends and analysis.
• Assist with cost savings initiatives, project planning and tracking.
• Identify opportunities to improve and automate cost accounting reporting and processes; perform other special projects as required.

QUALIFICATIONS 

• Bachelor’s degree in accounting or related field, with understanding of US GAAP.
• 4+ years of relevant accounting experience, preferably in cost accounting within a manufacturing environment using standard costing and production/work orders.
• Experience with an integrated ERP system; SAP experience is strongly preferred.
• Strong Microsoft Excel skills, including pivot tables, lookups, and analysis of large data sets.
• Experience with business intelligence platforms and reporting tools a plus.
• Experience with inventory accounting, manufacturing variance analysis, financial close, planning, and internal controls preferred.
• Experience in an FDA/EPA-regulated or similarly controlled manufacturing environment is a plus.

Preferred Qualifications

• Highly analytical and intellectually curious, with strong problem-solving skills and the ability to translate financial and operational data into meaningful business insights.
• Organized, detail-oriented, and capable of managing multiple priorities and deadlines.
• Self-motivated and demonstrates strong initiative, accountability, and the ability to produce accurate, high-quality work with limited supervision.
• Strong communicator who can clearly present financial information and recommendations.
• Collaborative team player who builds effective working relationships across Finance, Operations, Supply Chain, and other functions, including plant-floor personnel.
• Comfortable working both independently and collaboratively.
• Service-oriented and dependable with a continuous improvement mindset.

WORKING CONDITIONS

• The primary working environment will be an office located in Dallas, TX; full-time, 5 days per week in office. 
• Travel: 10-15%, to support other CLS plant locations 

• Comprehensive Medical, Dental, and Vision Insurance
• Free Life and Disability Insurance
• Health and Dependent Care Flexible Spending Accounts
• 401k with 3% company match and annual employer discretionary contribution
• Paid vacation, holidays and sick time
• Employee Assistance Program
• Access to thousands of free online courses
• Discounts on cell phones, movie tickets, gym memberships, and more!
• Education Assistance (both college degrees and professional certifications)
• Referral Program with cash bonus
• Access to on-demand pay
• Paid parental leave

We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.