Production Accountant

Production Accountant East Kent Up to £60K

We are partnering exclusively with our client, a well-established and growing international manufacturing business, to recruit a Production Accountant. This role will sit within a smaller but highly impactful finance team and offers excellent exposure to operations, senior stakeholders, and corporate reporting as the business continues to scale.

This is a commercially focused production accounting role, supporting manufacturing performance through robust cost control, inventory management, and financial insight.

Key Responsibilities

• Own and deliver accurate, timely production cost reporting with meaningful variance analysis and supporting commentary.
• Responsible for the preparation, maintenance, and annual review of standard costing and absorption models.
• Work closely with Operations to ensure production hours, labour efficiency, and overhead absorption rates are realistic and compliant with group finance policies.
• Monitor and analyse manufacturing variances including price, usage, efficiency, and under/over-absorption, making recommendations where appropriate.
• Manage inventory accounting, ensuring raw materials, WIP and finished goods are accurately valued and reconciled to the general ledger.
• Lead and support physical stock reconciliation processes, investigating and resolving discrepancies.
• Manage E&O and other inventory provisions, including quarterly reviews and supporting evidence.
• Partner with Purchasing to review standard material costs, last price paid, and supplier cost changes, assessing margin and inventory impact.
• Support the annual budget and ongoing forecast processes across production, inventory and operational costs.
• Prepare monthly analysis of production performance, margin movements, and operational KPIs.
• Provide financial insight to non-finance stakeholders to support commercially sound decision-making.
• Assist with year-end processes, audits, and ad-hoc finance projects as required.
• Carry out such other duties that may be reasonably requested.

The Ideal Candidate

• Part-qualified or qualified accountant (CIMA, ACCA, ACA or equivalent).
• Experience working closely with operations and supply chain teams.
• Confident communicator, able to explain financial information to non-finance managers.
• Strong Excel skills - intermediate to advanced (pivot tables, lookups, data analysis).
• Highly organised with the ability to manage multiple deadlines.
• Strong attention to detail with a solutions-focused mindset.