Role Summary

This role owns the full costing lifecycle for finished goods and components sourced from factories and subcontractors - from standard cost build-up and BOM validation through to landed cost, variance analysis, and margin reporting.
The successful candidate will be the finance business partner to Operations, Procurement, and Product Engineering, ensuring product costs are accurate, transparent, and defensible, and that the Group has real-time visibility of manufacturing cost drivers across 16 legal entities on a single NetSuite ERP backbone.

Key Responsibilities

Factory & Subcontracting Cost Management

Own end-to-end product costing for all CM- and subcontractor-manufactured SKUs, including camera hardware, accessories, and NVR/hub products.
Build and maintain standard costs (material, labour, overhead, tooling amortisation) at BOM/routing level in NetSuite review and approve cost rolls each cycle.
Validate CM/subcontractor quotations against BOM cost breakdowns, labour rates, and process yields challenge quoted costs with fact-based benchmarking.
Track and reconcile subcontracting fees, processing charges, tooling/mould amortisation, and NRE (non-recurring engineering) charges billed by factories.
Monitor landed cost components - FOB price, freight, duties, insurance - across China, HK, and other sourcing entities.

Variance Analysis & Margin Reporting

Perform monthly purchase price variance (PPV), usage variance, and yield/scrap variance analysis by SKU and by factory investigate and explain root causes with Operations.
Analyse standard-vs-actual cost variances arising from engineering changes (ECN), component substitutions, and FX movement on USD/RMB-denominated purchases.
Prepare product-level and SKU-level gross margin bridges for management review, highlighting cost trend, mix, and pricing impact.
Support new product introduction (NPI) costing - target cost setting, should-cost modelling, and first-article cost validation before mass production

Inventory & Standard Costing Integrity

Maintain integrity of inventory valuation (raw material, WIP, finished goods) across manufacturing and trading entities under group costing policy.
Lead periodic standard cost updates / cost roll cycles and coordinate cut-over with Supply Chain to avoid valuation distortions.
Review slow-moving / excess & obsolete (E&O) inventory provisioning with Operations and recommend provisioning adjustments.
Support physical stock counts and cycle counts at factory / 3PL warehouse locations reconcile book-to-physical variances.

Business Partnering & Controls

Act as finance business partner to Operations, Procurement, and Product Engineering on cost-down initiatives, factory consolidation, and dual-sourcing decisions.
Evaluate cost impact of factory transfers, new CM onboarding, and subcontractor contract renegotiations provide finance sign-off on commercial terms.
Design and enforce internal controls over CM/subcontractor billing, tooling asset capitalisation, and consignment inventory arrangements.
Support transfer pricing documentation for intercompany manufacturing and processing fee arrangements with the tax/TP team.

Month-End Close & Reporting

Prepare costing-related month-end journal entries: cost roll adjustments, PPV/variance postings, tooling amortisation, and provision true-ups.
Deliver monthly costing packs to Group Finance covering cost trends, variance summary, and factory scorecards.
Support budget and forecast cycles with standard cost assumptions, factory capacity/utilisation inputs, and cost-down targets.
Liaise with external auditors on inventory valuation, cost accounting policy, and manufacturing-related audit queries.

KEY REQUIREMENTS

Qualifications & Experience

ACCA (part- or fully-qualified) or Diploma in Accounting / Finance degree holders also welcome.
Minimum 6-8 years relevant experience in cost accounting / manufacturing finance, with at least 3 years in a hardware / electronics manufacturing or contract manufacturing environment.
Direct experience working with oversea -based contract manufacturers and subcontractors is essential.
Prior exposure to consumer electronics, IoT hardware, or similar high-mix, short-lifecycle product environments is strongly preferred.
Experience operating in a multi-entity, multi-currency group structure (SG / HK/ China ideally).

Technical & Systems Skills

Strong hands-on experience with ERP-based costing modules NetSuite experience strongly preferred.
Advanced Excel skills (BOM cost modelling, variance analysis, should-cost templates).
Working knowledge of BOM/routing structures, engineering change management (ECN), and manufacturing process flows.
Familiarity with transfer pricing concepts for intercompany manufacturing/processing arrangements is an advantage.

Costing Accountant | Group Finance