Cost Accounting Manager

About the role

Location: Emeryville, CA (on-site, with flexibility for 1 to 2 remote days per week)

Reports to: Director of Accounting

Type: Full-time, exempt

The Role

Our mission at Ansa Biotechnologies is to revolutionize the way we make DNA. Compared to reading or editing life's code, writing new code from scratch has remained one of the field's most elusive challenges. At Ansa, we are putting nature to work, creating novel enzymatic solutions that will redefine how we build DNA.

We believe that the biggest challenges our world faces will be solved using biotechnology and that DNA synthesis is the fuel for that transformation. Our enzyme-based approach (published in Nature Biotechnology) promises to dramatically accelerate innovation in biological research and biotechnology, including therapeutics, diagnostics, biomanufacturing, and synthetic biology.

The Cost Accounting Manager will report to the Director of Accounting and work hand in hand with the supply chain, production and bioinformatics teams. In our business, every order we make is unique. That is what makes our product valuable, and it is also what makes costing it genuinely hard. We are rebuilding how we cost our manufacturing in NetSuite, and that rebuild is starting now.

You will work with the Director of Accounting in designing the standard cost system, bringing work-in-process into NetSuite, connecting what happens on the production floor (captured today in our MES) to what lands in the general ledger, and turning that into reliable COGS and profitability by product complexity and by order. You will have real influence over the design. If you see a choice that should or shouldn't be made, we want to hear it, and we will change course when the evidence says so.

This is a role for someone who likes hard problems, knows the capabilities of NetSuite and the best practices needed can picture what a well-built system looks like before it exists, and has the persistence to keep at it through the messy middle. The work will have a meaningful, visible impact on how Ansa prices, plans and grows, including as we scale production and prepare for the possibility of becoming a public company.

What you'll do

Build the cost system

• Reform the current standard costing practices in NetSuite and introduce Manufacturing WIP into the process flow. Update the setup of items, BOMs, work centers, cost templates, variance account linking, labor and overhead rates, cost versions, rollups and revaluations.
• Help design a costing model that fits bespoke, high-volume manufacturing: standards built on repeatable process units, with failure and rework rates reflected by complexity tier. Evaluate NetSuite's manufacturing capabilities and document possible use cases.
• Partner with Production, Bioinformatics and our NetSuite consultant to define how manufacturing events in the MES will become accurate NetSuite transactions.
• Establish the cadence and controls for setting standards, revaluing inventory and managing engineering changes to BOMs and routings.

Run cost and inventory accounting

• Own month-end close for inventory, WIP and COGS: work order close, variance analysis, absorption, inventory reserves and reconciliations.
• Deliver gross margin and profitability reporting by complexity tier, product and customer, with clear variance commentary that drives action.
• Assist Supply Chain with Cycle Count Program and drive inventory record accuracy.
• Own purchase price variance analysis with Supply Chain and fixed asset accounting for production equipment.
• Support audits and build documentation that holds up to public-company standards.

Improve and grow

• Find where cost is leaking and fix the process, not just the entry.
• Build saved searches, dashboards and tools so the business can see cost in near real time.
• Leverage AI and our MES to ensure that the system and reporting are set up for scale.
• Take on additional accounting responsibilities as the team grows, with the opportunity to build and lead a team.

What you bring

Required

• 6+ years of progressive accounting experience, with at least 4 years in cost accounting in a manufacturing environment.
• Hands-on standard costing experience: building standards, analyzing variances, and revaluing inventory.
• Strong working knowledge of NetSuite inventory and manufacturing functionality, including saved searches, best practices and advanced manufacturing exposure.
• Solid understanding of GAAP inventory accounting (ASC 330), including overhead absorption, normal capacity and inventory reserves.
• Experience reconciling operational data to the general ledger and explaining the difference.
• Comfort working directly with production and R&D leads, on the floor and in the data.
• Bachelor's degree in accounting, Finance or a related field.

Highly preferred

• Prior design or implementation of a standard cost manufacturing system in NetSuite, especially WIP and Routings.
• Experience in make-to-order, high-mix or custom manufacturing (life sciences tools, synthetic biology, oligo or gene synthesis, semiconductors, contract manufacturing).
• Experience integrating an MES or shop-floor system with an ERP or defining requirements for one.
• CPA or CMA.
• Pre-IPO or public company experience, including SOX-ready controls.
• Strong data skills: advanced Excel, SuiteAnalytics, and comfort with SQL or a BI tool.

Who thrives here

• You see the system, not just the transaction. You can sketch how costs should flow before the configuration exists.
• You are creative under constraints. You know what NetSuite does well, where it doesn't, and how to design around it.
• You keep at it. Rebuilds are iterative. You treat a failed reconciliation as information, not a setback.
• You translate. You can explain variances to a scientist and a process to an auditor.
• You are honest about what the numbers say, especially when they are inconvenient.

Compensation and benefits

The base salary range for this role is $135,000 to $175,000, determined by experience, skills and level. Ansa offers a benefit package including comprehensive medical, dental & vision plans for employees and dependents, 401k retirement planning, company holidays, truly unlimited and company encouraged vacation time, and parental leave. Our compensation packages include industry competitive and experience commensurate base salaries, sign-on bonus and stock options.