Sr. Cost Accountant – CDR

Thermo Fisher Scientific

📍Fair Lawn, NJ
Posted May 21, 2026

Job Overview

Position

Sr. Cost Accountant – CDR

Company

Thermo Fisher Scientific

Location

Fair Lawn, NJ

Work Type

On-site

Job ID

li-4416380294

Job Description

Work Schedule
Standard Office Hours (40/wk)

Environmental Conditions
Office

About Thermo Fisher Scientific
As part of the Thermo Fisher Scientific team, you’ll discover meaningful work that makes a positive impact on a global scale. Our colleagues bring our Mission to life every day—enabling customers to make the world healthier, cleaner, and safer. We provide the resources and support needed to achieve your career goals while tackling some of the world’s toughest challenges, from environmental protection to advancing healthcare and curing disease.

Work Location & Expectations
This role requires
4 days onsite per week
at one of Thermo Fisher Scientific’s primary East Coast manufacturing sites, including but not limited to:

  • Asheville, NC

  • Fair Lawn, NJ

  • Grand Island, NY

  • Greenville, NC

  • Lebanon, TN

  • St. Louis, MO

  • Middletown, VA

Position Summary
As part of the
Global Clinical Diagnostics Costing team
, this role is responsible for leading cost accounting and inventory activities for CDR manufacturing sites, including Middletown, US and Suzhou, CN. Partnering closely with the Sr. Cost Accounting Manager and Operations Finance teams, you will drive global best practices and standardize processes across manufacturing sites.

How You’ll Make An Impact
You will help build a world-class cost accounting function by implementing consistent methodologies for standard costing, variance analysis, and reporting. This role partners cross-functionally with supply chain, sourcing, operations, and continuous improvement teams to drive critical financial and operational metrics.

Key Responsibilities
Standard Costing

  • Lead annual standard cost updates in SAP

  • Partner with procurement to establish accurate material costs

  • Develop and standardize labor and overhead rates across sites

  • Analyze year-over-year cost variances

  • Consolidate SKU-level costs for pricing updates

  • Support new product introductions through cost modeling

  • Manage inventory revaluation and variance communication

Monthly Close

  • Calculate excess and obsolescence reserves

  • Prepare and post journal entries (PPV, variances, accruals, etc.)

  • Consolidate production volumes and absorption metrics

  • Support procurement savings reporting and monthly reviews

  • Perform ad hoc financial and operational analysis

Additional Responsibilities

  • Support cycle counts and physical inventory processes

  • Maintain and activate new parts data

  • Generate weekly production and procurement reports

  • Participate in BOM audits and validation

  • Drive process standardization and best practices

  • Support site inquiries and operational initiatives

  • Participate in key projects (cost roll implementations, production transfers, etc.)

Qualifications

  • Advanced Degree with 6+ years, or Bachelor’s Degree with 8+ years of relevant experience in manufacturing cost accounting or finance

  • Degree in Accounting, Finance, or related field preferred

  • MBA, CPA, or CMA strongly preferred

  • Strong ERP experience (SAP, JD Edwards, Oracle)

  • Advanced Excel and financial reporting tool proficiency

  • Expertise in standard costing, variance analysis, and inventory management

  • Experience with monthly close and journal entries

  • Strong understanding of GAAP and SOX compliance

  • Proven audit support experience

  • Excellent analytical, problem-solving, and communication skills

  • Ability to operate effectively in a matrixed, global environment

  • Process improvement mindset with strong cross-functional collaboration skills

  • Experience with BOM and production routing analysis

Compensation And Benefits
The salary range estimated for this position based in Virginia is $93,800.00–$140,675.00.

This position may also be eligible to receive a variable annual bonus based on company, team, and/or individual performance results in accordance with company policy. We offer a comprehensive Total Rewards package that our U.S. colleagues and their families can count on, which includes:

  • A choice of national medical and dental plans, and a national vision plan, including health incentive programs

  • Employee assistance and family support programs, including commuter benefits and tuition reimbursement

  • At least 120 hours paid time off (PTO), 10 paid holidays annually, paid parental leave (3 weeks for bonding and 8 weeks for caregiver leave), accident and life insurance, and short- and long-term disability in accordance with company policy

  • Retirement and savings programs, such as our competitive 401(k) U.S. retirement savings plan

  • Employees’ Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP) offers eligible colleagues the opportunity to purchase company stock at a discount

For more information on our benefits, please visit: https://jobs.thermofisher.com/global/en/total-rewards

Interview Prep

AI-powered insights to help you prepare

Key Skills

Required:
Preferred:

Practice Questions

💡Technical Questions (3)
  • 1.Can you walk me through your approach for leading an annual standard cost update in SAP, specifically how you partner with procurement and operations to establish material, labor, and overhead rates?
  • 2.How do you approach calculating and validating excess and obsolescence (E&O) inventory reserves during the monthly close?
  • 3.Describe your experience with Purchase Price Variance (PPV) and production volume variances. How do you explain these variances to non-financial stakeholders?
🎯Behavioral Questions (3)
  • 1.Tell me about a time you had to standardize a cost accounting process or implement a best practice across different manufacturing sites or teams.
  • 2.Give an example of a time you partnered with supply chain or continuous improvement teams to drive financial or operational metrics.
  • 3.Describe a situation where you had to support a new product introduction or a production transfer. How did you ensure the cost modeling was accurate?
🧩Situational Questions (2)
  • 1.You discover a significant unfavorable variance in production absorption during the monthly close, but the operations team insists their production volumes were on target. How do you handle this?
  • 2.Management asks you to lead a BOM audit across the Middletown and Suzhou sites to ensure data integrity before the annual cost roll. The local teams are already overwhelmed with their daily tasks. How do you approach this?

Resume Keywords

Make sure these keywords appear on your resume

Standard CostingSAPVariance AnalysisInventory ManagementMonth-End CloseBOMGAAPSOXE&O ReservesCost ModelingManufacturing AccountingCross-Functional

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