Cost Accountant

This role places you at the centre of every project's financial health, working within the Finance department while partnering closely with the Head of Projects. Day to day, you will track actual, committed, and forecast costs against approved budgets across a portfolio of concurrent projects, turning raw accounting data into early warnings and clear recommendations. Your work will help decision-makers correct course before margins erode, keeping each project — and the entire portfolio — profitable.

Key Responsibilities

• Monitor material, labour, procurement, and operational costs across multiple ongoing projects in real time, ensuring every transaction is visible against the correct project bucket.
• Compare actual spend, purchase orders, committed expenses, and revised forecasts with approved baseline budgets, and flag significant deviations as soon as they appear.
• Investigate the root cause of cost overruns and margin erosion, then present clear options for corrective action to project and finance leadership.
• Track cost-to-complete estimates and project profitability indicators, updating them regularly as project scopes and timelines evolve.
• Maintain cost models, standard cost records, and inventory allocations, ensuring accuracy throughout monthly closing cycles.
• Prepare cost of goods sold entries, month-end reconciliations, ledger postings, and project-level costing data for management review.
• Build and deliver monthly project cost, margin, and profitability reports that translate complex financials into executive-friendly insight.
• Collaborate with Procurement and Operations to identify supplier savings and process efficiencies, while keeping costing master data accurate inside the Zoho ERP system.
• Support internal and external audits of project accounts and inventory, applying disciplined financial controls to prevent unbudgeted expenditure.

Requirements & Qualifications

• Education: Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, or a closely related business discipline.
• Professional credentials: An active CPA, ACCA, or CMA certification, or substantial, demonstrable progress toward full qualification.
• Experience: At least two years of progressive cost accounting, project cost control, or inventory costing experience, ideally within technology-driven or project-led environments.
• ERP & software skills: Advanced Microsoft Excel capability and hands-on use of a recognised ERP accounting platform; practical familiarity with Zoho is particularly valued.
• Analytical thinking: The ability to dig into raw expense and budget data, identify patterns, and explain the real factors driving variance.
• Cross-functional communication: Confidence in discussing findings with Finance, Procurement, and project teams, and translating numbers into practical direction.
• Attention to detail: Consistent numerical accuracy, a methodical approach to month-end closing, and the independence to solve costing problems without constant supervision.

What We Offer / Why Join

This is a full-time, on-site position based in Nairobi, Kenya, with a gross monthly remuneration of KES 70,000. You will gain direct insight into how project delivery and finance interact at an operational level, giving your cost analysis genuine influence over procurement and project decisions across the business.