Designation: Senior Manager - Costing & Pricing

Location: Mumbai, Maharashtra

Experience: 15-20 Years

Industry: Manufacturing

Employment Type: Full-time

Role Purpose:

We are looking for an experienced Senior Manager - Costing & Pricing to lead product costing, pricing analysis, profitability management and commercial decision support for the manufacturing business.

The role will be responsible for establishing accurate product costs, analysing manufacturing costs and margins, developing pricing models, identifying cost-reduction opportunities and providing actionable insights to senior management for business and pricing decisions.

The ideal candidate should have strong exposure to manufacturing costing, BOM/routing, standard costing, variance analysis, product profitability, pricing strategy and ERP systems such as SAP/Oracle/Dynamics.

Key Responsibilities:

Product Costing:

- Develop and maintain product-wise, SKU-wise, plant-wise and customer-wise costing.

- Prepare detailed product costing based on raw materials, direct labour, power and utilities, manufacturing overheads, packaging, freight/logistics, subcontracting/conversion costs, and depreciation.

- Review and validate BOM, routing, process costs and standard costs.

- Establish and maintain standard costing methodology across manufacturing units.

- Analyse actual cost versus standard cost and identify major deviations.

- Support costing for new products, new plants, new processes and product modifications.

- Ensure timely revision of costs based on changes in raw material, labour, utilities and other input costs.

Pricing Management:

- Develop cost-plus, market-based and value-based pricing models as applicable.

- Recommend selling prices based on product cost, target margin, market conditions and competitive pricing.

- Prepare pricing proposals for new products, existing products, large customers, institutional/business contracts, export orders and special projects.

- Conduct price-volume-mix analysis.

- Evaluate customer-wise and product-wise profitability.

- Identify margin leakage and recommend corrective actions.

- Support Sales and Business Development teams during commercial negotiations.

Cost Reduction & Margin Improvement:

- Identify opportunities for cost optimisation and margin improvement.

- Work closely with Procurement to analyse raw-material price movements and alternate sourcing opportunities.

- Coordinate with Production and Engineering teams to identify process-cost reduction opportunities.

- Analyse material consumption, yield, scrap/rejection, machine utilisation, labour productivity, energy consumption and conversion costs.

- Conduct should-cost analysis and benchmark manufacturing costs.

- Track and report cost-saving initiatives and their financial impact.

Cost Variance Analysis:

- Prepare monthly standard vs. actual cost variance reports.

- Analyse material price variance, material usage variance, labour variance, overhead variance and production efficiency variance.

- Identify root causes of significant cost deviations.

- Work with Plant, Purchase, Production and Finance teams to implement corrective actions.

- Prepare management dashboards highlighting key cost and profitability movements.

Pricing & Profitability Analytics:

- Prepare product contribution margin and EBITDA-level profitability analysis.

- Analyse profitability by product/SKU, customer, business segment, plant, geography and sales channel.

- Support management in decisions regarding price revisions, product discontinuation, outsourcing, make-or-buy and capacity utilisation.

- Develop pricing sensitivity and scenario models.

Budgeting & Forecasting:

- Support annual budgeting and periodic forecasting for manufacturing costs.

- Prepare cost assumptions for raw materials, labour, utilities, production volumes, overheads and inflation.

- Conduct budget vs. actual analysis and provide recommendations.

- Support business planning with cost and margin projections.

ERP / MIS / Data Analytics:

- Ensure accurate costing data in ERP systems.

- Review and improve BOM, material master, cost centres, activity rates and costing parameters.

- Participate in ERP implementation/upgradation related to costing and pricing.

- Develop automated MIS dashboards using Advanced Excel, Power BI and/or ERP reporting tools.

- Ensure data integrity and appropriate costing controls.

Cross-Functional Coordination:

- Work closely with Finance & Accounts, Procurement, Production, Supply Chain, Sales & Marketing, R&D/Product Development, Quality, Engineering and Plant Operations.

- Provide commercial and costing inputs for strategic business decisions.

Key Deliverables / KPIs:

- Accuracy and timeliness of product costing.

- Product-wise and customer-wise margin improvement.

- Reduction in manufacturing cost.

- Cost variance reduction.

- Accuracy of standard costs.

- Pricing turnaround time.

- Improvement in gross/contribution margins.

- Identification and realisation of cost-saving opportunities.

- Accuracy of costing MIS and management reports.

- Timely completion of annual budget and forecasts.

- ERP costing data accuracy.

Candidate Profile:

Education:

- CA/CMA preferred.

- MBA Finance/Costing can be considered.

- B.Com/M.Com with strong manufacturing costing experience may also be considered.

Experience:

- 15-20 years of relevant experience in costing, pricing, commercial finance or management accounting.

- Strong experience in a manufacturing environment is mandatory.

- Candidates from industries such as engineering, chemicals, plastics, automotive, consumer products, building materials, pharma, IVD/life sciences, electrical/electronics, packaging or industrial manufacturing would be preferred.

Mandatory Technical Skills:

- Product costing, standard costing, cost variance analysis, BOM & routing, manufacturing overhead allocation, pricing strategy, margin analysis, cost reduction, budgeting & forecasting, cost-volume-profit analysis, make-or-buy analysis, customer/product profitability, Advanced MS Excel, ERP/SAP costing, Power BI/MIS analytics.

Behavioural Competencies:

- Strong analytical and numerical ability, commercial acumen, excellent problem-solving capability, strong stakeholder management, ability to challenge assumptions and identify cost leakage, good negotiation and influencing skills, strong communication and presentation skills, ability to work with Plant Heads, Sales Heads, Procurement and CFO-level stakeholders, high attention to detail and data accuracy.

Ideal Candidate Background:

- The ideal candidate should currently be working as: Senior Manager - Costing, Costing Manager, Senior Manager - Commercial Finance, Pricing Manager, Plant Finance Manager, Cost Controller or Manager - Management Accounting with strong hands-on exposure to manufacturing costing and pricing.\