Standard Costing Specialist

About the role

This role covers the maintenance and validation of standard costs and rates across shipping and liner services, including the Liner Proforma P&L and pricing. It also supports the revamp of the standard cost (COA) engine, its testing and cutover, and the transfer of processes and knowledge to shared services and other partners.

Key responsibilities

• Maintain the cost basis, standard cost logic, calculation rules, cost assignment methodology, rates and supporting documentation across PIL services, and validate outputs and detect anomalies.
• Investigate system anomalies, calculation errors, data-feed failures and unexplained movements, and escalate material issues with a quantified impact.
• Recommend rates, adjustments and model changes for endorsement, withholding recommendations where the basis is unsound and quantifying pricing and margin consequences in advance.
• Apply the common cost taxonomy, classifying and mapping cost elements and referring structural misalignments for permanent remediation.
• Support the COA engine revamp: contribute business requirements, functional specifications and process knowledge, run tests, investigate defects, validate parallel runs, and support cutover and stabilisation.
• Support organisation transition, scope segregation, Phase 1 documentation, knowledge transfer, controls and migration into the Finance cycle.
• For Phase 2, map activities for empty repositioning, Repo Credit and trade-support queries, prepare handover materials, and support parallel running and stabilisation with Equipment Management.
• Document procedures and controls, train shared-services colleagues, monitor initial output quality, and support automation, simplification and rework reduction.
• Provide standard-cost reference data and analytical support to detection models used with Cost Performance & Business Partnering, and track closure of rate deviations, mis-coded invoices and accrual gaps.
• Analyse cost accuracy across services, trades and equipment types, quantify margin leakage and carry rectification actions to completion, and investigate standard-versus-actual variances.
• Partner with Trade and Line Controlling, explain the cost basis behind rates, support tenders and cargo-acceptance discussions, and route EMD-owned empty-cost and Repo Credit queries after Phase 2.

Required profile

• Tertiary education in Accounting, Finance, Maritime, Data Science, Statistics, Business or a related discipline.
• Minimum 4 to 6 years in standard costing, controlling, management reporting or commercial analysis.
• Shipping or liner experience preferred, with an understanding of service, trade and equipment cost drivers.
• Experience supporting system implementation, testing, process improvement or scope transition preferred.