Controller (Cost Accounting & Manufacturing Focus)

Castle & Key Distillery
Frankfort, KY (On-site preferred / Hybrid considered)

Position Summary

Castle & Key Distillery is seeking a Controller with a strong manufacturing and cost accounting background to lead day-to-day accounting operations and ensure accurate, timely financial reporting. This role is critical to translating operating activity across all production areas - distilling, barrel aging, and bottling—into reliable financial insight.

The ideal candidate is highly hands-on, thrives in manufacturing environments, and partners closely with operations and finance leadership to strengthen costing, controls, and financial discipline as the business scales.

Key ResponsibilitiesCost Accounting & Manufacturing Finance (Core Focus)

• Own product costing, standard cost development, and variance analysis across distillation, barreling, aging, dumping, and bottling

• Maintain accurate accounting for raw materials, work-in-process, barrel inventory, and finished goods

• Support physical inventory counts, reconciliations, and audit readiness

• Analyze manufacturing variances and provide actionable insights to operations leadership to support continuous improvement and cost savings initiatives

Accounting & Close

• Lead the monthly close process, including journal entries, reconciliations, and financial statement preparation

• Ensure general ledger accuracy in accordance with GAAP

• Manage fixed asset accounting, depreciation, and capital project tracking

• Support CFO in quarterly and annual close activities, to ensure company leadership has reliable financial data for decision-making.

Compliance & Controls

• Maintain internal controls, policies, and procedures, identifying opportunities for improvement as appropriate. Serve as a subject matter expert to the organization for best practices and provide training to employees as needed.

• Ensure compliance with sales tax, excise tax, and other applicable government filings

• Support regulatory and compliance reporting, including TTB-related inventory and production reporting

• Coordinate with external auditors, tax advisors, and banking partners

Systems & Process Improvement

• Maintain and enhance ERP and accounting systems to support manufacturing and inventory accuracy

• Improve costing models, inventory workflows, and reporting processes

• Identify opportunities to automate manual processes and improve data integrity

Leadership & Collaboration

• Manage and develop accounting staff

• Partner closely with the CFO on budgeting, forecasting, cash flow management, and operational analysis

• Serve as a financial thought partner to operations, bottling, and supply chain teams

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting or Finance

• 7+ years of progressive accounting experience

• Strong manufacturing and cost accounting background required

• Experience in inventory-intensive environments (manufacturing, food & beverage, CPG, spirits) strongly preferred

• Solid understanding of GAAP, standard costing, and inventory accounting

• ERP experience and advanced Excel skills

• CPA preferred but not required