Costing Analyst

Role Summary

SBH Fashion is hiring a Costing Analyst in New York, NY to manage product costing across assigned categories, factories, and seasons. The role supports Sourcing, Production, Design, Merchandising, and Finance by making sure product costs are accurate, competitive, complete, and aligned with margin targets.

This position serves as the key financial checkpoint between product development, sourcing, and production. It involves reviewing factory quotations, checking every cost element, pushing back on pricing where needed, identifying savings opportunities, and keeping costing records reliable from development through bulk production.

What You Will Do

• Examine factory cost sheets to confirm they are complete and correct.
• Check material, trim, labor, overhead, testing, packaging, freight, duty, and other cost inputs.
• Benchmark factory quotes against target costs, historical pricing, and comparable styles.
• Spot cost differences and explain the reasons behind increases or decreases.
• Question factories when pricing seems too high or not properly supported.
• Keep accurate costing records by style, season, factory, and customer.
• Work with Merchandising, Sales, Sourcing, and Production to understand target costs and margin needs.
• Help the team reach customer price points while protecting profitability.
• Assess whether quoted costs support overall business margin goals.
• Suggest ways to lower cost through fabric substitutions, construction changes, factory negotiation, or production efficiencies.
• Identify styles that are falling short of expected margin.
• Request complete and prompt cost breakdowns from factories and vendors.
• Follow up on missing, incomplete, or unclear cost information.
• Compare pricing across factories to uncover inconsistencies.
• Support factory negotiations with cost comparisons and margin analysis.
• Monitor vendor pricing trends and flag factories that are becoming less competitive.
• Partner with Sourcing to recommend the most suitable factory based on cost, capability, capacity, and delivery requirements.
• Review fabric, trim, packaging, label, and embellishment costs.
• Compare material pricing with mill/vendor quotations and historical records.
• Look for opportunities to consolidate materials, reduce minimum order quantities, or improve pricing.
• Work with Fabric, Design, and Product Development teams to understand how design changes affect cost.
• Track the cost impact of fabric weight, construction, wash, print, embroidery, appliqué, packaging, and customer specifications.
• Maintain seasonal cost sheets and costing trackers.
• Update cost sheets as products move from development into production.
• Track the original quote, revised quote, final approved cost, and margin.
• Document all costing changes and approvals clearly.
• Make sure cost data is fully accurate before purchase orders are released.
• Collaborate with Sourcing, Production, Design, Product Development, Merchandising, Sales, Compliance, Logistics, and Finance.
• Provide costing support during seasonal line reviews, adoption meetings, and production handoffs.
• Share cost risks early with internal stakeholders.
• Support decisions related to style adoption, factory selection, and customer pricing.
• Help teams understand how design, fabric, construction, and packaging decisions influence cost.
• Prepare seasonal costing reports.
• Track cost changes from early development through final production.
• Report margin risk by style, customer, factory, and season.
• Maintain factory and category cost comparison reports.
• Analyze cost increases tied to labor, materials, freight, duty, exchange rates, or customer requirements.
• Support post-season reviews to find future cost-saving opportunities.

Requirements

• At least 2 years of experience in costing, sourcing, production, merchandising, finance, or product development.
• Experience in apparel, accessories, footwear, or consumer goods is preferred.
• Solid knowledge of product cost components such as fabric, trims, labor, overhead, packaging, freight, duty, and testing.
• Advanced Excel ability is required.
• Experience with ERP, PLM, costing tools, or WIP trackers is preferred.
• Strong analytical thinking and problem-solving ability.
• Ability to interpret cost sheets, BOMs, tech packs, and product specifications.
• High attention to detail and strong follow-through.
• Comfort speaking with factories, vendors, and internal teams.
• Ability to juggle multiple seasons, deadlines, factories, and customers at the same time.

Compensation

The expected salary range for this role is $80,000 to $100,000 per year.