Accounting Specialist

Role: Accounting Specialist
Location: Hopkinsville, Kentucky. Onsite, open office environment, 0 to 5 percent travel.
Reports to: Accounting Manager
Team size / reports: Individual contributor, no direct reports 
Why it exists now: Brand-new "smart plant" that opened in December 2025 and was roughly seven months into live manufacturing. This seat has to hold the month-end close together while the plant stands up its processes and ramps volume.

Why This Role Matters

"We do not fill a role just to fill a role. Everything here makes a difference, and how you make that difference is truly up to you." 

This is a launch seat, not a maintenance hire. The plant is new enough that the accounting processes are still being built, and month-end close is where a new manufacturing operation either holds or cracks. Leadership has already lived the failure mode once: a numbers-strong hire without a manufacturing background could not close cleanly, and close time got painful for the whole team. What is at stake is a clean, reliable close as the plant scales, owned by someone who grows into it. The people running this plant treat every seat as load-bearing, and they mean it.

The Mission

In the first year, get the plant's month-end close right and grow from supported to independent while you do it. You will not be dropped into the deep end alone. There is, in Danny's words, "a lot of support, the best that I've seen since I've been out the military." What they need in return is a sponge: someone willing to absorb the manufacturing close, learn on their feet, and use "stop, call, wait" to surface a problem before it becomes an "uh-oh" at close. By month twelve, the accounting team should feel you carrying your own weight.

Performance Objectives

1. Close month-end on schedule. Own your month-end close deliverables (journal entries, labor and expense analysis, sales and COGS analysis, balance sheet reconciliations) and close them clean by the end of the second full close cycle, measured by on-time completion with no reopened or reworked entries.
   
2. Reach independent variance analysis within twelve months. Analyze manufacturing and purchase price variances and track every standard cost and selling price change without hand-holding by month twelve, measured by variance reports delivered accurately and on time.
   
3. Confirm and protect inventory value from day one. Confirm inventory receipts against packing lists, code AP invoices in Inspyrus, and catch inventory value abnormalities before they compound, measured by clean inventory value reports with no late-surfacing adjustments.
   
4. Show visible progression from supported to independent. Move from close support to owning your close duties across the first year, measured by a steadily shrinking need for the accounting team to carry your pieces. This is Leslie's explicit bar: "you have to see progression."
   
5. Ask for help early enough that problems never reach the close. Use "stop, call, wait" so issues surface while they are still fixable, measured by zero preventable close-cycle failures.
   

Fit Traits

1. Coachable Sponge. Signal: "You have to be a sponge. You have to be willing to absorb the material and then learn on your feet." The single trait that most predicts survival in this seat. Pedigree matters less than the appetite to learn the manufacturing close fast.
   
2. Asks for Help Early. Signal: "We have a phrase called stop, call, wait. If you have any issues whatsoever, don't take that to failure." They want problems surfaced, not hidden and discovered at close.
   
3. Shows Progression. Signal: "You have to see progression. We understand where you're gonna be in the beginning, but you have to be willing and able." Willingness plus visible growth over the year is the standard.
   
4. Team-First Trust Builder. Signal: "Once you build that trust and have that engagement with the team members, you'll enjoy everything you do." Relationships are the operating system of this plant, not a nice-to-have.
   
5. Patient With a Deliberate Pace. Signal: "Once a decision is made, we act quickly. However, that decision could take time because we want to analyze." Composure inside startup ambiguity, not frustration that things do not move instantly.
   

Who You'll Work For

Danny leads the HR and admin side of the plant after more than twenty years in the Army as an infantry leader; he retired out of Fort Campbell and chose to build this workforce in the community that raised him. He describes himself as a "mother hen" who has been part of every person's journey through the building, and he runs a daily huddle on the TB Way as a discussion, not a recital. Leslie, the daughter of a military family and about three years into the company, came up through team-member relations and treats trust as the foundation of the work; her proudest moment was team members stopping to talk with her simply because they wanted to.

"Why not continue to invest in the community that raised me?" 

Why Veterans Succeed Here

If you ran a unit budget, a cost center, disbursing, or property accountability, you have already closed the books under pressure with real consequences attached. The scale here is different; the discipline is the same. Financial-management NCOs and comptroller officers from any branch translate directly into this seat, and the degree flexibility above means a service-earned degree in another field does not shut the door.

This plant runs the way a good unit runs: it starts every day together on shared values, it standardizes everything so the operation does not fall apart, and it wraps new people in a heavy support structure. Danny built this workforce out of the Fort Campbell community and hires the way the military trains, patient with the learning curve as long as the person is willing and able. VHS matched this role because the performance objectives, the standards-driven culture, and the support-first onboarding align cleanly with transitioning financial-management and logistics service members and military spouses.

Requirements

Minimum qualifications, with the military lens applied.

• Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, or a related field, OR an equivalent combination of education and relevant experience. On the Conversation, leadership confirmed a degree in another discipline (for example business) paired with a strong accounting or finance work history can supplement the specific degree, as long as a degree is held. Military equivalent: a service-earned degree in any field plus financial-management training or experience. Maps to: the whole role.
  
• Four or more years of accounting experience, manufacturing environment strongly preferred. Manufacturing exposure is not an absolute deal-breaker if the candidate shows clear willingness and ability to close the gap quickly, but the last hire without it struggled at close. Military equivalent: Army 36B/36A financial management, USMC 3451 financial management, Navy Logistics Specialist or disbursing, Air Force 6F0X1 financial management and comptroller, or battalion-level budget and resource management. Maps to: month-end close and variance objectives.
  
• Working knowledge of cost accounting, standard cost, and inventory valuation. Military equivalent: managing an operating budget, cost centers, or property accountability at unit or battalion level. Maps to: variance and inventory objectives.
  
• Strong Excel proficiency; ERP experience (for example Oracle) helpful but not required; AP coding in Inspyrus. Military equivalent: GFEBS, DAI, or comparable service financial systems translate directly. Maps to: close and AP objectives.
  
• Strong written and verbal English. Military equivalent: report writing and cross-culture coordination on combined or coalition staffs. Maps to: cross-department and audit support.
  

Benefits