Project Controller

Schedule : Monday - Thursday in office, Friday work from home Position Type: Full-Time, Exempt Reports To: Director of Project Finance and Operations Travel: none Supervisory Responsibility: none Summary Objective The Project Controller plays a critical role in supporting financial management and control for our organization's projects. This role involves collaborating with project teams, monitoring project financials, and ensuring compliance with financial regulations, accounting standards and company policies. Project Controller will contribute to accurate financial reporting, budgeting, and forecasting to support the successful execution of projects. This position serves as the primary financial point of contact for assigned projects from award through closeout and is expected to be a proficient user of SAP S/4HANA, working daily in Project Systems and across the Procure-to-Pay cycle to ensure project costs are captured, controlled, and reported accurately. Essential Functions Ensure accurate and timely cost reports and financial data by fully reconciling project contract values, budgets, forecasts, and approved change orders. Verify that all reported values are backed by proper documentation to maintain transparency and audit readiness. Coordinate closely with project teams, procurement, receiving, and other departments to ensure alignment between operations and financial goals. Ensure all teams follow established procedures and policies to support accurate reporting and project execution. Develop and maintain project budgets, forecasts, and cost control systems to track financial performance. Analyze variances between budget and actuals and recommend corrective actions to keep projects financially on track. Maintain project structures in SAP S/4HANA Project Systems (PS), including WBS element setup, network activities, cost planning versions, budget releases, and settlement rules, ensuring structures reflect the contracted scope of work and support required reporting. Oversee the Procure-to-Pay cycle for assigned projects, including review of requisition and purchase order coding to the correct WBS elements, monitoring of goods receipt/invoice receipt (GR/IR) aging, and resolution of three-way match exceptions with procurement and accounts payable. Monitor open commitments, accruals, and actual costs in SAP to produce a complete and defensible estimate at completion (EAC) for each project, including quantification of risk, contingency, and pending change orders. Maintain project master data integrity across SAP modules, including cost centers, profit centers, activity types, settlement rules, and project system statuses, and coordinate with ERP support on issue resolution and enhancement requests. Prepare and update detailed project cash flow forecasts to ensure adequate funding and timely disbursements. Coordinate with finance and project teams to align cash flow timing with billing, procurement, and execution milestones. Collaborate with project managers, procurement, and scheduling teams to align operational activities with financial plans. Support resource planning and identify risks that may impact cost or schedule. Assist in preparing documentation and reports for external audits. Ensure accuracy and completeness of financial records and support compliance with internal Controller. Identify inefficiencies in project Controller and recommend process enhancements. Develop standardized tools, templates, and reporting formats to improve accuracy and consistency. Monitor compliance with company issued policies and procedures and take corrective action for non-compliance. Review and approve job cost transfers to ensure accuracy, proper justification, and alignment with project budgets and coding structures. Investigate project variances, submit variance reports to management and respond to requests for more detail from key stakeholders. Provide ongoing process and financial guidance to project teams and other departments whose activities impact project financials. Support informed decision-making by ensuring understanding of cost Controller, budgeting practices, and compliance requirements. Close out projects and project accounts upon project completion. Review daily operational and financial transactions (Purchasing, Invoice Logs, JSI) and investigate any unusual transaction. Establish clear deadlines for project financial deliverables and monitor compliance across teams. Identify and prioritize critical areas requiring timely action to prevent delays, cost overruns, or reporting gaps. Perform various month-end closing procedures, including preparation and review of project cost reports. Ensure all costs are captured, reconciled, and accurately reflected in financial systems. Respond to ad hoc requests from management or project teams by providing timely financial analysis, reports, or data as needed. Support revenue recognition for long-term contracts, including percentage-of-completion calculations, results analysis, and settlement in SAP PS, in accordance with ASC 606 and company accounting policy. Track client billings, retainage, and unbilled balances; support the preparation of progress billings and reconcile billed and recognized revenue to the project cost report. Prepare and issue monthly project review packages covering cost to date, estimate at completion, margin trend, contingency drawdown, cash position, and change order status for review with project managers and executive leadership. Participate in ERP and process improvement initiatives, including requirements gathering, user acceptance testing, and training of project teams on SAP workflows and reporting tools. Protect the confidentiality of all accounting and payroll data. Prepares for ISO 9001 and other audits. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. Key Performance Indicators Accuracy and timeliness of monthly project cost reports, forecasts, and month-end close deliverables. Variance between reported estimate at completion and final project cost. Timeliness of GR/IR clearing and resolution of three-way match and invoice exceptions. Completeness of documentation supporting reported contract values, budgets, and approved change orders. Accuracy and integrity of project master data maintained in SAP S/4HANA. Absence of audit findings related to project financial records and internal Controller. Strong organizational skills. Analytical, logic and problem-solving skills. Detail-oriented with emphasis on accuracy and detection of errors and/or potential fraud. Ability to prioritize work to meet established deadlines. Strong interpersonal skills. Written and verbal communication skills. Time management. Accounting and Financial skills and knowledge. Job cost and project accounting concepts. Proficiency with ERP systems, particularly SAP S/4HANA. Advanced spreadsheet skills, including pivot tables, lookup functions, and analysis of large data sets. Ability to translate financial data into clear, actionable insight for non-financial audiences. Sound professional judgment and discretion in handling confidential information. Ability to manage multiple concurrent projects and competing priorities. Collaborative, cross-functional approach to problem solving. Key Working Relationships Project Managers and Project Engineers – cost, forecast, change order, and closeout coordination. Procurement and Receiving – purchase order commitments, goods receipt, and supplier invoice resolution. Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable – invoice processing, progress billing, and collections support. Scheduling – alignment of cost and schedule data for progress and earned value reporting. Corporate Accounting – month-end close, revenue recognition, and audit support. ERP and IT Support – system access, master data, and issue escalation. Required Education And Experience. Bachelor degree in accounting and 3 to 5 years of relevant experience; or 10 years’ relevant experience. Preferred Education And Experience Job cost and project accounting. SAP S/4HANA experience. SAP Project Systems (PS) module, including WBS structures, project budgeting, cost planning, and settlement. Procure-to-Pay (P2P) process experience, including purchase requisitions, purchase orders, goods receipt, and invoice verification (three-way match). Experience in an engineering, construction, EPC, or capital equipment manufacturing environment with long-cycle projects. Familiarity with percentage-of-completion accounting and ASC 606 revenue recognition. Experience with SAP reporting tools such as SAP Analytics Cloud, BW, or comparable business intelligence platforms. Experience supporting international projects, including multi-currency and intercompany transactions. CPA, CMA, or CCP certification, or active progress toward certification. Additional Experience And Skills Accounting and Financial skills and knowledge. Strong proficiency experience with MS Word, MS Excel and ability to use accounting software. Job cost and project accounting concepts. Working knowledge of US GAAP as applied to job cost and project accounting. Advanced MS Excel, including pivot tables, lookup functions, and data modeling. Ability to extract, reconcile, and analyze data from SAP standard and custom reports. Ability to document and maintain desktop procedures, process flows, and internal Controller. Work Authorization Must be authorized to work in the USA. #J-18808-Ljbffr