Project Controller

Project Controller

We're seeking a Project Controller to lead our national project accounting function and serve as the financial conscience of our project portfolio. Reporting to the Vice President Corporate Controller, you'll lead a distributed team of project accountants supporting operations, drive the cost control standards that protect margin in a sponsor-backed environment, and deliver the reporting rigor expected by our investors, lenders, and board. This role is highly visible — your work will directly inform monthly executive reporting, quarterly board reporting and the value creation thesis that drives our next stage of growth.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead, mentor, and develop a team of project accountants supporting branch, regional, and large loss operations across the platform
• Build the staffing model and operating structure to scale the team alongside organic growth, acquisitions, and CAT season volume spikes
• Integrate project accounting functions from acquired companies, standardizing processes, systems, and reporting onto the platform model
• Establish training programs, performance standards, and career paths that build a bench of talent capable of supporting a much larger platform
• Conduct regular performance reviews, workload balancing, and capacity planning across regions

• Support operations through the project budget lifecycle from initial scope approval through final reconciliation, ensuring rigorous variance management at every stage
• Establish national cost control standards, thresholds, and escalation triggers that protect project margins and surface risk early
• Drive operations to develop root-cause analysis on margin erosion, cost overruns, and unapproved scope creep, partnering with operations to implement corrective action
• Conduct and support project reviews with regional VPs and Project Directors and Project Managers, holding the line on budget discipline and cost recovery
• Develop and enforce policies on labor burden, equipment allocation, subcontractor markups, and indirect cost application to ensure consistent job costing across all branches
• Oversee change order governance, ensuring all scope expansions are properly priced, approved, and recovered before work proceeds

• Own work-in-progress (WIP) reporting, percentage-of-completion accounting, and over/under billing analysis
• Deliver executive-level reporting on project margins, cost variances, cycle times, and portfolio profitability for monthly operating reviews, quarterly board meetings, and lender reporting packages
• Support the calculation, validation, and documentation of EBITDA adjustments, normalizations, and pro forma metrics tied to project performance
• Build forecasting models that translate operational pipeline into revenue and margin projections for monthly forecasts, annual budgets, and long-range planning
• Develop KPI dashboards covering cost-to-complete, estimate accuracy, supplement capture rates, and crew productivity by service line and region
• Partner with FP&A, the Controller, and the CFO on board materials, lender covenant reporting, and sponsor information requests

• Own the project accounting technology stack across the platform and drive continuous improvement of integrations and workflows
• Lead system standardization across legacy and acquired entities, building toward a single source of truth for project financial data
• Establish documentation standards that satisfy insurance carrier, TPA, and managed repair program billing and audit requirements
• Lead internal and external audit responses, including carrier program audits, lender audits, financial statement audits, and any SOC or sponsor-driven control assessments
• Implement internal controls over project setup, cost coding, billing approval, and revenue recognition appropriate for a sponsor-backed, audit-ready environment

• Serve as the finance partner to the regional VPs of Operations, Estimating leadership, and General Managers
• Influence executive decisions on pricing, service line expansion, large loss pursuit, geographic expansion, and CAT deployment strategy through financial insight
• Collaborate with the Controller and accounting team on close cycles, revenue recognition, audit support, and lender compliance

• Serve as the project accounting workstream lead on acquisition integrations, mapping target company processes and systems onto the platform standard
• Support financial diligence on target acquisitions, including quality of earnings analysis on project margins, WIP validation, and revenue recognition assessment
• Lead post-close integration of project setup, job costing, and billing processes within the platform's first 180 days
• Identify and quantify synergy opportunities tied to project accounting standardization, vendor consolidation, and process automation

Qualifications

Required

• 10+ years of progressive project controls, project accounting, or construction finance experience, with at least 4 years in a people-leadership role
• Deep expertise in cost control methodology, job costing, WIP accounting, and percentage-of-completion revenue recognition
• Proven track record managing project portfolios in restoration, construction, specialty contracting, or a comparable multi-location field-services industry
• Experience operating in a private equity-backed, lender-financed, or otherwise institutionally-owned environment with the reporting cadence and discipline that comes with it
• Demonstrated success building and scaling teams across multiple geographies
• Advanced Excel and financial modeling skills; experience with BI tools
• Executive presence and the ability to influence operations leadership on financial discipline while maintaining productive working relationships

Preferred

• Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, Construction Management, or related field; CPA, CMA, or MBA strongly preferred
• M&A integration experience, particularly in roll-up or platform consolidation strategies
• Experience leading project controls through a CAT season or large loss event
• Knowledge of IICRC S500, S520, and S700 standards
• Experience with major carrier programs and TPAs (Alacrity, Contractor Connection, Code Blue, etc.)