Controller

Description

Join Our Innovative Team at Mile 2!

Are you into solving tough problems and building cool tech? Do you thrive in a team where your ideas are heard and your creativity is encouraged? If you're nodding along, Mile 2 might be the place for you.

About Mile 2

Mile 2 is a small, mission-driven government contractor advancing the state of the art in human-machine teaming for the defense community. We build custom software that fuses rigorous user-centered design with cutting-edge engineering, creating systems where humans and intelligent machines collaborate more effectively, intelligently, and safely.

Our work directly supports warfighters and defense analysts at the DoW agencies. We are small by design: lean, technical, and oriented toward impact over headcount.

Our core values guide how we work and how we hire:

• Supported Autonomy: We are driven, take ownership of our work, and hold each other accountable.
• Tangible Results: We have a craftsman's attention to detail. We don't ship work we are not proud of.
• Humble Expertise: We keep learning, teaching, and growing, individually, as a company, and as a community.
• Success is a Team Effort: We actively share our perspectives while listening to the views of our teammates. We achieve more together than we could individually.

When you join us, you'll work on meaningful projects that challenge you and help you grow. We offer a supportive and inclusive environment, competitive benefits, and plenty of opportunities to advance your career. 

Our Approach to AI in Hiring

At Mile Two, applications are reviewed by real people—not filtered out by bots. Authenticity matters more than keyword tricks.

We know you're probably using AI tools to help draft or polish your resumes, and that’s fine! We're using AI to write this blurb about AI! But we expect you to make it your own. Resumes that feel copy-pasted I —repetitive, oddly phrased, “too perfect” matches to our job description— may hurt your chances. Adding personal touches and real examples of your work will make your application stronger.

The use of AI tools or other external assistance during interviews is not permitted .

We look forward to meeting the real you!

A Note About Our Application Process

Please answer our screener questions honestly and thoroughly (rather than writing “see resume”). These are reviewed by real people—not bots—and play an important role in our selection process. Thoughtful responses will strengthen your application.

Position Overview

The Controller is a pivotal leadership role reporting directly to the CFO, owning our accounting ecosystem and guiding a dedicated team consisting of a Senior Accountant and Program Controller.

You will partner with Director-level leaders across every department, not just Finance, and have a real understanding of what's happening across the organization. You need to be an excellent communicator, comfortable explaining financial and compliance topics clearly to a wide audience.

Success here requires true operational ownership, high craftsmanship, and proactive leadership. We expect our Controller to maintain rigorous line-by-line scrutiny over our GL, cash forecasting, and balance sheet reconciliations by catching discrepancies, verifying transactions, and preventing errors before they reach executive review.

You need to be genuinely tech-savvy, understanding how our processes and systems fit together, and ready to help the team embrace automation and AI in ways that actually make us better, not adopt it just because it's trendy.

What Success Looks Like in This Role:

• Approachable Educator & Translator: You demystify complex FAR, DFARS, and CAS requirements into practical guidance. You help non-finance leaders understand the "why" behind financial decisions and turn routine compliance or expense reviews into coaching moments that build trust and financial literacy. 
• Thoughtful Process Improvement & Change Management: You actively seek ways to streamline workflows and introduce smart automation, but you never optimize in a vacuum. You consult stakeholders, map downstream impacts, and ensure the team is aligned before changing processes or tools.
• Hands-On Unanet & Systems Leadership: You serve as our internal technical expert for Unanet architecture. You directly configure workflows, build custom reports, and troubleshoot system challenges alongside the Program Controller rather than relying on external support or escalating to executive leadership. 
• Proactive Ownership & Accountability: You run a tight 5-day close, maintain audit readiness, and manage open action items without needing to be prompted. You keep executive leadership informed ahead of time and drive finance initiatives across the finish line independently. 

You’ll Thrive in This Role If:

• You are a CPA with deep GovCon experience who takes pride in line-by-line accuracy, strong GAAP fundamentals, thorough audit defense, and teaching others. 
• You are a thoughtful systems thinker who balances innovation with disciplined change management, gathering input from affected team members before changing processes or workflows.
• You use technology and AI as thoughtful multipliers for speed and accuracy, rather than relying on unvetted, generic text generators.
• You prefer a lean, high-agency culture where craftsman-level execution is valued, red tape is minimized, and your voice directly impacts how the company operates. 

Key Responsibilities

Financial Management & Reporting

• Own the monthly close process, delivering accurate and compliant financial statements within a 5-business-day close.
• Own the annual close and the integrity of our financial statements.
• Review and approve all A/P payments, payroll runs, outgoing cash transactions, GL entries, and monthly balance sheet reconciliations, serving as the check and balance for the accounting team.
• Own the accuracy of our short-term cash forecast, ensuring cash-impacting activities across departments are captured.
• Analyze financial data to identify trends and produce reporting commentary that is accurate, relevant, and genuinely useful to leadership decision-making, not just a recap of the numbers.
• Ensure best practices in project/program setup and control with the Program Controller, including revenue recognition and billing. Stay close enough to our contracts to know their status and how they affect the numbers.

Audit, Compliance & Tax

• Keep our accounting practices fully compliant with FAR, DFARS, Cost Accounting Standards (CAS), and GAAP as those standards and our business evolve.
• Oversee and facilitate completion of incurred cost submissions (ICS) prepared by the team.
• Serve as the primary point of contact for our annual financial statement compilation/audit, 401(k) plan audit, DCAA audits, and workers' compensation and sales/use tax audits, overseeing the process and ensuring the team's work (primarily handled by the Senior Accountant) is accurate, complete, and appropriately scoped.
• Establish and enforce internal controls that safeguard company assets and protect the integrity of our financial records.
• Lead coordination of annual tax return preparation with our outside CPA firm, including familiarity with R&D tax credit calculations.

Technology, Automation & Process Improvement

Our finance tech stack includes Unanet, Paylocity, and Ramp. 

• Serve as the internal Unanet expert, including configuring reports, workflows, and system settings, not just running what's already built.
• Identify and lead process improvements across the finance function.
• Evaluate and adopt new tools or automation where they demonstrably improve accuracy or speed, grounded in a genuine understanding of how our systems work.
• Lead the team's responsible adoption of AI, helping them learn to use it well rather than defaulting to 'AI-driven' for everything.

Strategic Leadership & Team Development

• Partner with Director-level leaders across every department (not just Finance), staying genuinely informed about what's happening across the organization rather than only in the books.
• Lead, develop, and grow a Senior Accountant and Program Controller.
• Run the weekly Finance meeting and actively connect the team's work to company priorities.
• Share expertise and help less experienced teammates improve. Explain compliance requirements to non-finance stakeholders in a way that builds trust.
• Proven experience navigating a DCAA audits as the responsible party.
• Deep, hands-on Unanet expertise, including configuration and administration, not just report-level use; comfortable serving as the go-to resource for other staff.
• Strong understanding of how finance systems and processes interconnect, with the judgment to think through how a change might affect other people or teams before making it.
• Excellent verbal and written communicator, comfortable translating financial and compliance topics for audiences ranging from the accounting team to the whole company.
• Self-motivated leader who takes full ownership of the team and empowers them to do their best work.
• Advanced Excel skills, including data extraction, transformation, and financial modeling.
• Experience leading process improvement initiatives within a finance function.
• Experience coordinating annual tax return preparation with an outside CPA firm, including familiarity with R&D tax credit calculations.
• Experience overseeing a 401(k) plan audit and an annual financial statement compilation or audit.
• Demonstrated ability to partner effectively with leaders outside of finance, and genuine interest in understanding the business beyond the numbers.
• Strong problem-solving, analytical, and decision-making skills, particularly in producing financial commentary that holds up to scrutiny.
• Strong work ethic, high attention to detail, and uncompromising integrity.
• Genuine enjoyment of teaching and mentoring others, especially less experienced teammates.

Requirements

Required Qualifications

• Active CPA license.
• Bachelor's degree in Business, Accounting, or Finance.
• 7+ years of progressive accounting experience, including at least 4 years in a GovCon environment.
• 2+ years of experience specifically with CPFF (Cost-Plus Fixed-Fee) contracts.
• Deep working knowledge of FAR, DFARS, GAAP, and Cost Accounting Standards (CAS), including staying current with regulatory changes.
• Proven experience navigating a DCAA audits as the responsible party.
• Deep, hands-on Unanet expertise, including configuration and administration, not just report-level use; comfortable serving as the go-to resource for other staff.
• Strong understanding of how finance systems and processes interconnect, with the judgment to think through how a change might affect other people or teams before making it.
• Excellent verbal and written communicator, comfortable translating financial and compliance topics for audiences ranging from the accounting team to the whole company.
• Self-motivated leader who takes full ownership of the team and empowers them to do their best work.
• Advanced Excel skills, including data extraction, transformation, and financial modeling.
• Experience leading process improvement initiatives within a finance function.
• Experience coordinating annual tax return preparation with an outside CPA firm, including familiarity with R&D tax credit calculations.
• Experience overseeing a 401(k) plan audit and an annual financial statement compilation or audit.
• Demonstrated ability to partner effectively with leaders outside of finance, and genuine interest in understanding the business beyond the numbers.
• Strong problem-solving, analytical, and decision-making skills, particularly in producing financial commentary that holds up to scrutiny.
• Strong work ethic, high attention to detail, and uncompromising integrity.
• Genuine enjoyment of teaching and mentoring others, especially less experienced teammates.

Preferred

• Experience leading a finance team through a transition, turnaround, or systems change.
• Experience training or mentoring non-finance staff on compliance requirements.
• Genuine comfort evaluating and implementing new technology or automation, grounded in real technical understanding rather than trend-chasing.
• Hands-on experience with AI tools or workflow automation in a finance context.
• Experience integrating Unanet data with third-party analytics or or automation platforms.