Senior Project Accountant

Job Description

Job Description

Job Information:

Location: Elmont, NY (in Person 5 days)

Compensation Range: $140,000 - $160,000 + standard benefit package

Position Summary:

The ideal candidate will have significant experience supporting commercial construction projects with contract values of $100 million or greater and possess a thorough understanding of construction accounting, project financial controls, subcontractor billing, requisitions, and contract administration. This position requires an exceptionally organized, detail-oriented professional who can manage a high volume of financial information while maintaining accuracy, meet strict deadlines, and proactively identify discrepancies or potential financial issues on the project. The successful candidate will work closely with all company departments, especially estimating, project management and corporate accounting personnel.

Key Responsibilities:

• Oversee daily project accounting operations, including job cost coding and tracking, account reconciliations, and support for the project-level accounting close process.
• Partner with project managers and operations staff to monitor project costs, billings, commitments, change orders, cost-to-complete forecasts, and projected project profitability, and identify potential financial risks.
• Prepare, manage, and reconcile monthly owner requisitions/payment applications, ensuring accuracy and compliance with contract requirements.
• Review and process subcontractor AIA G702/G703 payment applications, including percent complete, retainage, stored materials, change orders, and previous payments.
• Monitor project costs, commitments, billings, payments, accruals, and contract balances.
• Reconcile project financial information and identify and resolve discrepancies.
• Maintain accurate project cost reports, commitment logs, change order logs, billing records, and supporting documentation.
• Track and administer owner and subcontractor change orders and ensure approved changes are accurately reflected in project financial records.
• Ensure subcontractor billings and owner requisitions are properly supported, documented, and submitted on schedule.
• Proactively identify financial discrepancies, risks, and potential issues and communicate them to project leadership.
• Monitor and evaluate advance payments/retainage and overbillings with subcontractors.
• Reconcile contract values, approved changes, pending changes, commitments, and billings to make sure payments are up to date and true.
• Code labor costs to jobs to support payroll allocation and job costing accuracy and assist with payroll reporting as needed.

Qualifications:

Required:

• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, or related field.
• 5+ years of construction accounting, project accounting, or related construction financial management experience.
• Proven experience working on large-scale commercial construction projects valued at $100 million or more.
• Strong knowledge of construction job cost accounting inclusive of percentage-of-completion revenue recognition, owner/subcontractor req. process including retainage reductions, AIA Billing and compliance documentation, cost-to-complete forecasting, project profitability, commitments, and change-order accounting.
• Proficiency with construction accounting and ERP systems, including CMiC, ProContractor, or other construction-specific systems; experience with Procore preferred.
• Advanced Microsoft Excel skills, including PivotTables, XLOOKUP/VLOOKUP, SUMIFS, financial modeling, and data analysis.
• Ability to work collaboratively across accounting and estimating departments as well as the project’s field construction teams.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to identify and resolve financial discrepancies independently.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain financial information clearly to non-financial stakeholders.
• Ability to manage a high volume of financial information across multiple priorities while maintaining accuracy under deadline pressure.

Preferred:

• Familiarity with WIP schedule preparation.
• Experience across multiple GC/CM contract structures (lump-sum, GMP, cost-plus).

Core Competencies:

• Financial Acumen — applies strong accounting and construction-finance knowledge to protect project profitability.
• Accuracy & Attention to Detail — catches discrepancies before they become problems.
• Organization & Time Management — manages a high volume of deadline-driven work without dropping details.
• Proactive Problem Solving — flags and addresses financial risks before they escalate.
• Collaboration & Cross-Functional Partnership — works effectively with project management, estimating, corporate accounting and field.
• Communication — translates financial detail into clear, actionable information for project leadership.
• Integrity & Accountability — handles contract and financial data with discretion and reliability.