JOB COST ANALYST

Job Description

Job Description

Position Summary

A growing heavy civil contractor is seeking a Job Cost Analyst to support the financial performance of highway, roadway, paving, site development, and infrastructure projects. This role works closely with project management, operations, and accounting to monitor job costs, forecast final outcomes, identify margin risk, validate project data, and turn field and financial information into actionable business insight.

The preferred candidate understands how heavy civil projects are actually built—not just how transactions are entered. Experience with asphalt paving, roadway construction, earthwork, utilities, DOT/public works, or similar production-driven construction is highly valued.

Key Responsibilities

• Analyze project cost, revenue, committed cost, production, and forecast data across multiple heavy civil projects.
• Monitor actual costs against budgets, estimates, forecasts, and key performance indicators; flag emerging overruns or margin erosion early.
• Review highway/roadway project contracts, subcontracts, change orders, quantities, owner estimates, and supporting job documentation.
• Partner with project managers and operations leaders to understand field production, quantities installed, schedule impacts, material usage, subcontractor performance, and other cost drivers.
• Prepare project forecasts and estimated cost-at-completion / final margin projections.
• Validate quantities claimed and reconcile project production/payment information to owner estimates and internal records.
• Prepare and analyze accruals, deferrals, job-cost adjustments, and other project-related accounting entries.
• Support monthly close and provide accurate project reporting to accounting and executive leadership.
• Audit project costs, investigate discrepancies, and communicate findings clearly to project managers and leadership.
• Analyze subcontractor and supplier pricing, commitments, performance, and cost impacts.
• Identify overlooked scope, cost exposure, budget gaps, change-order opportunities, and practical cost-reduction opportunities.
• Support project closeout by validating final revenue, costs, quantities, and billing information.
• Assist with internal/external audits and maintain organized, confidential financial documentation.
• Prepare management reports using information from accounting, estimating, project-management, and field-production systems.

Required Background

• Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, Business, Construction Management, or a related discipline.
• At least 2 years of construction job-cost, construction accounting, project controls, project financial analysis, or closely related experience.
• Demonstrated experience working with project budgets, forecasts, job-cost reports, accruals, revenue/cost analysis, and project financial performance.
• Advanced or strong working proficiency in Microsoft Excel and the ability to consolidate and analyze data from multiple systems.
• Ability to communicate financial findings to non-financial stakeholders, especially project managers and operations personnel.
• Valid driver's license and ability to travel occasionally to project sites or company locations.

Strongly Preferred – Target Candidate Profile

• Heavy highway, roadway, asphalt paving, DOT/public works, earthwork, underground utility, or heavy civil contractor experience.
• Hands-on familiarity with construction production quantities, pay items, unit costs, subcontractor commitments, change orders, and project forecasting.
• Experience supporting project managers on active field projects rather than working solely in corporate/general accounting.
• Understanding of percentage-of-completion / WIP concepts, cost-to-complete forecasting, committed costs, and margin analysis.
• Experience with construction ERP/project systems such as Viewpoint/Vista, HCSS, Sage, CMiC, Procore, HeavyJob, or comparable platforms.

What This Role Is Not

• Not a general AP/AR or bookkeeping position.
• Not primarily a corporate FP&A role detached from construction operations.
• Not an estimating-only position; the emphasis is on active-project cost performance, forecasting, financial controls, and profitability.
• Candidates from vertical commercial construction may be considered, but roadway/heavy civil experience should receive priority.

Knowledge & Skills

• Job costing, cost control, budgeting, forecasting, financial statement analysis, accruals/deferrals, and general ledger concepts.
• Construction contracts, subcontracts, change orders, project billing, quantities, and cost-to-complete concepts.
• Strong analytical, mathematical, organizational, and problem-solving capability.
• Ability to identify financial risk, explain root causes, and translate data into decisions.
• High attention to detail with the ability to manage multiple active projects and deadlines.