Staff Accountant

Staff Accountant

Optimum Energy is looking for a smart, motivated, collaborative business professional to join our accounting team as a Staff Accountant, reporting to the Controller. The Staff Accountant will own the day-to-day accounts payable process, including invoice review and approval support, the weekly check run, and vendor statement reconciliations. This role will also prepare journal entries and reconciliations for accruals, accounts payable, bank accounts, and the balance sheet as part of month-end close, code and enter monthly credit card receipts into NetSuite, and assist with monthly state sales tax filings and financial audit requests. The ideal candidate is comfortable building and maintaining Excel spreadsheets for ad hoc projects and tracking, and is ready to support the Senior Accountant and Controller on special projects as needed. Success attributes critical to this role include initiative, creativity, curiosity, and desire to tackle big challenges.

Primary Responsibilities

• Accounts Payable: Review invoices for proper support and approval. Assist with weekly check run processes. Reconcile vendor statements to ensure proper balances.
• Month-End Close: Reconcile accruals and accounts payable and prepare journal entries. Reconcile bank accounts and maintain balance sheet reconciliations.
• Fixed Assets: Maintain fixed asset registers and calculate monthly depreciation.
• Credit Card & Expense Reporting: Collect monthly credit card receipts, code them, and enter them into NetSuite. Assist with expense report tracking and coding.
• Tax & Audit Support: Assist with monthly state sales tax filings and financial audit requests.
• Special Projects: Assist with special projects and work alongside the Senior Accountant. Create and maintain Excel spreadsheets for various projects and tracking purposes.

Key Competencies and Skills Expectations

• Integrity: High level of integrity, trust, and the ability to maintain confidentiality is critical.
• Problem Solving: Effective problem-solving abilities.
• Customer Service: Professional, yet personal demeanor and strong customer service skills.
• Communication: Good verbal and written communication and interpersonal skills.
• Organization & Time Management: Ability to multi-task, meet deadlines, handle frequent interruptions, and maintain a high level of productivity.
• Attention to Detail: Accuracy and careful attention to detail required. Produces high-quality work.
• Results Focus: Focus on results and success, conveying a sense of urgency and seeing issues through to closure.

Requirements

• Education: 4-year bachelor's degree in Accounting preferred.
• Experience:
  • 1 to 2 years of accounting and/or accounts payable experience.
  • Knowledge of basic accounting principles including AR, AP, accruals, and general ledger.
  • Working knowledge of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) preferred.
• Technical Knowledge: Intermediate to advanced Excel skills. Intermediate experience with NetSuite preferred. Knowledge of MS Office (Outlook, Word, PowerPoint) and SharePoint (preferred).

Optimum Energy is an Equal Opportunity Employer encouraging diversity in the workplace.

Optimum Energy, a Bernhard Capital Partners portfolio company, has spent 20 years helping hospitals, universities, government facilities, and advanced manufacturing operations reduce energy consumption in heating and cooling systems by up to 50% and turn that infrastructure into a strategic financial and operational asset. With 300+ plants and institutions served globally, nobody understands energy infrastructure, efficiency, and financial opportunity quite like Optimum Energy.

Our Energy-as-a-Service model converts aging central utility plants into upfront unrestricted cash, cuts utility operating expenses 25 to 35%, and keeps the transaction entirely off the balance sheet. The structure has been confirmed by Big Four auditors and cited by rating agencies as a driver of improved credit outlooks.

We work with clients from master planning and design through implementation, commissioning, and into long-term operations and maintenance. How we show up depends on what the client needs. That could mean fully managed plants with Optimum carrying total accountability for performance and uptime. It could mean supplementing an existing facilities team with engineering support, analytics, training, and escalation resources. Or it could mean a tailored combination of both. In every engagement, we stay for the life of the agreement.

Proprietary technology, including OptiCx and OptimumLOOP, powers everything we do. It is not what we sell. It is what enables us to deliver the most continuous, precise system-level optimization across chilled water, hot water, and steam plants available in the market today. Machine learning algorithms trained on two decades of operational data adapt to load, weather, and occupancy in real time. AI-driven predictive maintenance and fault detection catch equipment degradation before it becomes a problem. We guarantee the performance. We carry the risk.

Behind the technology is a team built on a simple set of principles: be sharp, be relentless, and be accountable for outcomes. Our people are engineers, operators, and financial structurers who would rather solve the hard problem than talk around it. Every engagement gets that same intensity, whether the scope is a single plant or a 26-site enterprise portfolio.