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.)