Senior Cost Accountant (Project Finance/Job Costing)

Description

The Senior Cost Accountant will lead job costing and WIP across the business. This role sits at the intersection of finance and operations, working directly with project managers and leadership to bring clarity to complex job economics and improve decision-making. This is a high-impact role with direct influence on how the business measures and manages job performance. The Senior Cost Accountant will play a key role in improving visibility, accountability, and financial outcomes across a growing and increasingly complex operation.

Requirements

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

Lead Job Costing & WIP

• Own the company’s job costing and WIP processes across a portfolio of active repair and construction projects
• Maintain and continuously improve visibility into actual vs. estimated costs, percent complete, and margin progression across jobs with evolving scope and timelines
• Develop and standardize WIP reporting that captures the true financial position of each project
• Establish consistency in how jobs are tracked, updated, and reported across teams. At any point in time, we may have between 30 and 40 ongoing projects that require tracking.

Partner with Project Managers

• Work directly with PMs to understand job status, scope changes, production challenges, and expected outcomes
• Integrate real-time operational insight into financial reporting to reflect the true state of each job
• Provide PMs with clear visibility into cost performance, labor efficiency, and margin drivers

Monitor Job Performance & Drive Accountability

• Track jobs throughout their lifecycle to identify cost overruns, margin compression, and execution gaps
• Surface trends and outliers across projects to support more proactive management of work in process
• Deliver clear, timely insight to leadership on job performance and areas requiring attention

Improve Reporting & Analytics

• Redesign and elevate job-level reporting to support faster, more informed decision-making
• Build tools, models, or dashboards that highlight performance trends, job progression, and key cost drivers
• Standardize reporting across projects to improve comparability and consistency

Drive Process Improvement

• Evaluate existing workflows and implement improvements to increase efficiency, accuracy, and scalability
• Reduce reliance on manual spreadsheets and fragmented data sources
• Improve how data flows from accounting and operational systems into reporting and analysis

Lead Forecasting & Financial Insight

• Own job-level forecasting, including revenue, cost, and margin expectations for active projects
• Improve forecast accuracy through stronger tracking, better assumptions, and closer alignment with operations
• Partner with the Controller and CFO to connect job performance to broader financial outcomes

Core Accounting Alignment

• Oversee WIP schedules, allocations, and job cost entries to ensure alignment with financial reporting
• Support month-end close with a focus on accuracy of job-related financial data
• Other tasks as needed.

Education and/or Work Experience Requirements:

• B.S. degree in Accounting, Finance, or a related field
• C.P.A. license a plus
• 3 - 5 years of experience in construction, ship repair, manufacturing, or other project-based environments
• Strong expertise in job costing and WIP / percentage-of-completion accounting
• Experience owning or leading project-level financial tracking and analysis in complex environments
• Ability to operate in evolving environments and build structure where needed
• Must be reliable, detail oriented, with a high level of integrity.
• Excellent organizational skills and attention to detail.
• Ability to maintain confidential and meticulous records

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Proficient in Microsoft Office: Word, Outlook required
• Advanced Excel skills (data analysis, modeling, structuring reports)
• Experience with accounting systems (QuickBooks or similar required; ERP experience a plus)
• Experience with project tracking or workflow tools such as Smartsheet is a plus
• Experience improving processes, systems, and reporting

Language Ability:

• Ability to communicate effectively in English

Physical Requirements:

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job are medium/heavy in nature.

• Prolonged periods of sitting at a desk and working on a computer.
• Must be able to lift 15 pounds at times.
• Ability to pass a pre-employment physical and drug screen.