Senior Manager, Project Financial Controls

 Financial Governance Framework

• Define and maintain project financial control policies, standards, procedures, and guidance for projects.
• Establish clear requirements for budget approval, commitment controls, change order management, forecasting, invoice validation, and financial closeout.
• Maintain the project financial control framework and ensure it remains aligned with company policy, accounting requirements, and business objectives.
• Define required documentation, evidence, approvals, and segregation of duties for key financial processes.
• Maintain control calendars, compliance checklists, process maps, and control owners.
• Identify control gaps and recommend process, system, or policy improvements.
• Maintain and coordinate periodic review of the project Approval Authority Matrix for budgets & commitments.
• Monitor whether approvals are obtained at the correct authority level and retained as auditable evidence.
• Support periodic reviews of project financial compliance and readiness for internal or external audit.

 Budget Governance

• Define standards for budget development, completeness, consistency, approval, version control, and baseline management. Working within existing project stage-gate process.
• Monitor compliance with budget creation and approval requirements.
• Establish requirements for budget changes, transfers, reallocations, contingency usage.
• Define project financial closeout requirements, including budget freeze, purchase order closeout, final invoicing, unresolved commitments, documentation, and approvals.

 Purchase Order & Invoice Controls

• Monitor compliance with procurement and purchase order approval requirements.
• Suggest improvements to governance requirements for purchase order creation, changes, blanket purchase orders, commitment changes, and closeout.
• Establish enhanced review or escalation requirements for high-value, unusual, over-budget, or otherwise higher-risk commitments.
• Monitor the purchase order and change-order logs for control exceptions, aging items, and unresolved approvals.
• Support the definition of requirements for final billing and purchase order closeout.
• Define documentation and process requirements for Change Orders. Monitor compliance with change-order requirements and auditability of the approval process.
• Review change-order trends, bottlenecks, aging, and recurring exceptions.
• Define control requirements for invoice validation, matching, approval, exception handling, disputes, holds, and final invoicing. Monitor compliance with requirements.

Forecasting Standards

• Work closely with Project Accounting to establish project forecasting standards.
• Produce clear guidance for incorporating exposures, pending buyouts, unbought scope, risks, and opportunities into project forecasts.
• Set escalation thresholds for projected budget overages, deteriorating cost performance, or unsupported forecast assumptions.
• Test forecast accuracy over time and identify recurring sources of forecast variance.
• Audit forecasting practices for consistency, completeness, and adherence to approved standards.
• Partner with Project Management and Project Accounting to improve the connection between project scope, schedule, commitments, risks, and cost forecasts.

 

Continuous Improvement 

• Perform periodic control reviews, sample testing, and targeted audits of project financial processes. Track findings, corrective actions, owners, due dates, and remediation status.
• Use control results to recommend training, system enhancements, process redesign, or changes to approval requirements.
• Partner with Project Management, Project Accounting, Procurement, PMO, Finance, teams to clarify roles and improve end-to-end processes.
• Work closely with PMO to translate control requirements into practical procedures and system-enabled workflows.
• Support implementation of improved project financial controls and related change management.
• Provide training and guidance to project teams on financial governance requirements.
• Promote consistent financial practices across projects while allowing for documented, risk-based exceptions.

Key Interfaces

• Project Management, Project Accounting, Procurement, Subcontracting, Corporate Finance, PMO, Internal or External Audit

• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, Business, Construction Management, or a related field.
• Relevant professional qualification such as CPA, CMA, CFM, or equivalent experience preferred.
• Significant experience in project controls, project accounting, financial controls, construction finance, capital projects, or a similar environment.
• Experience designing, implementing, or monitoring financial controls across multiple projects.
• Strong understanding of project budgets, commitments, purchase orders, change orders, forecasts, invoices, contingency, and financial closeout.
• Experience with enterprise resource planning systems and project financial reporting tools; Microsoft Dynamics experience preferred.
• Strong analytical, documentation, communication, and stakeholder-management skills.
• Ability to challenge decisions constructively while maintaining effective working relationships.
• Demonstrated judgment in assessing risk, materiality, exceptions, and escalation requirements.