Senior Manager, Project Financial Controls

The Senior Manager, Project Financial Controls establishes and maintains the financial governance framework for projects. This role defines financial control standards, approval requirements, documentation expectations, and escalation protocols, and monitors compliance across the project lifecycle. This role will also serve as a partner with corporate finance to support any project portfolio audit requirements.

The Senior Manager provides independent oversight of project financial processes, including budgets, commitments, purchase orders, change orders, forecasts, invoices, and project closeout. The role partners closely with Project Management, Project Accounting, Procurement, Sub Contracting, Finance, and leadership to improve financial discipline, data quality, auditability, and decision-making.

Key Responsibilities

 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

Qualifications and Experience

• 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.