Senior Project Controls Specialist

Role Overview
We are seeking a highly experienced Senior Project Controls Specialist to support a large-scale ERP transformation program. This role reports to the Program Manager and works collaboratively with the broader project controls, PMO, finance, project management, vendor, and system integrator teams to strengthen delivery discipline across the program. While the role will support integrated project controls practices across schedule, milestones, dependencies, change, risk, and governance, it will have a strong emphasis on cost control, forecasting, budget visibility, variance analysis, vendor cost validation, and executive-level financial performance reporting.

The successful candidate must operate independently in a complex, multi-vendor environment and provide clear, disciplined, and transparent project controls insight to support leadership decision‑making.

Key Responsibilities
Integrated Project Controls, Cost Planning & Baseline Management

Develop, refine, and maintain integrated project controls information, including cost baselines, budget assumptions, forecast inputs, work breakdown structures, milestone plans, dependencies, and supporting documentation.

Refresh cost, forecast, and project controls views through each stage of the project lifecycle:
Concept, Initiation, Planning/Design, Execution, and Closure.

Integrate cost, forecast, schedule, and delivery information across work streams, vendors, system integrators, project managers, finance, and key business activities to create a consistent view of program status.

Ensure accuracy and consistency in cost structures, budget assumptions, forecast logic, schedule inputs, milestone definitions, dependency mapping, reporting structures, and traceability.

Cost Performance, Forecasting & Variance Analysis

Monitor budget, actuals, commitments, accruals, forecast-to-complete, estimate-at-completion, schedule, milestone, dependency, and delivery performance against approved plans and baselines.

Maintain forecast views, scenario models, cost trend analysis, lookaheads, recovery inputs, and dependency maps to support predictable delivery and financial outcomes.

Analyze plan vs. actuals, baseline vs. current plan, and forecast changes; explain variances, identify delivery or financial risks, and recommend mitigation or recovery actions.

Executive Cost & Project Controls Reporting

Track and report key project controls KPIs, including budget, actuals, commitments, accruals, forecast-to-complete, estimate-at-completion, milestone health, dependency risks, variance trends, and recovery actions.

Prepare dashboards, variance reports, forecast summaries, milestone summaries, and executive narratives with clear cost drivers, risks, trends, and decision points.

Align project controls reporting outputs with PMO cadence, governance forums, delivery checkpoints, financial cycles, and leadership decision cycles.

Cost Controls Standardization & Project Controls Governance

PMO, Project Team & Vendor Coordination

Partner with the Program Manager, project controls team, PMO Finance, Project Managers, workstream leads, vendors, and system integrators to maintain timely, complete, and accurate cost, forecast, and project controls reporting.

Facilitate update meetings, collect task-owner inputs, challenge incomplete information, and drive timely resolution of project controls gaps.

Support budgeting, forecasting, month-end, planning cycles, workstream planning, milestone reviews, dependency reviews, and governance preparation.

Change, Risk, Forecast & Project Controls

Document project controls impact from change requests, delivery risks, cost pressures, dependency shifts, forecast revisions, and baseline updates.

Maintain audit trails for budget changes, forecast revisions, baseline changes, dependency changes, milestone decisions, and governance approvals.

Cost Assurance, Project Controls Quality & Compliance

Validate vendor and system integrator project controls submissions for completeness, accuracy, cost alignment, forecast reasonableness, progress alignment, financial consistency, and alignment with program standards.

Review project controls data quality, including cost accuracy, forecast reasonableness, variance explanations, schedule health, milestone integrity, dependency alignment, and reporting completeness.

Maintain audit-ready documentation for budgets, forecasts, actuals, commitments, accruals, baselines, updates, change impacts, recovery plans, milestone decisions, and governance approvals.

Required

Skills & Qualifications

15+ years of experience in project controls, with strong emphasis on cost controls, forecasting, project finance, cost governance, planning, or schedule controls for large capital, IT, ERP, infrastructure, or transformation programs.

Proven experience supporting programs greater than $50 million in multi-year, multi-vendor environments.

Deep expertise in cost baseline development, forecasting, variance analysis, accruals, commitments, estimate-at-completion,…