Controller - Director of Accounting; Commercial Real Estate

Our Select Leaders client is a growing real estate investment and property management organization. The company owns and manages a substantial portfolio of residential and commercial real estate assets, with a complex operating structure that includes
40+ entities and approximately 100 properties.

They are seeking an experienced, highly organized, process-driven
Controller / Director of Accounting & Finance who can take full ownership of the accounting and finance function. This is a senior leadership role for someone who can manage day-to-day accounting operations, build scalable systems, lead a department, and help guide the company through its next stage of growth.

The right candidate will have the opportunity to become a long-term leader and potential future partner in the organization.

The Controller will be responsible for organizing, managing, and improving the company’s entire accounting and finance department, including financial reporting, budgeting, forecasting, KPI tracking, and portfolio-level performance analysis. This person must be capable of operating at both a strategic and tactical level — able to design department-wide systems and processes, while also being willing to review details, solve problems directly, and perform accounting entries when needed.

The Controller will be expected to identify opportunities to automate manual processes, improve reporting accuracy and speed, create AI-supported workflows, and help transition the accounting department from a primarily human-led process to a more structured, technology-enabled, AI-supported operating model.

This role requires someone with deep accounting experience, strong real estate or property management accounting knowledge, and a demonstrated ability to create structure in a complex, multi-entity environment. The ideal candidate will be able to manage accounting across 40+ entities and approximately 100 properties, develop detailed SOPs and process diagrams, establish meaningful company KPIs, and provide ownership with clear, timely, and actionable financial reporting.

• Oversee all accounting and financial reporting functions for the company’s portfolio of properties, entities, and related businesses.
• Manage accounting across 40+ legal entities and approximately 100 properties.
• Supervise monthly, quarterly, and annual close processes.
• Ensure accurate property-level, entity-level, and consolidated financial reporting.
• Oversee accounts payable, accounts receivable, bank reconciliations, intercompany transactions, owner distributions, lender reporting, and cash management.
• Review general ledger activity and ensure proper accounting treatment across all entities.
• Coordinate with outside CPAs, tax advisors, auditors, lenders, investors, and internal ownership.
• Maintain strong internal controls and ensure financial information is accurate, timely, and useful for management decision-making.

• Lead the annual budgeting process for the company, its entities, and its property portfolio.
• Create and maintain property-level, entity-level, and company-level budgets.
• Develop budget-to-actual reporting and variance analysis for ownership and senior management.
• Build financial forecasts, cash flow projections, and capital planning reports.
• Establish and manage recurring KPI reporting for the company’s accounting, finance, property management, leasing, maintenance, and operational functions.
• Identify the most important financial and operational KPIs for the business and create a consistent reporting cadence around them.
• Track and report on metrics such as occupancy, collections, delinquency, operating expenses, NOI, cash flow, maintenance costs, leasing velocity, debt service coverage, entity-level performance, and department productivity.
• Work with ownership to turn accounting data into practical management insights and decision‑making tools.
• Improve visibility into portfolio performance through dashboards, recurring reports, and clear executive summaries.

• Take ownership of the entire accounting and finance…