Controller, Accounting, Financial Reporting

Santa Cruz, CA

You’re a construction-savvy Controller who doesn’t just close the books—you read what they’re telling you and change the way the business runs.

In this role, you’ll own full-scope accounting for a growing clean-energy design/build organization, from month-end close and WIP to payroll oversight, job cost integrity, and financial reporting that actually drives decisions.

You’ll partner directly with the COO/CFO, project management, HR, and field operations to make sure every project’s story—cost, margin, risk, and return— is clear and accurate.

And you won’t just operate the system; you’ll redesign it when it’s not good enough.

If you’ve lived in the construction accounting world and want real ownership in a lean, high-impact team, we want to talk to you.

You’ll sit at the intersection of accounting operations, project profitability, and systems design for a construction-focused clean energy company:

• Full-cycle financial close and dual-basis reporting
• Construction WIP, job costing, and ASC 606 earned revenue
• Prevailing wage, certified payroll, and union-related burden
• Grant and incentive revenue for clean energy projects
• Multi-entity accounting and intercompany activity
• Internal controls, policy, and compliance
• Financial systems, ERP configuration, and process architecture
• Vendor and external partner oversight across finance-adjacent functions

You’ll be deep in construction ERP and toolsets like Jonas Premier, Excel, and related reporting models—translating complex project activity into clean, decision-ready financials.

Your mandate: build an accounting engine that keeps up with the pace of the projects.

• Owning the full month-end close cycle, including journal entries, accruals, and balance sheet reconciliations
• Producing monthly financial statements, management reports, and KPI dashboards on a defined close calendar
• Maintaining dual reporting: earned revenue basis for internal use and billed basis for lenders and bonding
• Preparing WIP, backlog, over/under billing, job cost, and progress billing analyses, and flagging anomalies to leadership
• Owning ASC 606 earned revenue calculations, including the Earned Revenue Workbook using Jonas Job Summary Reports
• Managing job cost accounting for all active projects, ensuring cost coding, change orders, and timecards are accurate
• Identifying and escalating job cost variances, margin erosion, and project performance issues in real time
• Overseeing AP, AR, subcontractor payments, lien waiver compliance, and related-entity accounting
• Overseeing payroll processing (including prevailing wage and certified payroll), reviewing batches, and serving as point of accountability for accuracy
• Managing fringe benefit accounting tied to IBEW signatory obligations and reconciling against ERP burden rates
• Designing, documenting, and enforcing accounting policies, internal controls, and records retention standards
• Evaluating and improving—or replacing—financial systems, tools, and workflows in partnership with the COO/CFO
• Overseeing external vendors across finance-adjacent services and holding them accountable for scope, quality, and compliance
• Leading and developing 1–2 accounting staff, building capacity through documentation, cross-training, and clear ownership

• 5+ years of progressive accounting experience, including at least 2 years in a controller or senior accounting leadership role
• Construction industry accounting background, including job costing, WIP reporting, and percent-complete/ASC 606 revenue recognition
• Strong knowledge of GAAP and construction accounting principles
• Hands-on experience…