Corporate Controller

Heavy Civil Construction | Freeport, NY

A Rare Controller-to-CFO Opportunity

A highly successful, family-owned construction organization with approximately $300 million in annual revenue is seeking an accomplished Senior Controller to become a key member of its leadership team.

This is an exceptional opportunity for a strong construction finance executive who wants more than a traditional Controller position. The successful candidate will work closely with ownership and senior management, take ownership of the company's higher-level accounting and financial reporting functions, and become an increasingly important partner in understanding project profitability, cash flow, risk and business performance.

The organization is well established and entering an exciting period of continued growth and financial modernization. For the right individual, this position offers a credible path toward broader financial leadership and ultimately CFO-level responsibility as the individual earns the confidence of ownership and the organization continues to evolve.

The Company

The company is a diversified construction organization operating across heavy civil, general contracting and design-build, with complex, multi-year projects and significant public-infrastructure work.

Its operating environment includes union field labor, self-performed construction, substantial equipment, multiple affiliated businesses and an increasing number of joint ventures supporting large-scale infrastructure projects.

This complexity creates an opportunity for the incoming Controller to have a meaningful impact well beyond traditional accounting.

What You'll Own

The Senior Controller will assume responsibility for the company's higher-level accounting and financial reporting while partnering closely with ownership, project management and operations.

Key responsibilities include:

• Own financial statement preparation and review, general ledger integrity, journal-entry oversight and a disciplined, timely monthly close.
• Lead WIP/CIP and percentage-of-completion accounting, including cost-to-complete, backlog, over/under billings and project profitability analysis.
• Understand the economics behind project results and identify changes in expected profitability, including significant margin gain/fade.
• Oversee joint venture accounting, including financial performance, profitability, cash requirements and reporting.
• Support accounting and financial reporting across multiple affiliated entities and related intercompany activity.
• Provide ownership and management with meaningful insight into cash flow, liquidity, working capital, project performance and financial risk.
• Maintain strong financial relationships and reporting with outside auditors, banks, tax advisors and surety/bonding partners.
• Oversee established accounting processes and staff while identifying opportunities to strengthen reporting, controls and efficiency.
• Partner with project managers and operational leaders to improve forecasting and the quality of financial information used to make business decisions.
• Help build a stronger, more scalable finance organization capable of supporting the company's continued growth.

Understand the Business Behind the Numbers

This organization is looking for someone who understands construction economics—not simply construction accounting.

The Controller should be able to follow the financial story of a project from the original estimate through completion, understanding how changes in labor, equipment, costs, productivity, change orders, claims and operating assumptions ultimately affect expected profitability.

The Controller will not be expected to become a project manager or estimator. Instead, this individual should be able to ask the right questions, challenge assumptions constructively and identify financial issues before they become surprises.

Because the company self-performs meaningful portions of its work, experience understanding the financial impact of direct field labor, equipment and project productivity is particularly valuable.

Technology & Transformation

The organization is also investing in the modernization of its financial and operating systems, including a transition from Sage 300 to Sage Intacct, with HCSS HeavyBid supporting estimating and Procore supporting project management.

Specific software experience is valuable, but equally important is the ability to understand how information should move throughout the business—from:

Estimate → Job Budget → Cost Codes → Actual Costs → Forecast → WIP → Financial Reporting

Candidates who have successfully led ERP implementations, integrations, reporting improvements or other finance transformation initiatives will have an opportunity to make an immediate impact.

The Ideal Background

We are seeking an experienced construction finance professional who combines strong technical accounting skills with business judgment, intellectual curiosity and leadership ability.

The strongest candidates will bring:

• Significant Controller-level or senior financial leadership experience within construction.
• Strong WIP/POC, job costing, cost-to-complete and project profitability experience.
• Experience with self-performing contractors or other labor- and equipment-intensive construction environments strongly preferred.
• Ability to independently own financial reporting, close and audit coordination.
• Experience working within complex and/or multi-entity organizations.
• Strong understanding of cash flow and working-capital management.
• Ability to communicate credibly with ownership, senior executives, auditors, banks and other financial partners.
• Demonstrated success leading and developing accounting teams.
• Ability to partner effectively with project managers and operations.
• A hands-on mentality combined with the ability to think strategically.

Experience with heavy civil/public works, union construction, bonding/surety, joint ventures and construction ERP systems is highly desirable, but we are not looking for someone who checks every possible box.

Direct heavy-civil experience is preferred, but an exceptional candidate from another sophisticated construction environment will be considered if they demonstrate the scale, complexity, project-finance knowledge and adaptability to successfully transition into heavy civil.

Leadership Style Matters

This is an established organization with experienced, long-tenured employees and significant institutional knowledge.

The successful Controller will know how to listen first, earn credibility and then improve the organization.

We are looking for someone who can challenge assumptions without creating unnecessary conflict, introduce change while respecting what already works, and build productive relationships across accounting, project management, operations and ownership.

Why Consider This Opportunity?

This role offers something that many Controller positions do not: the opportunity to materially influence both the finance organization and the broader business.

You will have the ability to strengthen financial reporting, improve visibility into project performance, modernize systems and processes, partner directly with senior leadership, and help prepare a substantial construction organization for its next stage of growth.

Most importantly, this position offers meaningful long-term runway. The immediate mandate is to become an exceptional Controller and trusted financial partner. As that credibility is established and the organization grows, there is an opportunity for the role to expand into broader financial leadership and potentially CFO-level responsibility.

For a construction finance leader looking for significant ownership exposure, complex projects, organizational impact and genuine long-term career growth, this is a rare opportunity.

I intentionally strengthened the self-performing contractor language based on Martin's Herman feedback. That is now one of the most important distinctions in the search, but I would not make “heavy civil required” a hard requirement in the public JD. Martin's own framework says strong candidates from other construction environments can succeed if they demonstrate the ability to transition into greater complexity.

I also think this version does a better job of attracting current Controllers, Corporate Controllers, VPs of Finance and even CFOs because it sells what they can become rather than just listing what they'll be responsible for.