Plante Moran

Accounting Director: Construction Project Cost Accounting

Plante Moran$100K — $160K *
Real Estate & Construction
5 - 7 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Bachelor's degree in Business Administration/accounting or related field.
  • 7+ years in accounting, project controls, or managing sizable capital improvement programs.
  • 5+ years managing a financial or accounting team.
  • Proven team management and strong analytical skills.
  • Experience developing budgets and cost reports, and presenting findings to non-technical audiences.
  • Proficiency in Excel and reporting/analytics with ability to create templates.
  • Strong written and verbal communication skills for client interactions.

Responsibilities

  • Set and implement project controls standards for cost and schedule management.
  • Own and deliver reporting materials including dashboards and cost reports.
  • Lead budget and forecast management, articulating variances and action plans.
  • Support schedule performance through milestone tracking and recovery strategies.
  • Manage change control analytics and baseline adjustments.
  • Ensure PMIS data integrity through governance and timely reviews.
  • Partner with project managers to identify trends and suggest mitigation actions.

Benefits

  • Health, dental, vision, disability, and life insurance.
  • Flexible Time Off and pre-determined holidays.
  • 401(k) plan and flexible benefits options.
  • Business-related travel expense and meal reimbursements.
  • Pension plan available for eligible staff.
  • Discretionary bonus plan for eligible staff.
Full Job Description

Plante Moran Realpoint is seeking a Director to provide strategic and people leadership for our Project Cost Accounting Team, ensuring consistent, high-quality delivery of cost, schedule, and performance monitoring and reporting for client capital construction programs. In this role, the Director will set team standards and ways of working, develop and mentor talent, and drive accountability for results across the project cost accounting function. All Professionals within the group partner with Plante Moran Realpoint project managers, client stakeholders, external project team members to establish strong project governance, track costs against approved budgets, monitor contract compliance, maintain accurate project data, and deliver clear, decision-ready insights across a portfolio of client projects. This role will partner with Firm Leadership to set and track annual revenue targets and help achieve results.

Your Role

In this leadership role, you will set the direction and drive accountability for the talent, systems, and operating cadence that enable the Project Cost Accounting group to deliver consistent, high-quality outcomes across Plante Moran Realpoint’s full portfolio of client capital programs. You will build and develop a high-performing team, establish scalable processes and governance, and ensure the tools and controls are in place to provide reliable, decision-ready reporting. The Group’s responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

  • Set and operationalize program/project controls standards across cost, schedule, change management, forecasting, and reporting cadence to drive consistency and accountability.
  • Owning reporting deliverables, including dashboards, executive summaries, cost reports, cash flow, earned value/performance metrics (as applicable), reconciliations, and monthly/quarterly client reporting deliverables ensuring clear, decision-ready insights.
  • Leading budget, commitment, and forecast management by establishing control structures, track commitments/expenditures, develop estimates at completion, articulate variances and corrective actions.
  • Supporting schedule performance reporting by coordinating with project managers and schedulers to track milestones, critical path impacts, and recovery actions.
  • Managing change control analytics: log and track change requests, assessing cost/schedule impacts, supporting client approvals, and reflecting approved changes in baseline and forecast.
  • Ensuring data integrity in the PMIS (e.g., e-Builder/other) through governance, reconciliation, and routine, accurate, and timely reviews.
  • Partner with project managers to identify trends/risks early and recommending mitigation actions based on cost and schedule indicators.
  • Coordinating with client finance/procurement and external vendors to validate pay applications, invoices, contracts, and supporting documentation align with contractual requirements.

Qualifications.

  • Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration/accounting (or other applicable field) is required
  • 7+ years of experience in accounting, project controls and/or serving as a project owner for a substantial capital improvement program.
  • 5+ years of experience managing a financial or accounting team.
  • Demonstrated ability to manage teams, strong analytical and problem solving abilities.
  • Demonstrated an understanding on how to develop budgets, forecasts, and cost reports; explain variances; and present findings to non-technical audiences.
  • Proficiency in Excel and reporting/analytics; comfort building repeatable templates and improving reporting processes.
  • Strong written and verbal communication skills, including client-facing facilitation and presentation.
  • Position is "in office" based in Southfield, MI with little/no travel

Preferred:

  • Experience supporting multi-project capital programs (portfolio reporting, governance, and cross-project standardization).
  • Experience working in e-Builder or a comparable project management information system.

We are pleased to offer eligible staff a robust benefits package. Eligibility and contribution requirements for some of these benefits vary based on the number of hours staff work per week. Highlights include health, dental, vision, disability, and life insurance. In addition to this, eligible staff are able to take advantage of our Flexible Time Off and various pre-determined holidays, as well as a 401(k) plan, flexible benefits plans, business-related travel expense, lodging, and meal reimbursement for business-related use. A pension plan is also available for eligible administrative and paraprofessional staff. A discretionary bonus plan is available for eligible staff. Plante Moran also offers some contingent staff positions the option to elect health insurance in addition to limited paid sick time.

The compensation range reflects the base salary we reasonably expect to pay for this position across our offices in the following regions: CO, IL, OH, and MA. Please review the position description for the applicable geographic location. Generally, experienced hires are not hired at or near the maximum salary range, as compensation decisions take into account a wide variety of factors, including but not limited to: responsibilities, education, experience, knowledge, skills, and geography. For early career roles, including campus hires, we offer standardized, market-based starting salaries among individuals within the same hiring group. This approach ensures fairness and reflects current industry benchmarks for entry-level talent.

Under Colorado’s Job Application Fairness Act, you have the right to redact, from any documents that you submit in connection with your application, information that identifies your age, date of birth, or dates of attendance at or graduation from an educational institution. Should you wish to exercise your right to redact such information, please redact it prior to submitting documentation.

The compensation range for this role in CO, IL, OH, and MA is: $100,000.00 - $160,000.00

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About Plante Moran

Plante Moran is a professional services firm that provides audit, tax, consulting, and wealth management services to businesses, individuals, and nonprofits. The firm was founded in 1924 and is headquartered in Southfield, Michigan. Plante Moran has over 3,000 professionals working in more than 20 offices throughout the United States and internationally. The firm is known for its commitment to client service and has been recognized for its quality of work and workplace culture. Plante Moran is also committed to sustainability and has implemented a number of initiatives to reduce its environmental impact.
Learn more about Plante Moran
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3,000 employees
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