Accounting Director: Construction Project Cost Accounting

Plante & Moran•Southfield, MI

2d•$100,000 - $160,000•Onsite

About The Position

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. 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.

Requirements

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.

Nice To Haves

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.

Responsibilities

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.