Assistant Controller

Colas Construction, Inc. • Portland, OR

7d • Onsite

About The Position

At Colas Construction (COLAS), we believe every employee plays a vital role in our mission: to build legacies and strengthen communities. We value collaboration, adaptability, and a team-first mindset.

We are seeking an Assistant Controller to partner closely with the Controller and operational leaders to ensure the accuracy, integrity, and timeliness of COLAS’s accounting operations, including general ledger and financial close, construction revenue and project accounting, accounts payable, and fixed assets and specialized accounting. This position plays a critical role in producing financial statements and reporting packages that lenders, sureties, and internal leaders can rely on, and in ensuring that the job cost and transactional data driving operational decisions is accurate, properly coded, and compliant with accounting standards.

In addition to overseeing execution across these accounting functions, the Assistant Controller serves as the primary technical accounting resource for the specialists operating within them, providing guidance on accounting treatment, policy interpretation, internal controls, and system logic to support accurate and efficient operations within a strong control environment. The role requires strong construction accounting expertise and deep familiarity with the downstream financial and operational impact of transactional accuracy.

The ideal candidate brings a strong technical accounting foundation, construction industry experience, sound professional judgment, and the leadership capability to support a high-performing accounting function in a growing, operationally complex environment.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, or closely related field required.
• Minimum of 5 years of progressive accounting experience in the construction industry environment, preferably general contracting with design-build and CM/GC contract types.
• AP cycle management, including commitment matching and vendor master governance.
• Applied ASC 606 revenue recognition in a construction WIP accounting context.
• Multi-entity monthly close management, including intercompany eliminations and consolidation financial statement preparation, and preferably with equity-method JV/consortium accounting.
• Advanced knowledge of GAAP, financial controls, fraud prevention practices, tax regulations, and construction industry accounting standards.
• Experience managing and developing accounting staff, with demonstrated capacity to provide transactional and technical accounting guidance beyond review of outputs.
• Foundation, Viewpoint, Sage, Acumatica Construction, or comparable construction ERP proficiency.

Nice To Haves

• Construction Cost Intelligence
• Technical Authority & Judgment
• Decision Quality Under Ambiguity
• Analytical Rigor & Investigative Discipline
• Close Design & Scalable Process Thinking
• Execution Reliability & Operational Discipline
• Control Environment Ownership
• Proactive Risk Communication
• Cross-Functional Partnership
• Organizational Influence
• Continuous Improvement Orientation
• Team Development & Succession Readiness

Responsibilities

• Lead monthly financial close from kickoff through finalized, GAAP-compliant financial statements across all COLAS entities; prepare additional financial reports and clearly communicate financial information synthesized for comprehension by financial and non-financial stakeholders.
• Maintain the WIP schedule as a current operational document, actively monitoring job cost entry and commitment tracking, validating percent-complete estimates with project teams, and incorporating defensible cost-to-complete assumptions.
• Maintain reconciled balance sheets across all entities in accordance with GAAP and accounting best practices; govern journal entry preparation and intercompany eliminations with clear supporting calculations.
• Govern the full AP cycle, vendor management, and corporate card spending, maintaining audit trail standards across all payment methods and treating the vendor master as a fraud control point.
• Maintain audit-ready fixed asset subledger-to-GL reconciliation, administer ASC 842 lease accounting across all equipment and facility leases, ensure adequate burden allocation and internal equipment rate structures, and oversee equity-method accounting positions where applicable.
• Serve as the primary technical resource for direct-report staff and identify and address the root cause of recurring escalation patterns that signal training needs, process gaps, or system interventions.
• Maintain audit readiness as a continuous state, proactively coordinating and preparing prepared-by-client documentation and identifying and promptly escalating control deficiencies to the Controller with proposed remediation.
• Evaluate and develop direct-report staff across transactional and technical accounting functions with visible growth pathways, setting role-level expectations and building bench depth against single-point-of-failure risk.

Benefits

• 100% employer-paid employee coverage for robust medical, dental, and vision insurance with multiple plan options
• 401(k) plan with employer match
• Generously paid sick, vacation, personal, and holiday days off
• Annual allowance for continued education and training
• Company vehicles for certain roles
• Travel allowances
• Flexible working hours

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level