Senior Associate, Construction Finance

NorthMark Strategies • Stamford, CT

1d

About The Position

NorthMark Strategies is seeking a Senior Associate, Construction Finance, to join its Enterprise Finance team. The role drives budgeting, forecasting, variance analysis, financial modeling, and reporting for a large-scale, complex construction project. The Senior Associate prepares core finance and operational deliverables, partners with internal functional teams, and contributes to process improvement and technology initiatives. The ideal candidate has strong analytical skills, hands-on construction finance experience, and an interest in using technology to improve team workflows.

The role owns monthly project financial reporting and governance, including consolidating contractor finance inputs, validating cost reports and change orders, tracking budget-to-actual performance, preparing earned value analysis, and maintaining rolling cost and cash-flow forecasts. It also produces dashboards and executive summaries and supports capital planning and project decisions.

The Senior Associate supports owner-side audits, verifies contractor billing and payment compliance, partners with legal and risk management on cost and payment terms, and recommends improvements to reporting processes and structures. The role also owns planning and reporting in OneStream or the team’s CPM platform, applies AI and other technologies to improve workflows, develops BI reports, supports ERP and platform initiatives, collaborates with Accounting on close and general ledger integrity, and ensures GAAP compliance and high-quality, auditable work.

Requirements

• 4–6 years of progressive experience in construction project finance, capital program controls, real estate development finance, or project accounting.
• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Construction Management, Engineering, or a related field.
• Experience building and presenting earned value reporting, budget-to-actual analysis, and rolling cost forecasts for large or complex capital projects.
• Thorough understanding of construction contract mechanisms, including cost plus, cost plus fixed fee, T&M, and FFP.
• Working knowledge of AIA pay application formats and schedule of values methodology.
• Strong understanding of GAAP as applied to construction and development accounting, including percentage-of-completion, cost-to-complete, capitalized interest, and retainage.
• Advanced Excel and financial modeling skills, including the ability to independently build and maintain complex three-statement models.
• Demonstrated interest in and experience with AI tools, automation, or technology-enabled finance workflows.
• Ability to own Finance deliverables end-to-end with a high degree of independence.
• Developing track record of partnering with and presenting to business stakeholders on financial matters.
• Legally authorized to work in the United States without employer sponsorship, now or at any time in the future.

Nice To Haves

• Exposure to both owner-side and contractor-side perspectives.
• CPA or MBA.
• Experience with Power BI, Tableau, or other data visualization platforms.
• Foundational accounting knowledge and familiarity with month-end close or general ledger management.

Responsibilities

• Prepare the monthly project financial reporting package by consolidating inputs from the general contractor’s project finance team for leadership and board deliverables.
• Review and validate the general contractor’s monthly cost reports, schedule of values, and change order logs for accuracy, completeness, and consistency with the contract and approved budget.
• Maintain budget-to-actual tracking across hard costs, soft costs, FF&E, contingency, and owner-direct costs; identify and explain variances to project leadership.
• Prepare and present Earned Value Management analysis, including Planned Value, Earned Value, Actual Cost, Cost Performance Index, and Schedule Performance Index.
• Maintain rolling forecasts, typically covering 12–18 months, for cost-to-complete, projected final cost, and cash outflow; stress-test contractor forecasts against trend data, change order exposure, and contingency drawdown.
• Maintain monthly dashboards and executive summaries that communicate construction financial data as decision-ready insights for non-construction stakeholders.
• Translate technical construction cost and schedule concepts into financial language for executive and investor audiences.
• Support budget and forecast discussions during capital planning, annual budgeting, and project go/no-go decisions.
• Support or lead owner-side audits of contractor cost records, subcontractor buyout logs, and self-performed work billing.
• Confirm contractor compliance with contract billing terms, retention, insurance, bonding, and lien waiver requirements before payment recommendations.
• Partner with legal and risk management on contract interpretation related to cost, billing, and payment provisions.
• Recommend improvements to owner financial reporting templates, cost coding, and reporting cadence.
• Own planning and reporting in OneStream or the team’s CPM platform for assigned entities, maintaining data integrity and model consistency.
• Apply AI-enabled tools and emerging technologies to improve analytical workflows, automate recurring tasks, and accelerate reporting.
• Identify process inefficiencies and drive automation, standardization, and reduction of manual effort within assigned scope.
• Build and maintain data visualizations and management reports using Power BI, Tableau, or comparable BI tools.
• Support alignment of general ledger categorization between FP&A and Accounting; flag and resolve data discrepancies within assigned entities.
• Contribute as a knowledgeable participant in ERP and platform initiatives such as Microsoft Dynamics 365, Workday Adaptive, or similar.
• Collaborate with Accounting on month-end close activities, intercompany reconciliations, and general ledger integrity for assigned entities.
• Ensure GAAP compliance across financial reporting and analytical outputs.
• Maintain accuracy and auditability in work product and serve as a quality resource for junior team members on shared deliverables.

Benefits

• Company-paid lunch stipend, with lunch provided via GrubHub.
• 100% employer-paid medical coverage in the High Deductible Health Plan, plus dental and vision benefits for employees and their families.
• 16 weeks of paid parental leave.
• Employee Assistance Program.
• Life insurance.
• Short-Term Disability and Long-Term Disability coverage.
• 401(k) match of 100% of employee contributions up to 6%.
• Optional employee-paid PPO medical plan and other benefits, including Health Savings Accounts with a company contribution, Flexible Spending Accounts, supplemental life insurance, and Wellhub.
• 25 days of Paid Time Off plus 12 company holidays.

What This Job Offers

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