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 develops core finance and operational deliverables, partners with internal functional teams, and contributes to process improvement and technology initiatives.

The role owns monthly project financial reporting, validates contractor cost reports and related records, maintains budget-to-actual tracking and rolling forecasts, prepares Earned Value Management analysis, and presents clear financial insights to leadership and other stakeholders. It also supports capital planning and project decisions, owner-side audits, contract and payment controls, and improvements to financial reporting processes.

The Senior Associate plans and reports in OneStream or another CPM platform, applies AI-enabled tools and other technologies to improve workflows, develops data visualizations, supports ERP and platform initiatives, and collaborates with Accounting on close activities and GL integrity. The position requires a high standard of accuracy, auditability, GAAP compliance, independence, and ownership of deliverables. Applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States without current or future employer sponsorship.

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.
• Demonstrated 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/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.
• Ability to partner with and present to business stakeholders on financial matters.
• Foundational accounting knowledge; familiarity with month-end close or GL management.
• Must be legally authorized to work in the United States without the need for 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.

Responsibilities

• Prepare the monthly project financial reporting package, consolidating inputs from the general contractor’s project finance team for leadership and the board.
• 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 a rolling forecast, typically 12–18 months, of 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 translate construction financial data into 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 recommendation.
• Partner with Legal and Risk Management on contract interpretation related to cost, billing, and payment provisions.
• Recommend improvements to the owner's financial reporting templates, cost coding structure, 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 manual-effort-reduction initiatives within assigned scope.
• Build and maintain data visualizations and management reports using Power BI, Tableau, or comparable BI tools.
• Support general ledger categorization alignment between FP&A and Accounting; flag and resolve data discrepancies within assigned entities.
• Contribute as a knowledgeable participant in broader ERP and platform initiatives, such as Microsoft Dynamics 365 or Workday Adaptive.
• Collaborate with Accounting on month-end close activities, intercompany reconciliations, and GL 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 through 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 insurance 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: Senior