Financial Controller – Construction & Real Estate
Location: San Francisco Bay Area
Employment Type: Full-Time
Compensation: $105,000– $130,000 base salary, plus performance-based bonus
Target Total Compensation: Approximately $125,000 – $145,000+, depending on experience and performance
About Us
We are a growing Bay Area general contracting and real estate company focused on high-end residential construction, select development opportunities, and long-term property ownership.
As we continue to grow, we are strengthening our internal financial systems, job costing, procurement tracking, contract administration, payroll processes, and property-related operations. We are seeking a Financial Operations Manager to bring greater accuracy, structure, and visibility to the financial and administrative side of the business.
This is a hands-on role for someone who understands that successful construction companies depend on clean financial systems, disciplined job costing, organized contracts, reliable procurement tracking, and timely reporting.
The Role
The Financial Controller will own and improve the company’s financial and operational back-office systems. This role sits at the intersection of construction accounting, job costing, bookkeeping, payroll, procurement management, contract maintenance, property management support, and systems implementation.
This is not a general office administration role. It is a financial operations role for someone who enjoys creating structure, improving processes, and making information accurate, accessible, and useful for decision-making.
The right person will work closely with leadership, operations, project management, field teams, vendors, subcontractors, property-related contacts, outside CPAs, and professional advisors.
Key ResponsibilitiesConstruction Job Costing & Project Financial Tracking
- Build, maintain, and improve job costing systems across active construction projects.
- Track labor, subcontractors, materials, equipment, allowances, purchase orders, change orders, and project expenses.
- Maintain budget-versus-actual reporting by project, phase, cost code, and entity.
- Work with project management and field leadership to ensure costs are captured correctly and timely.
- Support project margin tracking, forecasting, and profitability analysis.
- Identify cost variances early and provide clear reporting to leadership.
- Help ensure project decisions are based on accurate, current financial information.
Bookkeeping, Accounting & Multi-Entity Financial Management
- Manage day-to-day bookkeeping across construction and real estate entities.
- Maintain QuickBooks or similar accounting systems with accurate categorization, reconciliations, and reporting.
- Handle accounts payable, accounts receivable, deposits, vendor payments, owner billings, and expense tracking.
- Perform bank and credit card reconciliations.
- Maintain clean books across construction operations, property ownership entities, and development-related entities.
- Coordinate with outside CPAs and advisors for tax preparation, year-end close, and financial reporting.
- Support a clean and repeatable monthly close process.
Payroll & Internal Financial Administration
- Help transition payroll and related financial functions from outsourced support to a more controlled internal process.
- Manage payroll records, time tracking coordination, payroll reporting, and related compliance documentation.
- Support workers’ compensation, insurance documentation, licensing, vendor compliance, and administrative financial records.
- Maintain organized documentation for contracts, invoices, change orders, certificates of insurance, lien releases, and payment records.
Procurement Management & Vendor Coordination
- Track procurement for construction projects, including materials, fixtures, equipment, specialty items, and owner-selected products.
- Maintain procurement schedules in coordination with project management, field leadership, and operations.
- Track vendor quotes, purchase orders, approvals, lead times, deposits, invoices, payment milestones, and delivery status.
- Help ensure materials and products are ordered on time, within budget, and properly coded to the correct project and cost category.
- Maintain vendor records, pricing history, W-9s, certificates of insurance, lien releases, and payment documentation.
- Flag procurement risks early, including long-lead items, budget overruns, missing approvals, or incomplete documentation.
Contract Maintenance & Administrative Compliance
- Maintain organized contract files for clients, subcontractors, consultants, vendors, and property-related agreements.
- Track key contract terms, including scope, pricing, payment schedules, insurance requirements, lien releases, change orders, renewals, and expiration dates.
- Support project management and leadership with subcontractor agreements, vendor documentation, change order tracking, and payment compliance.
- Ensure contracts, invoices, COIs, W-9s, permits, business licenses, lien releases, and compliance documents are properly collected and filed.
- Coordinate with outside legal, insurance, accounting, or compliance advisors as needed.
- Help create consistent contract administration processes that reduce risk and improve visibility.
Property Management & Real Estate Financial Support
- Support financial and administrative management for company-owned rental properties.
- Track rent collections, deposits, property expenses, maintenance costs, insurance, licensing, taxes, and entity-level records.
- Maintain tenant files, lease agreements, renewal dates, vendor files, and property-level financial reporting.
- Coordinate tenant communications related to rent, maintenance requests, lease documentation, and administrative follow-up as appropriate.
- Support vacancy advertising, tenant screening coordination, lease administration, move-in/move-out documentation, and vendor coordination when needed.
- Coordinate with external property managers, maintenance vendors, CPAs, insurance brokers, and internal leadership.
- Support property improvement and development-related activities through scheduling, documentation, cost tracking, and administrative follow-up.
Financial Reporting & Leadership Support
- Prepare monthly financial reporting packages.
- Provide project-level financial reports for leadership and project teams.
- Support cash flow planning, budgeting, forecasting, and financial analysis.
- Help evaluate project profitability, overhead, property performance, and company performance.
- Create reports that are clear enough for non-financial team members to understand and use.
- Support better decision-making through accurate, timely, organized financial information.
Systems Implementation & Process Improvement
- Help select, implement, and improve software systems for:
- Accounting
- Job costing
- Payroll
- Procurement tracking
- Contract administration
- Property management
- CRM / lead tracking
- Project financial reporting
- Improve workflows between field, project management, office, finance, and leadership.
- Establish consistent procedures for:
- Invoice approvals
- Cost coding
- Purchase orders
- Change order tracking
- Vendor payments
- Contract filing
- Payroll inputs
- Monthly close
- Procurement tracking
- Property financial tracking
- Project reporting
- Build dashboards, templates, checklists, and reporting tools that make the business more organized and scalable.
Qualifications
- 5–10+ years of bookkeeping, accounting, financial operations, construction accounting, or business operations experience.
- Strong understanding of job costing, cost codes, AP/AR, reconciliations, budget tracking, and monthly reporting.
- Experience with QuickBooks required.
- Experience with construction-specific accounting, project management, or job costing software preferred.
- Experience with procurement tracking, purchase orders, vendor documentation, or material ordering preferred.
- Experience maintaining contracts, subcontracts, vendor files, insurance certificates, lien releases, or compliance documentation preferred.
- Experience managing financials across multiple entities strongly preferred.
- Payroll experience preferred.
- Property management or real estate accounting experience preferred.
- Strong Excel / Google Sheets skills.
- Bay Area construction, real estate, or property management experience preferred.
- Bilingual Spanish is a plus.
Ideal Candidate
The ideal candidate is highly organized, trustworthy, detail-oriented, and systems-minded. They are not simply a transaction processor; they improve how financial and operational information flows through the business.
They understand that accurate job costing, procurement tracking, contract maintenance, and clean financial records are essential to profitability, professionalism, and growth.
They should be comfortable working in a growing entrepreneurial environment where systems are being improved, refined, and professionalized.
Compensation & Bonus Structure
Base Salary Range: $105,000 – $130,000
Annual Performance Bonus: Target bonus of 8%–15% of base salary, with upside to approximately 20% for exceptional performance.
Bonus criteria may include:
- Accuracy and timeliness of monthly financial reporting
- Quality of job costing and budget-versus-actual reporting
- Successful transition of bookkeeping and payroll functions in-house
- Procurement tracking implementation
- Contract and vendor documentation organization
- Property financial reporting and entity-level organization
- Systems implementation and workflow improvement
- Support for leadership, operations, and project teams
First-Year Systems Implementation Bonus:
The company may offer an additional first-year milestone bonus tied to completion of key implementation goals, including job costing setup, payroll transition, procurement tracking, contract documentation systems, property financial reporting, and monthly close process improvements.
Exceptional candidates with strong construction accounting, multi-entity reporting, payroll, procurement systems, contract administration, and property/development accounting experience may be considered above the posted range.
What Success Looks Like
Success in this role means:
- Leadership has accurate, timely financial information.
- Job costs are current, reliable, and easy to understand.
- Monthly financials are clean and consistent.
- Payroll and bookkeeping are brought under better internal control.
- Procurement is tracked before it becomes a schedule or budget problem.
- Contracts, vendor files, COIs, W-9s, lien releases, and compliance records are organized and accessible.
- Project teams understand budget-versus-actual performance.
- Property financials and administrative records are organized across entities.
- The company has the financial and administrative infrastructure required to take on larger, more sophisticated projects.
Why Join Us
This is a meaningful opportunity to build and own the financial and administrative operating structure of a growing construction and real estate company.
You will work directly with leadership, improve systems that matter, and help create the financial clarity required for larger projects, stronger margins, and long-term growth.
How to Apply
Please submit your resume and a brief note describing your experience with construction accounting, job costing, bookkeeping, payroll, procurement tracking, contract administration, multi-entity financials, and/or real estate/property operations.
Pay: $105,000.00 - $130,000.00 per year
Benefits:
Education:
Experience:
- QuickBooks: 5 years (Required)
- Cost accounting: 5 years (Required)
- Construction: 5 years (Required)
Work Location: In person
