Senior Director of Finance

The Senior Director of Finance, Project Accounting leads a team of customer-facing project accountants who own the financial life cycle of every client engagement, from estimate to final invoice. This leader makes sure clients receive accurate, timely and transparent billing while the business protects margin, cash flow and revenue integrity.

The role blends people leadership across international teams, ownership of project budgeting and pricing, deployment of finance resources to customer accounts, hands-on command of project accounting, and executive-level client relationships. The right candidate is as comfortable walking a client CFO through a disputed invoice as coaching a team member or presenting project profitability to leadership.

Key Responsibilities:

Team leadership and development

Lead, coach and grow a team of finance managers / project accountants, setting clear goals and performance expectations.

Build a client-service culture where accountants act as trusted financial partners, not just billers.

Own hiring, onboarding, training and succession planning for the function, in partnership with People & Culture.

Balance workloads and client assignments across the team, especially during peak project periods.

Global team leadership

Lead project accounting teams across multiple countries and time zones, setting consistent standards, processes and service levels worldwide.

Manage local requirements for international teams, including statutory reporting, tax, currency and labor practices, in partnership with regional leaders.

Build a connected global team culture through clear communication, shared goals and regular cross-region collaboration.

Resource planning and deployment

Assign and deploy project accountants to customer accounts based on client size, complexity, geography and skill fit.

Forecast staffing needs against the sales pipeline and project calendar, and rebalance coverage as client demand shifts.

Ensure every key account has named finance coverage and a backup, so clients experience continuity through peak periods and staff changes.

Track team utilization and capacity to keep workloads sustainable and service levels high.

Project accounting and billing

Oversee the full project financial life cycle: budgets, estimates, change orders, work-in-progress (WIP), billing, collections and project close-out.

Ensure invoices are accurate, supported by documentation and delivered on schedule under each client's contract terms.

Direct revenue recognition for project work in line with ASC 606, including percentage-of-completion and milestone billing.

Monitor unbilled receivables, DSO and aging, and drive down billing cycle time.

Lead month-end close for project accounting, including accruals, WIP reconciliations and variance explanations.

Budgeting and pricing

Partner with Sales and Operations to build project budgets, cost estimates and client pricing proposals that meet margin targets.

Review and approve pricing for new bids, renewals and change orders, including rate cards, markups and discount structures.

Track project budget-to-actual performance and alert account teams and clients early to overruns or scope changes.

Own the annual budget for the project accounting function, including headcount, systems and travel costs.

Analyze historical project results to refine pricing models and improve estimating accuracy.

Client relationships

Serve as the senior finance escalation point for key clients, resolving billing disputes, credit requests and payment issues.

Join client meetings, business reviews and contract negotiations to set billing terms, payment schedules and reporting needs.

Set standards for client financial reporting so every client gets clear, consistent and timely project cost updates.

Partner with Sales, Account Management and Operations to align client expectations with contract terms before work begins.

Financial controls and compliance

Maintain strong internal controls over project billing, contract compliance and revenue.

Support external audits, client audits and contract compliance reviews.

Write and enforce project accounting policies, procedures and approval workflows.

Strategy and business partnership

Deliver project and client profitability analysis to executive leadership, flagging margin risk early.

Contribute to annual budgeting and forecasting for project revenue and cost.

Lead process improvement and system upgrades across ERP, project accounting and billing tools to scale the function.

Define and report KPIs for billing accuracy, timeliness, collections and client satisfaction.