Construction Controller — Own the Financial Engine in Clean Energy

Liberty Personnel Services, Inc.; California; On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical

Dental

Vision

Life

EAP

401K

paid continued education time

professional development stipend

cell and laptop reimbursements

progressive vacation structure

Job summary

Liberty Personnel Services, Inc. is seeking an experienced Controller to own the numbers behind a growing clean-energy design/build organization in Santa Cruz, CA.

You will lead full-cycle accounting, from month-end close to payroll oversight, with a focus on cost integrity and decision-ready reporting. You’ll partner with the COO/CFO, project management, HR, and field operations to ensure accurate cost, margin, and risk analytics.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of progressive accounting experience, including at least 2 years in a controller or senior accounting leadership role.
• Construction industry accounting background with job costing and WIP.
• Strong GAAP knowledge and construction accounting principles.
• Hands-on experience with a construction ERP (Jonas Premier, Sage 300 CRE, Foundation, Viewpoint).
• Proficiency in Excel and reporting model development.
• Experience evaluating or replacing accounting systems and processes.
• Familiarity with California prevailing wage and certified payroll requirements.
• Experience overseeing payroll processing in multi-jurisdiction environments.
• Experience managing external service providers with accountability for deliverables.

Responsibilities

• Own full month-end close cycle including journals, accruals, and reconciliations.
• Produce monthly financial statements, management reports, and KPI dashboards.
• Manage dual reporting: internal earned revenue and billing basis for lenders.
• Prepare WIP, backlog, and progress billing analyses; flag anomalies to leadership.
• Own ASC 606 earned revenue calculations and related reports.
• Manage job cost accounting across active projects with proper cost coding and change orders.
• Identify and escalate cost variances and project performance issues.
• Oversee AP, AR, subcontractor payments, lien waiver compliance, and related-party accounting.
• Oversee payroll processing including prevailing wage and certified payroll.
• Lead 1–2 accounting staff; document processes and build cross-training.
• Design and enforce accounting policies, internal controls, and records retention.
• Evaluate and improve financial systems and workflows in partnership with leadership.

Skills

5+ years accounting experience

Controller/senior accounting

Construction accounting

GAAP knowledge

Excel

Cross-functional collaboration

Tools

Jonas Premier

Sage 300 CRE

Foundation

Viewpoint

Job description

Liberty Personnel Services, Inc. is seeking an experienced Controller to own the numbers behind a growing clean-energy design/build organization in Santa Cruz, CA.

You will lead full-cycle accounting, from month-end close to payroll oversight, with a focus on cost integrity and decision-ready reporting. You’ll partner with the COO/CFO, project management, HR, and field operations to ensure accurate cost, margin, and risk analytics.