Real Estate Finance Manager

Prime Communications; Sugar Land (TX); On-site; USD 110,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

Prime Communications is seeking a Real Estate Finance Manager to bring financial rigor to a portfolio of nearly 2,000 retail locations. You will audit landlords’ charges, recover overcharges, analyze cost drift, and build automation, controls, and process discipline to scale the function without adding headcount.

You will lead five Lease Administrators and partner with Accounting, Legal, and Dealmaking to ensure portfolio numbers are accurate.

Qualifications

• 7+ years in finance, accounting, audit, or real estate finance with leadership experience.
• Strong financial analysis and variance modeling for senior leadership.
• Experience auditing third-party billings and pursuing recoveries.
• Knowledge of lease economics; real estate experience preferred.
• Proven automation or process-improvement contributions with measurable results.
• Advanced Excel, with pivot tables and large data reconciliation.
• Experience with ERP data reconciliation across disparate systems.
• Ability to read commercial contracts and leases.
• Bachelor's degree in finance, accounting, economics, real estate, or business; CPA/MBA a plus.

Responsibilities

• Own CAM/NNN reconciliation cycle, including methodology and escalation.
• Audit landlord billings against lease terms; request GL detail.
• Set materiality thresholds and dispute resolution processes.
• Lead landlord disputes and engage Legal when needed.
• Drive AI and automation to increase reconciliation efficiency.
• Own lease administration platform and drive improvements.
• Redesign manual work into repeatable processes with clear handoffs.
• Provide recurring portfolio cost reporting to executives.

Skills

Financial analysis

Team leadership

Audit

Lease economics

Process improvement

Automation

Excel

SQL

ERP

Negotiation

Contract interpretation

Education

Bachelor’s degree

CPA/MBA a plus

Tools

ProLease

MRI

TRIRIGA

Lucernex

Power BI

Tableau

SQL

Job description

Bring financial rigor to PRIME's retail real estate portfolio of nearly 2,000 locations, and lead the team that administers it. This is a finance role first. The mandate is to audit what landlords bill, recover what is overcharged, analyze where costs are drifting and why, and build the automation, controls, and process discipline that let the function scale without adding headcount. The Real Estate Finance Manager leads five Lease Administrators, partners closely with Accounting, Legal, and Dealmaking, and is accountable to the Executive Director of Lease Administration and the VP of Real Estate for the accuracy of the portfolio's numbers and the dollars recovered.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Financial analysis

• Build the financial analysis behind real estate decisions: cost per location, renew-versus-relocate comparisons, CAM as a percentage of base rent, and exposure by landlord and market.
• Analyze escrow and estimated payment levels against settled reconciliation results, and recommend adjustments so estimates track actuals rather than landlord projections.
• Quantify what is at stake before decisions get made, including disputed charges, recovery opportunities, and portfolio cost outliers.
• Supply the lease and cost data Accounting and Finance rely on, and support their close and budget processes with accurate portfolio figures.

Audit and recovery

• Own the annual CAM/NNN, real estate tax, and insurance reconciliation cycle: review methodology, internal deadlines, dispute strategy, and recovery tracking.
• Audit landlord billings against lease terms. Request general ledger detail and invoices, test for capital and excluded costs, verify pro-rata share and caps, and quantify exposure before escalating.
• Set the materiality thresholds and escalation rules that decide which statements get a full audit and which get a variance check.
• Lead dispute resolution with landlords on contested charges, admin fee caps, late fees, and default notices. Engage Legal when a business resolution is not available.

Technology, automation, and process improvement

• Spearhead AI and automation initiatives that increase reconciliation efficiency, including statement intake and data extraction, variance and exception flagging, and reporting automation. Own the business case and drive adoption.
• Serve as business owner for the lease administration platform and the systems it feeds. Drive enhancements, data cleanup, and system selection or migration where warranted.
• Redesign manual work into documented, repeatable processes with defined turnaround times, approval thresholds, and clean handoffs.
• Own the control environment that prevents duplicate, misapplied, or unauthorized payments, and support internal and external audit requests with documentation and evidence.

Team leadership

• Lead, coach, and develop five Lease Administrators, including portfolio assignment, workload balancing, hiring, onboarding, performance reviews, and development plans.
• Raise the analytical capability of the team so administrators test a landlord statement rather than simply process it.
• Set quality standards, audit a risk-based sample of the team’s work, and use the findings to target training.

Reporting and partnership

• Deliver recurring reporting to the Executive Director and VP of Real Estate covering portfolio cost trends, reconciliation status, dispute pipeline and dollars at risk, recovery results, critical dates, and team throughput.
• Provide historical cost data and financial analysis to Dealmaking during renewals and new deals, and flag unfavorable operating expense language before execution.
• Partner with Legal, Facilities, Construction, and Accounts Payable on notices, chargebacks, TI credit collection, and payment exception resolution.

QUALIFICATIONS

• 7+ years in finance, accounting, audit, or real estate finance, including 3+ years managing a team.
• Strong financial analysis skills, including variance analysis, modeling, and explaining results clearly to senior leadership.
• Audit experience testing third-party billings against a contract, documenting findings, and pursuing recovery. Public accounting, internal audit, and recovery audit backgrounds all qualify.
• Strong command of contract or lease economics. Retail real estate experience preferred; strong candidates from other contract-heavy environments will be considered.
• Evidence of process improvement or automation with a measurable result, such as a manual workflow redesigned, a system implemented, or an automation and AI tool put into production.
• Advanced Excel, including pivot tables, lookups, modeling, and reconciling large data sets across systems. SQL, Power BI, or Tableau a plus.
• ERP experience and comfort reconciling data across systems that do not naturally agree.
• Comfort negotiating with external counterparties on disputed charges, whether landlords, vendors, or suppliers.
• Ability to read and interpret commercial contracts and leases, including amendments and operating expense provisions.
• Bachelor’s degree in finance, accounting, economics, real estate, or business. CPA, CMA, or MBA a plus, not required.

Preferred

• Direct CAM/NNN reconciliation or lease audit experience.
• Experience with lease administration platforms such as ProLease, MRI, TRIRIGA, or Lucernex.