Director, Operational Finance

Serve as the primary strategic liaison and trusted advisor between FP&A and development, EPC, asset management, and construction teams; establish relationships that enable open dialogue on financial performance, operational trade-offs, and cost drivers.

Key Responsibilities

• Serve as the primary strategic liaison and trusted advisor between FP&A and development, EPC, asset management, and construction teams; establish relationships that enable open dialogue on financial performance, operational trade-offs, and cost drivers.
• Own responsibility for operational financial planning and data integrity: gather, validate, and interpret cost and performance data across project portfolios; synthesize field intelligence into portfolio-level variance analysis, forecasting inputs, and trend reporting for FP&A and executive leadership.
• Establish and maintain financial governance frameworks for development and EPC execution; define cost control standards, change management protocols, project-level financial metrics, accounting methodologies, and financial decision-making criteria that operations teams follow.
• Lead cross-functional problem-solving on cost escalation, schedule delays, budget pressures, and risk; identify and escalate material variances and emerging risks to CFO and executive leadership with recommended mitigation strategies and impact assessments.
• Partner with asset management on operational financial metrics, run-rate economics, and performance against operating budgets; ensure alignment between development phase cost estimates and post-COD actuals to improve forecasting accuracy.
• Maintain data reconciliation discipline across project management systems (Procore, etc.), ERP platforms (NetSuite, Sage), and accounting systems; establish audit protocols that resolve discrepancies before data enters formal reporting and forecasts.
• Drive standardization and automation of cost accounting methodologies, templates, and calculations across projects and asset classes to enable consistent portfolio analysis, comparability, and reduced manual effort.
• Identify and implement process improvements and system enhancements that reduce reporting cycle time, improve data quality, minimize manual work on field teams, and scale financial discipline across growth.
• Build and maintain BI dashboards and reporting tools that give operations and FP&A leadership real-time visibility into project performance, financial health, cost drivers, and key performance indicators.
• Deliver executive-level analysis and decision support on capital projects, operational efficiency, portfolio optimization, and valuation; prepare financial narratives and materials for board and investor communications.

Requirements

• Operational Finance Expertise: 5+ years in FP&A, project controls, or operational finance supporting development, construction, or EPC functions with demonstrated impact on cost management and financial discipline.
• Industry Experience: Proven background in renewable energy, infrastructure, construction, or capital-intensive project delivery; preferably distributed generation solar or similar asset class.
• Deep Project Finance Knowledge: Expert-level expertise in project accounting, cost controls, change order management, cost-to-complete methodologies, and portfolio economics in complex, multi-project environments.
• Systems & Tools Proficiency: Hands-on expertise with project management systems (Procore, Touchplan), ERP platforms (NetSuite, Sage), and BI/analytics tools (Power BI preferred); ability to configure and troubleshoot data flows.
• Financial Modeling: Advanced Excel skills with ability to build, maintain, and enhance financial models; strong data analysis and transformation capabilities to support insights and forecasting.
• Cross-functional Leadership: Exceptional ability to influence and align diverse groups without direct authority; strong stakeholder management and communication skills tailored to operations, finance, and executive audiences.
• Operational Acumen: Deep understanding of field operations, construction constraints, trade-offs, and drivers that impact project economics and execution risk.
• Data Governance Mindset: Detail-oriented with a reconciliation-first approach; treats data quality, accuracy, and audit trails as core responsibilities and establishes discipline across teams.
• Strategic Problem-Solving: Ability to translate operational complexity and ambiguity into clear financial narratives; bridges finance and operations language to drive alignment.
• Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, Engineering, or equivalent experience; CPA a plus.
• ERP & Planning Systems: Hands-on experience implementing or managing planning, forecasting, and ERP systems; familiarity with data architecture and model governance best practices.
• Process Automation: Experience designing or implementing workflow automation and AI-enabled tools to reduce manual work, accelerate analysis, and strengthen data integrity.
• Solar IPP Operations: In-depth familiarity with solar independent power producer operations, distributed generation business models, or similar renewable asset management.
• Project Finance Models: Experience with solar project financial models, including structured debt, tax equity arrangements, and power purchase agreement (PPA) economics.