Finance Business Partner - Project Controllership

The Finance Business Partner will be embedded within the Project Controllership Organization, acting as the finance owner for large, long-duration capital projects from initial commitment through to completion and transfer to operations. You will bring rigorous project and cost accounting to the delivery teams: owning capex and cost accounting for your projects, building and maintaining project cost structures, tracking budgets, commitments and actuals, reporting variances with insight, and ensuring each project is accounted for accurately under US GAAP and closed out cleanly at completion. This is a hands-on role that pairs technical accounting depth with genuine business partnering - you will sit alongside project directors, engineers and procurement, not apart from them.

Project and capex accounting

• Capex accounting: own end-to-end accounting for assigned capital projects, including construction in progress (CIP/AUC), capitalization assessments under US GAAP (ASC 360), componentization, capitalized interest where applicable (ASC 835-20), and transfer to fixed assets on completion with correct in-service dates and useful lives.
• Compute and equipment capex: own the accounting for high-value compute and network equipment (GPU fleets and associated infrastructure), including vendor purchase order and financing payment tracking, delivery acceptance and in-service dating, componentization and useful lives, residual value support, and lessor accounting for intra-group equipment leases (ASC 842).
• Cost accounting: maintain accurate, complete and well-classified project cost records - distinguishing capital from operating expenditure, applying the capitalization policy consistently, and ensuring costs land in the correct entity, project, site and cost category.
• Project costing: build and own project cost breakdown structures (WBS/cost codes) aligned to contracts, procurement packages and the accounting dimension framework; establish cost baselines and estimates-at-completion (EAC) and keep them current.
• Accruals and commitments: run monthly cost accruals from contractor applications for payment, certifications and goods receipts; maintain the committed cost position (POs, contracts, change orders) and reconcile committed, accrued and actual spend.
• Month-end close: deliver project close activities to the group timetable - CIP reconciliations, accrual journals, retention and milestone payment tracking, and balance sheet substantiation for project-related accounts.

Reporting, variance analysis and forecasting

• Variance reporting: produce monthly project cost reports comparing actuals and EAC against budget and prior forecast; explain variances with root-cause commentary and work with project teams on corrective actions.
• Forecasting: partner with FP&A and Strategic Finance on capex cashflow forecasting, phasing of spend, and funding drawdown planning for your projects. Provide current capex phasing and estimate-at-completion data into Strategic Finance's monthly business plan refresh.
• Board and investor reporting: contribute project cost and progress data to board packs, lender/investor reporting and management information, ensuring one version of the truth between delivery and finance. Work within, and help build, the group project reporting framework.
• Balance sheet visibility: own the project-related balance sheet - CIP, retentions, VAT recoverable, prepayments and committed spend - and feed these positions into the group management balance sheet dashboard on an automated, near-real-time basis.

Project lifecycle and business partnering

• Cradle to completion: support projects through their full lifecycle - business case and budget setting, contract award, execution, change management, practical completion, final account settlement, and financial close-out including release of retentions and accrual true-ups.
• Change control: evaluate the cost and accounting impact of scope changes, change orders and claims; evaluate the cost and accounting impact of scope changes, change orders and claims;