Company Overview:
Our client is a vertically integrated private equity real estate firm focused exclusively on grocery-anchored and daily-needs retail centers in high-growth U.S. markets. Founded more than forty years ago, the firm has transacted over $3 billion of core, core-plus, and value-add shopping centers across 24 states and today owns and operates a portfolio of more than 4.5 million square feet, valued at approximately $1 billion, on behalf of leading institutional investors. Acquisitions, asset management, leasing, construction, property management, and accounting all sit in house, and the organization is deliberately lean, which gives individual contributions visibility at the ownership level.

Position Overview:
Our client is seeking a hands-on Controller to own the accounting and financial operating infrastructure across property, joint venture, partnership, fund, and corporate entities. The Controller will lead the accounting function, remain close enough to the work to identify problems early, and give leadership, lenders, joint venture partners, and the Capital & Investors function accurate and timely financial information.

The firm’s nationwide portfolio is held across multiple joint ventures and lender structures and runs on disciplined process: closes that land on schedule, reconciliations that hold up under audit, reliable cash visibility, and reporting that institutional partners can use without material revision. The Controller is accountable for accurate books and records, a disciplined close, strong controls, clean audit and tax execution, and systems and processes that scale.

The ideal candidate is a real estate accounting leader who combines technical depth with operating ownership. This is neither a purely supervisory role nor a strategic CFO position. The right person will carry both a reviewer load and an appropriate hands-on workload; build, lead, and upgrade the accounting team; work in the ledger when necessary; and solve routine problems before they reach senior leadership. The candidate should be highly organized, constructive under pressure, and able to explain financial information clearly to non-financial colleagues.

Role Architecture and Ownership Boundaries:
The firm owns capital formation, debt and equity strategy, investor relations, and the outward-facing portfolio reporting product. The Controller owns the integrity, timeliness, calculations, and supporting schedules behind those activities and partners closely with that function. The Controller supports the owners of investor relationships, capital strategy, asset and business-plan assumptions, or property-level collections.

The Three Obsessions:

• Accurate, Timely Financial Reporting. Maintain trusted books, close, reconciliations, GAAP reporting, property, joint venture, fund, and corporate accounting, CAM, tax and audit execution, and the financial support required by leadership, lenders, investors, and partners.
• Cash Visibility, Treasury, and Control. Know where cash is, where it is going, and what is coming; maintain reliable forecasts and target cash positions; administer banking and credit facilities; execute authorized distributions; and prevent unauthorized movements or avoidable compliance surprises.
• Scalable Accounting Operations. Build the team, Yardi backbone, standardized chart of accounts, documented processes, and controls that allows the firm to grow without recurring intervention from senior leadership.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Own day-to-day accounting operations, including general ledger, accounts payable, corporate accounts receivable, cash management, intercompany activity, and monthly, quarterly, and annual close for property, joint venture, partnership, fund, and corporate entities; coordinate with Property Management on property-level receivables and collections, which remain operationally owned by that function.
• Prepare and review GAAP financial statements and reporting packages, ensuring complete reconciliations, consistent classification, clear variance explanations, and accurate, on-time delivery.
• Produce the financial statements, capital-call and distribution schedules, waterfall and promote calculations, and supporting data required by Capital & Investors for quarterly investor and portfolio reporting; Capital & Investors owns the investor relationship, reporting narrative, and outward-facing delivery.
• Produce accurate lender and joint venture reporting and execute covenant calculations, draw requests, escrow and reserve reconciliations, and related accounting correspondence, escalating exceptions to Capital & Investors and senior leadership.
• Own cash management, treasury execution, banking administration, cash positioning, and cash-flow forecasting across all in-scope entities; administer approved credit facilities and authorized distributions.
• Administer the annual budgeting and reforecasting process, calendar, system, templates, consolidation, and financial integrity, and produce budget-to-actual reporting; Operations, Asset Management, Leasing, and Property Management own operating assumptions and asset business plans.
• Oversee timely CAM reconciliations, tenant recovery calculations, percentage-rent billings, and support for tenant audits across the retail portfolio.
  Support the Investment & Deal Platform on acquisitions and dispositions through financial due diligence, closing statements, purchase-price allocations, and timely onboarding of acquired assets to the accounting platform.
• Manage the annual audit and tax compliance process, serving as the primary liaison to external auditors, tax advisors, and fund administrators and driving timely resolution of findings.
• Establish, document, and enforce accounting policies, procedures, approval authorities, and internal controls; support the firm’s broader compliance program on financial matters.
• Make Yardi the financial backbone for all in-scope entities, standardize the chart of accounts, and implement system and workflow improvements that increase accuracy, visibility, and speed.
  Serve as the central accounting resource for the Investment & Deal Platform, Capital & Investors, Asset Management, Leasing, Property Management, and Construction teams while preserving each function’s operating ownership.
• Lead, develop, and hold accountable the accounting team, setting clear ownership, priorities, quality standards, and daily execution expectations.
• Assess the accounting organization and recruit, retain, or reorganize talent as needed to support the firm’s scale and institutional standards.

Expected Results:

• Accurate, on-time reporting. Monthly, quarterly, and annual closes and agreed financial packages are delivered on the approved calendar and do not require material revision after release.
• Reliable cash visibility. Forecast-to-actual performance is tracked monthly, material variances are explained, target cash positions are maintained across assets, partnerships, corporate entities, and credit facilities, and surprise funding emergencies are eliminated.
• Yardi as the financial system of record. 100% of in-scope property, partnership, fund, and corporate financials are maintained in Yardi using a standardized chart of accounts, subject only to documented and approved exceptions.
• CAM and tenant recoveries under control. CAM reconciliations are issued on the approved schedule, and recovery performance and tenant-audit leakage are measured against an approved target after the current baseline is confirmed.
• Clean audit and tax execution. Annual audits and tax deliverables are completed on schedule with no material weaknesses or material findings attributable to controllable accounting failures; other items are remediated by agreed deadlines.
• Correct entity-level economics. Operating-company expenses are correctly classified and allocated, eligible property and partnership expenses are recovered appropriately, and unsupported cost shifting is eliminated.
• Useful budget visibility. Material budget-to-actual variances are identified, explained, and surfaced on the agreed cadence, and the financial process supports annual budget deadlines.
• Controls that hold. There are no unauthorized cash movements and no avoidable lender, joint venture, investor-reporting, or covenant failures caused by controllable accounting or process breakdowns.

How They Work:
Every team member is expected to demonstrate these five Core Values in daily decisions, relationships, and results:

• Get It Done - Follow through. Work through obstacles. Be resilient. No excuses.
• Take Initiative - Don’t wait to be told. See something, do something. Take ownership.
• Bring a Can-Do Mindset - Stay optimistic and constructive. Respond, don’t react. Look for solutions.
• Raise the Bar - Challenge the status quo. Push beyond comfort. Live the standard, don’t just talk about it.
• Dig Deep - Details matter. Seek to understand. Be methodical. Bring perspective before acting.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting or Finance; CPA strongly preferred.
• Minimum of 8+ years of progressive accounting experience, including direct team leadership.
• Commercial real estate owner-operator or investment-manager experience required; retail or shopping-center experience strongly preferred, with comparable experience in complex property and joint venture structures and CAM recoveries considered.
• Prior Controller, Assistant Controller, or senior accounting management experience with an owner, operator, or real estate investment manager.
• Demonstrated experience inheriting or materially improving an accounting function by tightening controls, standardizing processes, upgrading systems, and developing the team, not only maintaining an already mature environment.
• Strong technical command of GAAP and real estate accounting, including consolidations, joint ventures, partnership and fund accounting, and waterfall distributions.
• Experience with CAM reconciliations, tenant recoveries, and lease administration in a retail context.
• Demonstrated experience managing audits, tax compliance, and institutional investor and lender reporting requirements.
• Fluency with real estate accounting platforms such as Yardi or MRI, with Yardi strongly preferred, and advanced Excel skills.
• Outstanding written and verbal communication skills, with the presence to work effectively with senior leadership, Capital & Investors, lenders, joint venture partners, auditors, and non-financial operators.
• Detail-oriented, with strong follow-through, sound judgment, and the ability to operate independently.
• Ability to thrive in a lean, fast-paced environment with concurrent priorities and firm deadlines.

Salary:
Eligible for bonus.
Compensation will be based on experience and include a bonus and benefits.