The Senior Project Controller is a senior, hands-on project controls professional responsible for delivering integrated controls across cost, schedule, progress measurement, change, risk, and information management/document control interfaces on Major Projects.
The Senior Project Controller operates effectively in complex delivery environments -including JVs/partnerships, alliances, P3/DB/PDB -and supports multi-party governance by aligning controls definitions, cut-off calendars, and reporting across partner teams. This role is expected to be a “controls integrator”: ensuring cost, schedule, and information flows stay coherent, auditable, and useful.
Key responsibilities
Integrated project controls delivery (cost, schedule, progress)
- Establish and maintain integrated controls routines for assigned projects: baseline management, progress cut-offs, update cycles, forecasting cadence, and performance review rhythms.
- Develop and maintain integrated project schedules (e.g., Primavera P6) with strong logic integrity, critical path clarity, realistic resourcing assumptions, and effective lookahead planning.
- Manage cost control processes: commitments, actuals, accruals, cost coding alignment, variance analysis, and periodic forecasting (EAC/ETC) with clear assumptions and traceability.
- Implement progress measurement rules aligned to contract requirements and project realities; ensure schedule updates and cost forecasts reflect physical progress and approved changes.
Change control and commercial alignment
- Execute and maintain the change control process: change capture, log governance, schedule/cost impact assessment, approvals tracking, baseline adjustments (when authorized), and integration into forecasts.
- Coordinate with commercial/contract administration to support substantiation, notices, and claims readiness by maintaining defensible records, narratives, and audit trails tied to controls outputs.
Reporting, performance insights, and stakeholder management
- Produce monthly/periodic reporting packs (internal leadership, client, and JV/partner requirements as applicable) covering schedule status, cost performance, progress, KPIs, change status, trends, and risk considerations.
- Provide actionable performance insights: root-cause analysis, emerging risks/opportunities, recovery recommendations, and forward-looking risk-to-forecast commentary.
- Present status in live and virtual forums; support governance meetings including project performance reviews and JV/partner reporting coordination sessions.
JV / partnership controls integration
- Support integrated reporting in JV/partner settings by aligning and reconciling: WBS/CBS structures, cost codes, progress rules, reporting definitions, and cut-off calendars.
- Consolidate partner inputs into a coherent “single source of truth” view; validate data quality, identify disconnects, and escalate issues through established governance paths.
- Participate in interface management across partner organizations, subcontractors, and client stakeholders to ensure consistent controls practices and timely data flow.
Information management and document control interface
- Oversee project information management practices required to support controls, including registers for key deliverables, correspondence, transmittals, approvals, and closeout documentation.
- Coordinate with Project Administrators/document control resources to ensure document workflows support auditability and contract administration (e.g., change backup, approvals, contemporaneous records).
- Ensure controls artifacts are appropriately stored, traceable, and retrievable in accordance with project requirements and the common data environment (CDE) framework.
Risk integration and continuous improvement
- Support risk integration into controls outputs by ensuring risk items are reflected in schedule/cost forecasts where required and that risk/change/trend narratives are coherent.
- Apply the Project Controls Playbook and templates; identify gaps and recommend improvements to standards, tools, and reporting practices.
- Contribute to lessons learned and knowledge transfer across projects; mentor junior project controls staff and support capability development.