Location: Grimsby / Lowestoft
The Project Finance & Cost Controller will provide dedicated finance and cost control support for newly awarded and assigned offshore wind contracts and operational sites.
The role has been created to support the financial management of high-value project activity, ensuring that project costs, budgets, forecasts, purchase orders, supplier invoices, goods receipting, client billing information, and supporting records are accurate, controlled, and visible.
Working closely with the Finance Manager / Financial Controller, the role will help the business monitor project performance, understand cost movements, identify risks or anomalies, and ensure financial information supports operational and commercial decision-making.
The role will also provide transactional accounting and month-end support during periods of departmental absence, helping to maintain continuity of finance processes and reporting to the Finance Manager / Financial Controller.
A strong understanding of expenses, allowances, payroll-related finance processes and compliance will be important for the role. Broader tax experience would be advantageous, particularly where this supports the correct treatment of employee payments, allowances and project-related costs.
Roles & Responsibilities
Project Costing and Budget Control
- Support the set-up, monitoring and ongoing control of project costs for assigned offshore wind contracts and operational sites.
- Assist with project budgeting, forecasting and cost tracking, ensuring financial information is accurate and up to date.
- Monitor actual project costs against budget, forecast or expected activity, highlighting variances, overspends, anomalies or missing information.
- Track costs across labour, travel, accommodation, logistics, subcontractors, tooling, materials and other operational expenditure.
- Work with site operations to ensure costs are correctly captured and aligned to project activity.
- Provide clear cost information to support project reviews, operational planning and management decision-making.
Purchase Orders, Invoicing and Goods Receipting
- Support purchase order processes for assigned projects, ensuring costs are coded, approved and recorded correctly.
- Assist with goods receipting, supplier invoice checks and resolution of invoice queries.
- Ensure invoices and supporting documentation are aligned with agreed project activity, purchase orders and internal approval processes.
- Liaise with site operations and Finance to resolve missing information, coding queries or discrepancies.
- Maintain clear records to support approvals, reconciliations, client queries, audit trails and internal reporting.
Project Reporting and Financial Visibility
- Support regular project finance reporting, including cost summaries, budget updates, forecast information and supporting commentary.
- Support month-end activity for assigned projects, including accruals, prepayments, reconciliations and supporting reports.
- Help identify cost trends, risks, inefficiencies or areas requiring further review.
- Support the Finance Manager / Financial Controller with project reporting packs, contract review information and management updates.
- Assist with improving consistency and visibility of project financial data across assigned contracts and sites.
Compliance, Expenses and Payroll-Related Finance
- Support compliance with internal finance processes, approval controls and project administration requirements.
- Help ensure purchase orders, invoices, goods receipts and supporting records are completed in line with company procedures.
- Support queries relating to expenses, allowances, travel, subsistence and payroll-related finance matters.
- Assist with checking that employee payments, allowances and expenses are processed consistently and in line with company guidance.
- Work with Payroll and Finance to ensure project-related payroll costs are accurately captured, coded and reported.
- Liaise with Payroll, Finance, HR or external advisers where the treatment of allowances, expenses or payments requires clarification.
- Keep appropriate records to support internal review, HMRC queries, audit requirements or management reporting.
Site Operations, Payroll and Finance Support
- Work closely with site operations to ensure financial information reflects actual project activity.
- Assist operational managers with finance-related queries, including purchase orders, invoice queries, cost coding and supporting information.
- Support the flow of information between site operations, Payroll and Finance to avoid delays in approvals, invoicing, reporting or month-end processes.
- Provide project finance input into operational updates and internal discussions where required.
Cover and Wider Finance Support
- Provide holiday and absence cover for agreed Finance Manager / Financial Controller activities where appropriate.
- Support wider finance tasks during busy periods, audits, reporting deadlines or business-critical activity.
- Assist with reconciliations, supplier/customer queries, reporting and finance support as required.
- Escalate matters outside the scope of the role to the Finance Manager / Financial Controller or senior management as appropriate.
General
- Maintain a professional, accurate and confidential approach to all finance and business information.
- Work in line with company policies, approval processes and financial controls.
- Support a positive and practical working relationship between Finance, site operations and Payroll.
- Take a solutions-focused approach to resolving queries and improving processes.
- Be flexible to support other contracts, sites or business priorities where required.
- Undertake any other reasonable duties or provide support as requested by the Finance Manager / Financial Controller, Managing Director or senior management, where these are appropriate to the nature and level of the role.
- Undertake any other reasonable duties or provide support as requested by the Finance Manager / Financial Controller, Managing Director or senior management, where these are appropriate to the nature and level of the role and support the effective delivery of finance, reporting, project or wider business requirements.
- Competencies
- Strong attention to detail and accuracy.
- Good understanding of financial processes, controls and documentation.
- Commercially aware, with the ability to understand the financial impact of operational activity.
- Confident working with Finance, site operations and Payroll to resolve queries and keep information moving.
- Able to manage competing priorities and meet deadlines.
- Practical, organised and solutions-focused.
- Able to handle confidential information appropriately.
- Good communication skills and the ability to explain finance matters clearly to non-finance colleagues.
- Comfortable asking questions and escalating issues where needed.
Qualifications/Experience Previous experience in accounts, finance, project finance, cost control or a similar role.
- Experience working in an operational, offshore, renewables, engineering, construction, marine or project-based environment would be beneficial.
- Good understanding of purchase orders, goods receipting, invoicing, reconciliations and month-end processes.
- Experience with project costing, budget tracking, forecasting support, contract reporting or cost control is required.
- Experience supporting expenses, allowances, payroll-related finance processes and compliance is required.
- Broader tax experience, including employment tax, VAT, allowances or HMRC-related queries, would be advantageous.
- AAT, ATT, accounting, tax or finance qualification would be beneficial, although demonstrable experience will also be considered.
- Strong IT skills, including Excel and finance systems.
Benefits:
- Company pension
- Employee discount
- Health & wellbeing programme
- Life insurance
- Private dental insurance
- Private medical insurance
Work Location: Hybrid remote in Grimsby DN31 3SY
