Job Title: Project Controller
Department: Operations
Reports to: Project Manager, functional oversight from the Project Controls Manager
GENERAL PURPOSE OF THIS JOB (Summary)
The Project Controller is responsible for establishing and maintaining the cost, schedule, forecasting, and performance-control processes required for effective project delivery. Working closely with the Project Manager, field teams, Finance, Procurement, Estimating, and the Project Controls Manager, the position provides timely analysis and reporting to support informed decisions, protect project margins, manage risk, and deliver projects safely, on schedule, and within approved budgets.
ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES include the following. Other duties may be assigned.
HEALTH AND SAFETY
- Actively promote and comply with all SER health and safety policies, procedures, standards, and applicable regulations.
- Identify and, when authorized and safe to do so, correct health and safety hazards or noncompliance; promptly report identified concerns through the appropriate management channels.
CLIENT FOCUS
- Prepare accurate and timely project-performance information in accordance with client, contractual, and SER reporting requirements.
- Respond promptly and professionally to client questions and concerns, coordinating with the Project Manager and appropriate functional teams to resolve issues or escalate them when necessary.
GENERAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:
COST CONTROL AND FORECASTING
- Establish, maintain, and analyze project budgets from the bid stage through project execution.
- Compare actual and committed labor, equipment, material, and subcontractor costs against the approved budget and current forecast.
- Identify cost variances and emerging overruns early, analyze their causes, and recommend corrective actions.
- Develop project-level budgets for quarterly assessments and the business plan using first-principles estimates.
- Maintain cost-forecasting models, including Estimate at Completion (EAC) and Estimate to Complete (ETC).
PLANNING, SCHEDULING, AND PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT
- Measure actual progress against the approved baseline and current schedules.
- Coordinate with field teams to obtain complete, accurate, and timely progress updates.
- Implement and monitor earned value metrics, including planned value, earned value, and actual cost.
- Analyze cost, schedule, productivity, and earned value trends to provide decision-useful insight into overall project health.
REPORTING AND FINANCIAL COORDINATION
- Prepare monthly project-performance reports highlighting cost and schedule variances, productivity trends, forecast changes, risks, and opportunities.
- Coordinate with the Finance team on accruals, month-end reporting, revenue recognition inputs, and margin tracking.
- Coordinate with the Finance team to complete year-end financial closeout activities.
- Prepare project closeout and lessons-learned documentation and communicate execution feedback to the Estimating team.
CHANGE AND COMMERCIAL MANAGEMENT
- Maintain change-order and scope-change logs and evaluate the cost and schedule effects of proposed changes.
- Support Project Managers in pricing changes, maintaining complete supporting documentation, and protecting project margins.
- Monitor compliance with contract terms related to billing, milestones, notices, changes, and claims.
RISK, OPPORTUNITY, AND CROSS-FUNCTIONAL COORDINATION
- Identify cost, schedule, commercial, and operational risks and opportunities that may affect project performance.
- Quantify potential cost and schedule impacts and support the development of mitigation and opportunity-response strategies.
- Maintain current risk and opportunity information throughout the project lifecycle and escalate material changes.
- Collaborate with Project Management, Engineering, Procurement, Estimating, Finance, and field personnel to maintain accurate and integrated project controls.
SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES
- This position has no direct supervisory responsibilities but may coordinate procurement administration and project timekeeping activities.
QUALIFICATIONS
EDUCATION
- Bachelor's degree in accounting, finance, construction management, project management, engineering, or a related discipline; an equivalent combination of education and relevant experience may be considered.
EXPERIENCE
- Minimum of five years of progressively responsible experience in project controls, cost control, scheduling, or a closely related discipline, preferably in mining, heavy civil construction, or another project-based industrial environment.
CERTIFICATE(S), LICENSE(S), REGISTRATION(S)
COMPUTER APPLICATIONS USED
- Advanced proficiency: Microsoft Excel.
- Working proficiency: Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, and PDF-editing software.
- Experience with: Enterprise resource planning systems such as JD Edwards; Primavera P6; and InEight Estimate/Hard Dollar.
- Preferred familiarity: Mine-planning and scheduling applications such as Mine 2-4D, Deswik, or Vulcan.
SKILLS, KNOWLEDGE & ABILITIES
- Working knowledge of applicable mining regulations, safety codes, and statutory requirements.
- Knowledge of underground excavation, shaft and raise development, and mine-infrastructure construction.
- Demonstrated knowledge of estimating, cost control, planning, and scheduling principles.
- Ability to prepare clear, accurate, and decision-useful reports for scoping, feasibility, and project-execution activities.
- Working knowledge of project-management principles across planning, execution, monitoring, change control, and closeout.
- Ability to organize competing priorities, meet reporting deadlines, and coordinate effectively across field and corporate teams.
- Ability to communicate complex cost, schedule, risk, and commercial information clearly in written reports and management presentations.
- Commercial awareness and the ability to understand, interpret, and apply contracts in mining and project-execution environments.
SER is an Equal Opportunity Employer
