Director, Capital Finance

The Director, Capital Finance is accountable for accurately translating the Company’s capital program into the systems of record, leading Capital and Grant/Rebillable accounting teams, and partnering with program and operational leaders to protect capital budget integrity from planning through capitalization and closeout.

Location

Jacksonville, FL (onsite)

Role Summary

The role owns accurate financial tracking of the capital program, including spend, billing, and capitalization in D365 and Adaptive. It leads Capital and Grant/Rebillable accounting teams and collaborates with program and operational leaders to maintain capital budget integrity, manage overruns and reallocations, and oversee grant and rebillable receivables.

Key Responsibilities

• Own the accuracy of the capital budget in D365 and Adaptive, ensuring each approved project is correctly set up, funded to authorized amounts, and coded to the proper entity, asset class, and cost structure.
• Reconcile capital information between D365, Adaptive, and project reporting so the organization relies on one set of figures rather than competing spreadsheets.
• Ensure the approved capital plan is represented in the systems of record and that changes are recorded promptly with an audit trail.
• Manage project financial setup, structure, and approval routing, ensuring no spend occurs on projects that are not properly authorized.
• Support annual and long-range capital planning by collecting project inputs, validating assumptions, and improving consistency across submissions.
• Track actual capital spend versus approved budgets and forecasts, surfacing risks, timing shifts, and management attention needs early enough to act.
• Manage the end-to-end overrun process by identifying variances early, quantifying financial impact, and preparing recommendations for decision.
• Manage capital reallocations between projects, preparing recommendations, documenting rationale, and executing approved transfers in the systems of record.
• Maintain project-level budgets, commitments, accruals, cash flow forecasts, and variance analysis in partnership with FP&A and operating teams.
• Evaluate the financial implications of cost estimate changes, schedule shifts, and scope adjustments, and communicate consequences clearly to the responsible leaders.
• Lead capital accounting across cost capture, construction in progress, capitalization, in-service dating, asset creation, and the start of depreciation.
• Ensure timely project closeout and capitalization in accordance with accounting policy, control requirements, and documentation standards.
• Reconcile construction in progress and capital asset balances and support internal and external audit requests related to capital.
• Maintain capitalization policy in practice with Technical Accounting to support consistent treatment of what is capitalized versus expensed across projects and railroads.
• Oversee billing and receivables for grants and rebillable programs to federal, state, and local agencies, ensuring accurate, fully documented, complete, and on-time reimbursement submissions.
• Manage grant and rebillable receivable balances, including aging, collection follow-up, and escalation, treating reimbursement cycle time as a working capital measure.
• Ensure documentation standards for reimbursement are maintained during project execution, working with grant and public project teams to build the record as work is performed.
• Support Section 130 crossing and other rebillable programs with the financial tracking and billing required.
• Coordinate with grant teams on compliance requirements with financial impact, including eligible cost definitions, match requirements, and reporting deadlines.
• Provide regular reporting on capital project status, spend, forecast changes, budget variances, and execution risks for Finance and operational leadership.
• Improve visibility into capital deployment through consistent reporting tools, dashboards, and communication routines.
• Support capital governance by ensuring project financial information is complete, accurate, timely, and aligned to approval requirements.
• Coordinate with Accounting, Procurement, and other Finance partners on project setup, cost tracking, accruals, capitalization, and closeout.
• Serve as the primary Finance partner to Program Management, Engineering, Mechanical, and field leadership throughout the capital project lifecycle.
• Translate project scopes, timing, and operational needs into clear financial plans and translate financial constraints into actionable guidance for operating leaders.
• Identify opportunities to simplify capital planning, tracking, reporting, and handoffs between operating teams and Finance.
• Facilitate regular stakeholder reviews focused on project status, financial performance, risks, and required follow-up.
• Lead the Capital and Grant/Rebillable accounting teams through their respective managers by setting performance objectives, conducting reviews, and building capability.
• Develop the team’s understanding of the operating business so capital accounting judgment reflects how work is performed.
• Other projects and duties as assigned.

Required Qualifications

• 8+ years of progressive experience in finance, capital planning, project finance, capital accounting, or operational finance support, including people leadership.
• Proven ownership of capital accounting through capitalization and closeout, including construction in progress, in-service dating, and asset creation.
• Experience billing and collecting grant or other reimbursable receivables from government agencies, including familiarity with required documentation.
• Experience maintaining capital budgets in an ERP and a planning platform, including reconciling between them. Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Adaptive Insights experience strongly preferred.
• Experience supporting capital project budgeting, forecasting, spend tracking, variance analysis, and financial reporting in a complex operating environment.
• Ability to partner with operational teams and translate project scope, schedules, and execution risks into clear financial plans and management reporting.
• Judgment to enforce capital discipline without becoming a barrier to field execution.
• Cross-functional experience with Program Management, Engineering, Mechanical, Procurement, Accounting, and field operations.
• Strong financial modeling, budgeting, forecasting, and variance analysis skills with emphasis on project-level capital spend and cash flow.
• Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Excel, with the ability to build practical models, trackers, and reporting tools.
• Strong reporting and data visualization skills, including dashboards, executive summaries, and recurring capital status reporting.
• Prior experience improving financial processes, reporting routines, or project tracking tools preferred.
• Railroad, transportation, or infrastructure experience a plus.

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, or a related field

Preferred Credentials

• CPA strongly preferred due to the capital accounting scope of the role.
• MBA or CFA also valued.
• A mix of private and U.S. public company experience preferred.

Technologies

• D365
• Adaptive
• Microsoft Dynamics 365
• Adaptive Insights
• Microsoft Excel