Project Control Specialist Senior

Overview

This role supports the Project & Program Management Center of Excellence (PPMCOE) and applies senior-level project controls experience to develop standards of practice, knowledge resources, and internal consulting. The Senior Project Control Specialist works within a hybrid PMO environment supporting Project and Program Managers and Project Support Specialists.

Responsibilities

Project Control State of Practice Documentation and Management (50%)

• Consolidate, coordinate, and publish project control standards of practice as policy, process documentation, job aids, and an emerging digital handbook.
• Manage routine updates to published standards of practice resources.
• Apply professional experience, gather corporate best practices, and research industry standards to mature project control and financial analysis capabilities across operations.
• Partner with Finance, Accounting and Contracts (FAC) and Operations Project Control leads to prioritize and manage standards of practice changes through policies, procedures, job aids, tools, and training.

Professional Development Content and Delivery (20%)

• Develop and maintain tailored PCS training content for the PCS job family and professional development.
• Develop and maintain tailored project control content for all PPM curriculums.
• Support the planning and execution of the annual Program Management conference.
• Support modification and maintenance of PCS job families, job descriptions, and skills development within the HR talent management activity.

Knowledge Management (10%)

• Maintain PPMCOE repositories for published content, work in progress, and archived sources.
• Curate and disseminate best practices from a >100-project portfolio to enable cross-division learning and reduce redundant efforts.
• Support PPM Community of Practice (COP) forums for PMs to share insights and solutions across decentralized business units.

Process Support and Continuous Improvement (15%)

• Follow and help mature internal PPMCOE processes related to knowledge resource development, execution, and maintenance.
• Collect feedback from PCSs in the field, FAC, and project teams to refine PCS practice and address emerging needs.
• Participate in process improvement initiatives and non-conformance/corrective action efforts as required.
• Provide just-in-time content for field inquiries, support lunch & learns, and share announcements on state of practice changes.

Administrative and Reporting Duties (5%)

• Participate in PPMCOE team events and support task tracking and reporting.
• Support PPMCOE reviews and presentations at different levels of the enterprise.

Additional Role Expectations

• Serve as the lead for project control related deliverables and consulting.
• May include serving as an instructor for PCS related live training content.

Qualifications

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in business, business analysis, finance, accounting, project management, or a related field.
• Advanced degree preferred but not required.

Experience

• 7+ years of direct experience in project controls, financial analysis, or program support within government contracting environments.
• Demonstrated experience supporting large federal prime contracts (e.g., GSA), including management of multiple contract types such as CPFF, T&M, and FFP.
• Experience defining, implementing, and refining project control related methodologies.

Preferred Qualifications (Highly Beneficial)

• Background in knowledge management, training development, or curriculum design.
• Experience working in or supporting a PMO, Center of Excellence, or corporate functional organization.
• Certifications such as PMP, CAPM, PMI-PBA, or EVMS certifications (desired but not required).

Skills

• Familiarity with PMI project management standards or equivalent frameworks.
• Hands-on proficiency with relevant project control systems, including:
  • Deltek Costpoint
  • Excel (advanced level: pivot tables, advanced formulas, macros preferred)
  • Smartsheet
  • Workday Adaptive
  • Power BI (basic to intermediate reporting capability)
• Ability to work within a distributed team in a dynamic, fast-paced environment.
• Excellent organizational and communication skills to manage work and coordinate with decentralized teams.

Key Competencies

• Technical & Functional: Strong understanding of project financial lifecycle management (setup, budgeting, forecasting, variances, accruals, revenue analysis). Ability to interpret and translate financial, accounting, and contractual requirements into project control practices and tools. Experience with federal contracting compliance and project reporting standards. Ability to develop and improve processes, workflows, dashboards, and analytical tools. Skill consolidating and standardizing diverse project control practices into enterprise-level documentation.
• Knowledge Management & Training: Convert highly technical content into digestible training, guides, templates, and job aids. Experience designing/facilitating training sessions, workshops, and conference content. Curate best practices, maintain repositories, and ensure content quality and accessibility.
• Collaboration & Consulting: Serve as a trusted advisor to Project Managers, Program Managers, Finance/Accounting, and Contracts. Support cross-functional stakeholders with COE-level guidance. Identify operational pain points and drive continuous improvement.
• Analytical & Problem-Solving: Analyze complex data sets and deliver actionable insights. Diagnose issues in processes, tools, or workflows and propose practical fixes.
• Communication & Leadership: Exceptional written and verbal communication, including polished presentations and professional documentation. Ability to lead development of standards, trainings, and enterprise guidance. Manage content updates, repositories, and recurring practice maintenance.
• Personal Attributes: Proactive, self-directed, able to work independently within a collaborative hybrid PMO/COE structure. Detail-oriented with strategic enterprise impact focus. Continuous improvement mindset.

Work Environment

• Works within the PPMCOE, collaborating with a lean central team and interacting with project/program managers embedded in business units across three divisions, plus infrastructure team members.
• Occasional travel may be required (up to 20%) to corporate sites for work sessions, in-person training, or workshops.
• Balances independent work with team collaboration.

Compensation & Benefits

• Not specified in the provided job description.

Location

• Not specified in the provided job description.

Performance Metrics

• Reduction in recurring PCS knowledge gaps as measured by training needs assessments or after-action reviews (target: year-over-year decrease).
• Number of validated process improvements adopted by FAC, Contracts, or Operations teams (target 3–5 per year).
• Improvement in project management process standard implementation (e.g., operational quality metrics).
• Stakeholder satisfaction score for COE-developed content (target ≥ 4.5/5 from FAC, Ops PCS Leads, and PM community).
• Team engagement through routine collaboration and team events.