WESTERN GOVERNORS UNIVERSITY logo

Lead Accountant - Real Estate Development

WESTERN GOVERNORS UNIVERSITY

SALT LAKE CITY, UTJob$100–150K/yrSeen 1w agoSeen in employer's feed 2 days ago

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At a glance

Compensation
$100–150K/yr
Location
SALT LAKE CITY, UT
Work Authorization
Not specified

Olive lists jobs from US employers, including remote roles you can work from the United States.

Requirements

Credentials this posting asks for.

CPA Or MAcc Or Equivalent Relevant Experience

Job overview

The Lead Accountant, Real Estate Development leads accounting and financial controls for WGU’s construction and development program, including its new headquarters campus. The role owns construction draw accounting, project cost verification, reconciliations, close and capitalization support, control documentation, and audit readiness. It partners with internal teams and external parties to protect the integrity of project financial records and payments.

Skills & qualifications

RequiredNice to have

Skills

Project AccountingFinancial ControlsConstruction Draw AccountingProject Cost VerificationReconciliationsMonth-End CloseCapitalizationAudit ReadinessContractor Pay ApplicationsCost CodingAccounts PayableU.S. GAAPProject ControlsFinance ForecastingCovenant Reporting

Qualifications

CPA or MAcc or Equivalent Relevant Experience8+ Years Progressive Experience

Full job description

If you're passionate about building a better future for individuals, communities, and our country-and you're committed to working hard to play your part in building that future-consider WGU as the next step in your career. Driven by a mission to expand access to higher education through online, competency-based degree programs, WGU is also committed to being a great place to work for a diverse workforce of student-focused professionals. The university has pioneered a new way to learn in the 21st century, one that has received praise from academic, industry, government, and media leaders. Whatever your role, working for WGU gives you a part to play in helping students graduate, creating a better tomorrow for themselves and their families. The salary range for this position takes into account the wide range of factors that are considered in making compensation decisions including but not limited to skill sets; experience and training; licensure and certifications; and other business and organizational needs. At WGU, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the range for their position, and compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case. A reasonable estimate of the current range is: Grade: Professional 311 Pay Range: $100,000.00 - $150,000.00 Job Description The Lead Accountant, Real Estate Development is the accounting and financial-controls lead for WGU's large-scale construction and development program, including the new headquarters campus. This senior individual contributor owns construction draw accounting, project cost verification, reconciliations, close and capitalization support, control documentation, and audit readiness. The role partners with Development, Project Controls, Finance, Procurement, Treasury, Legal, contractors, architects, and external reviewers to protect the integrity of project financial records and payments. Key Responsibilities * Design and operate project accounting procedures and controls, including project and cost-code setup, contract and commitment records, change-order controls, and documentation standards; lead related process, system, and reporting improvements. * Review contractor pay applications against contracts and approved schedules of values; validate work completed, retainage, prior payments, approved changes, cost coding, calculations, and supporting documentation. * Confirm required lien waivers or releases, certifications, and other payment conditions are complete; investigate exceptions and recommend draw or payment packages for approval under WGU's delegated-authority framework. * Record and reconcile project costs, commitments, accruals, accounts payable, and funding activity; coordinate accurate and timely month-end and year-end close. * Maintain construction-in-progress records and support capitalization, placed-in-service determinations, asset transfers, and related accounting in accordance with U.S. GAAP and WGU policy. * Reconcile accounting actuals and commitments to project-controls records and finance forecasts; identify and communicate variances, emerging exposures, and data-quality issues. * Support debt or bond draws, incentive and grant documentation, covenant reporting, audits, and other compliance requirements with complete, audit-ready records; provide functional guidance and coordinate external accounting or draw-review resources. Qualifications Required * CPA or MAcc, or equivalent relevant experience under WGU policy. * Eight or more years of progressive... For full info follow application link. Western Governors Univeristy is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation or any other classification protected by federal, state or local law.

How this job compares

Set against the 4,887 open Accounting jobs on Olive Jobs, counted October 30, 2026.

Pay
  • This posting$100–150K/yr
  • Utah median$85–133K/yr28 salary ranges
  • US median$95–135K/yr2,396 salary ranges

This range's midpoint, $125K, is 14% above the Utah median midpoint ($110K) — in the middle half of Accounting salary ranges in Utah.

Openings
Olive Jobs lists 80 open Accounting jobs in Utah and 4,887 across the US. 5% of them nationwide are listed as remote or flexible.
Experience
This posting asks for at least 8 years of experience — more than three in four Accounting postings that state a minimum ask for (median 5 years, across 3,589 postings).
Education
2,467 of the 4,887 open Accounting jobs (50%) ask for a bachelor's degree or higher.

Counted across the open, public US postings on Olive Jobs on October 30, 2026. Pay medians are the middle values of the low ends and of the high ends of postings that list both ends of a range in the same cadence (a yearly salary or an hourly rate); a range's midpoint is halfway between its ends. Pay and experience figures resting on fewer than 20 postings are left out.

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