Assurance Director, Public Housing Authority

Job Summary:

Working under the authority of a Practice Leader, the Director, Public Housing Authority is responsible for assisting Practice Leadership in managing their local office and delivering high value solutions to multiple clients in the area of Public Housing. This role is charged with managing engagement teams through all stages of engagements to include planning, accounting work, engagement wrap up, and financial statement submission, along with providing recommendations regarding engagement.  The Director is responsible for ensuring exceptional client service and high-quality engagement deliverables.  This position is also responsible for developing new business with existing clients and prospects of the Firm.  The Director, in conjunction with the Practice Leader is responsible for all aspects of project administration including time entry, client contract administration, billings, collections, and adjustments to engagement realization when needed.

Job Duties:

Client Service Delivery:

• Oversees the full-life cycle of all assigned engagements by providing technical expertise in all areas within the finance and accounting function
• Facilitates effective discovery meetings with large and complex clients; communicates clearly and frequently to identify client objectives, what areas are to be focused on during engagements and why, and creating a  focused plan to provide client with exact services requested while providing well thought out suggestions for anything additional
• Designs integrated solutions for large and complex clients that respond to the specific situation; open to new ideas and solutions, and avoids “locking-in” to a single solution; understands BDO well enough internally to identify when services outside of the PHA group should be included and describes what these services achieve and how they operate; outlines the solution in a concise document and vets it internally with their leaders
• Accurately determines the cost of building out a solution relative to the restraints of the client budget; can calculate the benefit to a client in dollar terms of the different levels of service that can provide solutions to the requested needs; uses the pricing process and understands how to price an engagement to ensure it is profitable proposes a fixed fee based on current scope and reviews the engagement economics on an ongoing basis to ensure the engagement remains profitable
• Advises client leadership on technical accounting issues, financial accounting policies and procedures and financial management issues; uses their broad financial, accounting, business, and industry knowledge to educate clients on how their finance and accounting needs will evolve as changes are made both to internal operations and new guidance from outside regulating agencies; easily helps clients identify next steps and provides client with a long-term service plan with varying levels of involvement from the PHA team
• Reviews solutions periodically with their clients to determine if it is still the right solution for the current state of their agency; can develop a compelling future vision for a client; communicates in such a way to inspire clients to take the journey towards that positive future, proactively mitigates conflict; uses negotiation techniques to drive difficult agreements between opposing parties/ideas and generally leaves parties satisfied with the result
• Clearly explains to the client the processes and offerings that BDO can provide and maps out the start from initial review and assistance to establish accurate financial records and functioning systems to an ongoing presence with monthly or annual assistance
• Maintains strong business relationships with clients, both internal and external

Business Development

• Achieves business development goals by developing a network of individuals working in the Public Housing industry that are sought after for accounting work through building reputation, providing trainings, or developing content for trainers 
• Ensures prospect and sales information is entered into Client Relationship Management (CRM) as appropriate
• Participates in the annual forecasting process and determines amount of hours and revenues needed to achieve required forecast revenue
• Effectively develops scope of engagement responses for Requests for Proposals to provide the potential client a clear understanding of services offered and providing confidence that BDO is capable and the best possible provider
• Evaluates clients for acceptance both ini