Great Expectations Jobs (NOW HIRING)

About Arboreal Management
Arboreal Management is a fast-growing, tech-enabled and fully integrated real estate platform for the Pacific Northwest. We are a mission-driven organization primarily focused on affordable housing. We develop, remodel and manage housing that addresses our region's most critical needs.
Our platform includes:
• Arboreal Management - a property management company overseeing 8,000+ apartment homes.
• Arboreal Construction - an in-house construction company delivering renovations and ground-up projects.
• Great Expectations - a development and investment platform focused on expanding housing supply, with over 120 investors and 20 projects delivered.
We operate with a clear mission: to deliver below-market rents to residents while achieving above-market returns for investors.
Our model is built on vertical integration, operational discipline, and a commitment to long-term ownership. We combine local expertise with a modern, technology-enabled approach, including internally developed tools that support accounting, reporting, and operations. We are growing quickly, with a large and expanding pipeline of development projects. As we scale, we are building a finance and accounting team that can support increasingly complex activity while maintaining accuracy, speed, and transparency.
About the Role
We are hiring an Accounting Manager in Seattle or Portland for a hybrid role spanning three areas: the accounting and reporting for a handful of client relationships and their properties, the accounting for our corporate operations, and the project accounting for our small development pipeline.
Reporting directly to the CFO, who is based in our Seattle office, you are accountable for accurate reporting delivered on time across all three. On the client side, that means monthly financials and owner statements that owners can rely on. On the corporate side, it means a clean monthly close and consolidated reporting across our three entities.
Day-to-day transactional accounting is performed by our offshore accounting team. You direct and review their work - setting expectations, answering questions, and serving as the final reviewer before anything reaches leadership, investors, or clients. This is a hands-on ownership role rather than a supervisory one: you will be in the books, reviewing reconciliations, investigating variances, and standing behind the numbers you deliver.
It's an opportunity to work across property management, construction, and development in a single, unified platform, with significant autonomy and direct executive visibility.
Key Responsibilities
Client Portfolio - Reporting Ownership
• Own the monthly close and reporting calendar for your assigned clients and their properties; deliver accurate financial statements and owner statements on schedule, every period.
• Serve as the final reviewer of property-level financials before they are released to leadership and clients.
• Investigate and explain variances, abnormal balances, and unexpected results; ensure issues are resolved rather than carried forward.
• Serve as the accounting point of contact for your clients and ownership groups - responding to inquiries, walking owners through their statements, and resolving issues promptly and professionally.
• Support property onboarding and transitions within your portfolio, including opening balances and the first close.
• Oversee full-cycle property accounting for your portfolio: AP, AR, cash management, bank reconciliations, security deposit and trust balances, and intercompany balances.
Corporate Accounting & Consolidation
• Own the monthly close at the corporate level for Arboreal Management.
• Prepare and review intercompany reconciliations and eliminations across entities; produce a consolidated financial package for CFO review on a defined close calendar.
• Maintain business line P&L reporting for Property Management, Construction, and Development.
• Post and review corporate-level journal entries; maintain chart of accounts integrity at the entity level.
• Track receivables from properties back to Arboreal Management for settlement of intercompany reimbursements and management fees.
• Support cash reporting and treasury needs, including entity-level cash position and intercompany transfers and loans.
Development & Project Accounting - Great Expectations
• Review construction draw reconciliations and WIP schedules prepared by the offshore job cost accountant for CFO sign-off.
• Track project-level budget vs. actual variances and committed costs by job.
• Coordinate with the CFO on investor and lender reporting requirements for active projects.
• Lead the accounting setup for newly formed or acquired entities: entity configuration, chart of accounts, intercompany structure, and first close.
Working with the Offshore Team
• Direct and review the work of our Philippines-based accounting team across your areas of responsibility; set clear expectations and turnaround requirements.
• Provide timely, specific feedback and training so quality improves over time and rework decreases.
• Partner with the Philippines accounting leadership on workload, priorities, and process documentation.
Quality, Controls & Process
• Apply and strengthen review procedures, quality checks, and internal controls across everything you own.
• Identify and implement process improvements; help standardize workflows and maintain SOPs.
• Partner with our internal technology team on the tools that support accounting and reporting; help shape what gets built.
Qualifications
Required
• Bachelor's degree in Accounting or Finance.
• 5+ years of progressive accounting experience, including ownership of a full monthly close cycle.
• Hands-on experience in real estate accounting - property, corporate, construction, and/or development.
• Strong command of US GAAP, including intercompany reconciliations and consolidated financials.
• Proficiency in AppFolio or comparable property management accounting software.
• Advanced Excel skills; comfortable building and maintaining reporting templates and analyses.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with comfort communicating directly with clients.
• Demonstrated ability to manage competing deadlines across multiple properties, entities, or clients without missing them.
Preferred
• CPA license (active or inactive) and a background in public accounting.
• Experience with job costing, construction WIP schedules, and project-level P&L.
• Experience with development entity accounting: pre-development capitalization, construction-to-perm transitions, and waterfall distributions.
• Experience reviewing work performed by an offshore or outsourced accounting team.
• Experience owning client, owner, or investor relationships in a property management or fund administration setting.
• Familiarity with trust accounting requirements for property management.
• Comfort working in a fast-paced, high-growth environment with evolving processes.
Why Join Us
• Unusual breadth for one role - client reporting, corporate consolidation, and development project accounting, rather than a single narrow lane.
• Clear ownership of what you're responsible for, with the autonomy to run it.
• Leverage from an offshore team that handles the transactional volume, so your time goes to review, analysis, and relationships.
• Work in the affordable housing space and contribute to a mission-driven platform delivering below-market rents while generating above-market returns.
• Direct exposure to real estate investment, construction, and development across all stages of the asset lifecycle.
• Work with a technology-forward team that builds its own internal tools - a modern accounting environment, not a legacy one.
• Work closely with a CFO and leadership team that moves quickly and trusts their team to execute.
• Hybrid schedule with 2 days per week in our Seattle or Portland office.
To Apply
Please submit your resume and a brief note on your experience in real estate accounting - property, corporate, or development - and owning monthly reporting to the Arboreal Management HR team. Applications without relevant accounting experience will not be considered.
Location: Hybrid: 2 days/week in our Seattle or Portland office
Reports to: Chief Financial Officer (based in Seattle)
Compensation: $110,000 - $130,000 per year, depending on experience
Scope: A portfolio of client relationships, corporate accounting, and development project accounting
Department Finance and Accounting Locations Seattle Main Office, Portland Main Office Yearly salary $110,000 - $130,000