The Role
About Lord Abbett
Founded in 1929, Lord Abbett is an independent firm with a singular focus on the management of money. Over the course of our history, we’ve earned a sterling reputation for our leadership, influence, and innovation in the asset management industry. Today, our independent perspective, our commitment to active management, and our intelligent product design continue to make us relevant to individual and institutional investors.
From the very beginning, we’ve recognized that our people are our greatest asset. As an investment-led, investor-focused firm, we value intellectual curiosity, teamwork, and collaboration across the organization.
We’re looking for people with a keen interest in working for a trusted leader in the asset management industry, a desire to expand their knowledge, and a passion for delivering a client experience that exceeds expectations.
Now that you know our history, are you ready to be part of our future?
Job Overview
The Financial Controller, Private Real Estate will lead the accounting and financial operations supporting Lord Abbett’s Private Real Estate business, with an initial focus on single family Build-to-Sell (BTS) and Acquire-Renovate-Sell (ARS) residential investments with the possibility to grow and expand into broader single and multi-family real estate opportunities that may present themselves in Lord Abbett’s growing alternatives investment capability. This individual will be responsible for accurate financial reporting, strong internal controls, and scalable processes that support development, renovation, and disposition workflows.
This role will be based in our Jersey City, New Jersey location.
We’ll Trust You To
- Lead all property-level and platform-level accounting, ensuring complete, accurate, GAAP-compliant financial reporting and audit readiness.
- Manage the monthly and quarterly close process, including financial statements, management reporting, and variance analyses.
- Develop and implement accounting frameworks, policies, controls, and procedures tailored to residential development and Build-to-Sell operations.
- Oversee project cost management, including job costing, construction draws, vendor payments, change orders, contingency tracking, and lender reporting.
- Direct cash-flow forecasting, sources and uses, capital calls, cash management, and lender coordination.
- Build and maintain budgeting and forecasting models, including project-level cash flows, margins, KPIs, and performance metrics.
- Build, lead, and scale the real estate accounting function, including hiring, developing, and overseeing internal accounting staff, in collaboration with senior leadership.
- Implement and manage accounting and operational systems to support scaling of the platform.
- Provide financial insights to support underwriting, acquisitions, development planning, renovation or construction scope, and disposition strategies.
- Coordinate closely with third-party administrators and service providers to ensure timely, accurate reporting and operational consistency.
- Oversee expense allocation methodologies across projects, entities, and structures, ensuring consistency, transparency, and alignment with partnership agreements and investor expectations.
- Provide oversight and guidance for third-party appraisal and valuation processes, including coordination, review, and integration of valuation results into financial reporting.
- Ensure compliance with GAAP, tax requirements, partnership agreements, and lender covenants for projects and entities.
- Partner and collaborate cross-functionally with Investment, Development, Asset Management, Operations, and Legal teams to ensure financial integrity and informed decision-making.
- Support audits, tax filings, and regulatory compliance for properties, partnerships, and corporate entities.
- Build new processes, documentation, and best practices to support a growing Private Real Estate platform.
You'll Need To Have
- Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, or related field; CPA strongly preferred.
- 8–15 years of experience in real estate fund accounting, controllership, audit, or financial reporting, ideally within private real estate, private equity, or investment management.
- Deep technical accounting expertise, including U.S. GAAP, consolidation, fair value measurement (ASC 820), and real estate-specific accounting considerations.
- Demonstrated experience overseeing valuations, fund reporting cycles, and audit processes.
- Strong ability to operate independently and build new processes in a dynamic and evolving business environment.
- Proven capability to work across a matrixed organization, influence stakeholders, and coordinate complex deliverables.
- Strong analytical, organizational, and communication skills, with exceptional attention to detail.
- Experience with fund accounting or portfolio accounting systems is a plus.
Why Lord Abbett?
Lord Abbett is a leading global independent, privately held investment management company. We are active managers and invest where we believe we have a repeatable edge and can deliver alpha for our clients. Our vision is to be the most respected asset manager in the world, admired for our people, our performance, our relationships, and our organizational agility. This inspires the three pillars of our culture.
- Principles-Based - We empower our leaders to create an environment of trust.
- Performance-Oriented - We inspire our people to embody our values, excellence, responsibility, transparency & collaboration.
- Purpose-Driven - We instill a passion for always putting our clients' interests first.
We were honored to be ranked #1 in Barron’s Best Fund Families for 2024 and to have earned recognition as one of the Best Places to Work in Money Management by Pensions & Investments for five consecutive years.
Compensation Information: Annual base salary for this role is $200,000-$240,000 . Salary is estimated for this role. Actual pay may be different.
Discretionary Bonus: Role may be eligible to receive an annual discretionary bonus. Discretionary bonuses are determined by several factors including, but not limited to, firm, team, and individual performance.
Benefits: Lord Abbett is committed to offering a competitive total rewards package to all eligible employees. Offerings include competitive total compensation, retirement plans, competitive health and well-being plans. To learn more about what we offer, please visit Careers | Lord Abbett
Lord Abbett is an equal employment opportunity employer. We are committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all qualified individuals without regard to the following legally protected characteristics: race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, national origin, age, physical or mental disability, marital status, sexual orientation, sexual identity, caregiver status, military/veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by local, state or federal law. All employment decisions at Lord Abbett are based solely on the applicant’s relevant experience, skills and qualifications.
Important notice to Search Firms - Please Read Carefully
Without prior written agreement, Lord Abbett does not accept unsolicited submissions from employment agencies, search firms, placement services, or any similar provider (“Search Firms”) for employment opportunities. All candidates submitted by Search Firms to any employee or partner at our company without a written Search Firm agreement in place will be deemed the sole property of our company. In such circumstances, no fee, commission, or other compensation will be paid to such Search Firm in the event a candidate is hired by our company. To the extent a Search Firm has a written agreement in place, all introductions are position specific and should be directed to HR or the hiring manager, so we kindly request no unsolicited phone calls or emails.
