Senior Accountant, Real Estate

Starlight Investments, in conjunction with WP Osborne Executive Search, is seeking a Senior Accountant, Real Estate to join its CORE Finance team.

Senior Accountant, Real Estate

Reporting to the Manager, Finance, the Senior Accountant is a key member of the Core Stewardship team, responsible for reviewing financial results submitted by third-party property managers to ensure accuracy, completeness, timeliness, and compliance with Starlight’s accounting and reporting policies. The role supports the integrity of financial reporting and provides a foundation for investor reporting across Starlight’s public, private, and institutional investment funds, while enabling meaningful financial insights for internal and external stakeholders.

The Senior Accountant will oversee assigned areas of the month-end review process, including revenue, expenses, assets, and liabilities, through the analysis of property-level variance reports and balance sheet reconciliations. Using technology, data analytics, and comparisons against budgets, underwriting assumptions, and historical results, the role will identify variances, validate financial accuracy, and drive process efficiencies. As responsibilities evolve, the successful candidate will gain broader exposure to the full financial close cycle, contribute to automation initiatives, and support improvements in property managers’ accounting processes. Strong accounting knowledge, analytical capabilities, and the ability to navigate large data sets using financial systems and technology are essential to success in this role.

As part of the company’s commitment to innovation, the successful candidate will embrace AI and emerging technologies to improve efficiency, enhance quality, and help the broader team adapt to the evolving finance profession.

Key Responsibilities:

Financial Accounting and Analysis

Overseeing the stewardship of data integrity and financial results within Core Finance by:

• Ensuring the accuracy, completeness, and timeliness of monthly financial results through technology-enabled data audits, adherence to Starlight policies, and follow-up with Property Managers.
• Recording necessary correcting entries and reviewing monthly financial reports to address discrepancies and ensure accurate reporting.
• Maintaining and reviewing consolidated, corporate, and property-level reconciliations, leveraging technology to improve processes and efficiencies.
• Supporting monthly and quarterly government filings, including WSIB and EHT, across various entities.

Managing certain aspects of the audit process for funds, as well as supporting quarterly and year-end reviews as required.

Potential exposure to the Core Review team, supporting the financial analysis and review process by:

• Reviewing monthly property financial results and variances using technology and analytical tools to ensure accuracy, completeness, and timely reporting.
• Identifying key risks and variances, ensuring required adjustments are made or explanations are documented in accordance with internal policies.
• Recording correcting entries and collaborating with Portfolio Finance and Core Stewardship to communicate critical issues and minimize duplication of effort.

Transaction Support (Acquisitions and Dispositions)

• Overseeing acquisition/disposition and debt/refinancing entries, including preparing the necessary supporting documentation for audit purposes.
• Overseeing other business transactions to provide financial support, as required.
• Performing acquisition, disposition, and refinancing accounting.

AI and Technology Adoption

• Ensuring a continuous focus on transitioning the financial review process toward greater use of data and defined expectations versus manual workbooks, leveraging technology and AI wherever possible.
• Assisting with and executing projects that support these efforts.
• Acting as an early adopter and role model for AI and automation within the team, treating these tools as a core part of how work gets done.
• Proactively applying approved AI tools to enhance the efficiency and quality of accounting, analysis, and reporting workflows, and helping turn those gains into repeatable processes.
• Identifying, testing, and helping implement AI-enabled process improvements, sharing learnings with peers and more junior staff.
• Applying strong professional judgment to review and validate AI-assisted output, safeguarding accuracy, data integrity, and compliance.

Qualifications

The ideal candidate will have a minimum of 1–2 years of accounting experience, preferably in real estate, and a degree in Accounting, Finance, or IT combined with accounting knowledge or experience. A strong understanding of accounting principles (IFRS and ASPE) and moderate Microsoft Excel skills are required. Familiarity with various AI technologies, including the ability to optimize AI prompts and apply AI tools effectively, is also an asset. The candidate should possess strong written and verbal communication, interpersonal, organizational, analytical, and time management skills, along with operational and business acumen and the ability to interpret data and identify trends. They should be detail-oriented, self-motivated, proactive, and resourceful, able to work independently and collaboratively, manage competing priorities, and adapt to a fast-paced, changing environment. A continuous improvement mindset, including the ability to identify and recommend process efficiencies that enhance review processes and shorten month-end cycles, is essential. ERP experience, Power BI knowledge, and progress toward a CPA designation are considered assets.

Application

Qualified candidates can submit their resume through LinkedIn, noting “1446 – Senior Accountant” in the subject line. AI is not used to screen candidates for this role.

The compensation structure is comprised of a base salary that is market-competitive and based on factors such as experience, education, designations, and skill set. It also includes a discretionary annual performance bonus tied to weighted performance targets and company performance, and company medical/dental benefits, healthcare spending accounts, a tiered employer matching group retirement savings plan and parking/Presto allowance. Other benefits include maternity top-up, investment opportunities in the company’s funds, summer office hours, annual company-wide volunteer day and many more.

Starlight Investments

Starlight Investments is a leading global real estate investment and asset management firm. Established in 2011 and privately owned, Starlight has grown to a dynamic team of 360+ professionals who manage $30 billion of direct real estate and real estate investment securities.Offering a range of investment vehicles across various real estate strategies, we are a developer and asset manager of over 77,000 multi-residential suites and over 9 million square feet of commercial property space. Holding Canada’s largest portfolio of multi-family assets, we have a strong focus and commitment to creating a positive impact for our communities. To learn more about Starlight, please visit www.starlightinvest.com or follow the company on LinkedIn

Most finance teams close the books and report the past. At Starlight, you help shape the future of a real estate platform scaling from $30 to $50 billion — the most active multi-family investor in Canada. You partner with senior leaders on complex public and private deals, on a leading-edge AI stack that handles the manual work, with a real path from Analyst all the way to senior leadership. Institutional-grade rigor, entrepreneurial ownership — learn faster, contribute earlier, grow further.

WP Osborne Executive Search

WP Osborne is a privately-owned search firm delivering full-service recruitment expertise for over 20 years to a broad range of clients in the real estate industry. Our expertise extends across every major asset class, including multi-residential, office, industrial, retail, mixed-use, condo, hotels, and senior living, across the functions of asset management, investments, development, construction, leasing, property management, portfolio management, finance, marketing, IT, HR and strategy.