Cost Analyst / Cost Modeling Subject Matter Expert (SME)

This is a remote position.

Cost Analyst / Cost Modeling Subject Matter Expert (SME)
Summary:

- Job Title: Cost Analyst / Cost Modeling Subject Matter Expert (SME)

- Security Clearance: Public Trust or the ability to obtain one; or a higher Security clearance.

·Work Type: Fully Remote

BizFirst is assisting our client with recruiting a skilled and experienced Cost Analyst / Cost Modeling Subject Matter Expert (SME). This position supports the following program: U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), Office of the Secretary (OST), Working Capital Fund (WCF), Office of Financial Management (OFM) — WCF IT Financial Management, Cost Model Development, and Systems Integration Support.

Our client is a boutique consulting firm that employs consultants and professionals with unique skill sets to support the federal government with strategic execution, financial process enablement, IT systems, and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software implementation.
What will you do

Own the design, modernization, and monthly operation of cost allocation and rate models for a federal Working Capital Fund's IT shared-service portfolio — replacing legacy spreadsheet methodologies with transparent, documented, reproducible models that recover full cost, prevent cross-subsidization among 11 customer organizations, and target near-zero retained earnings. This is a hands-on modeling role, not an advisory role: you will take custody of live models that produce real monthly bills, modernize them without disrupting billing, and document them so Government staff can operate them independently.
Responsibilities:

- Develop, modernize, and sustain cost allocation models for legacy (commodity) and newly incorporated programmatic IT shared services, with full data lineage from source financial data through cost pools, drivers, and allocation logic to final billing outputs.

- Apply federal cost accounting standards in model design: full cost under SFFAS 4 (direct tracing, cause-and-effect assignment, documented allocation), and software cost treatment under SFFAS 10, including project-level segregation of development costs expensed in the year incurred.

- Design cost pool structures, cost drivers, and allocation bases that keep development, sustainment, tenant-specific, shared-service, and enterprise costs in separate, auditable lanes.

- Produce annual rate development models aligned to the WCF budget formulation calendar, engineered to target near-zero retained earnings; support Government rate-review boards.

- Produce monthly cost allocation outputs by the 5th business day, tying cleanly to source financial systems, with zero critical formula or logic errors. Build scenario and sensitivity analysis tools capable of responding to Government what-if requests within five business days.

- Author methodology and assumptions documentation that fully justifies every cost driver and allocation basis, delivered 15 business days before each rate-setting cycle. Parallel-run modernized model components against legacy outputs before cutover; reconcile and disposition every variance.

- Support billing reconciliation, audit response, and customer (OA) billing-dispute analysis with model-based evidence.

Requirements:
- Security Clearance: Public Trust or the ability to obtain one; or a higher Security clearance.

- Candidates whose experience is limited to advisory, strategic, or conceptual consulting will not meet this program's bar. The client explicitly requires demonstrated, hands-on implementation experience — deployed cost models, executed billing cycles, delivered automations, and operational financial products.

- Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, Economics, or Data Analytics.

- 8+ years of specialized experience with federal Working Capital Funds (or comparable revolving/fee-for-service funds), federal cost accounting standards (SFFAS), and the construction of cost-recovery or chargeback methodologies.

- Demonstrated implementation r