Job Title: Chief Financial Officer

Location: Tyler, TX

Reports To: CEO

Direct Reports: Finance & IT Departments

Travel: As needed

Company Overview

John Soules Foods is a thriving family-owned food company that has made a positive difference for its customers and consumers for nearly 50 years. Our purpose and promise of Great Food, Made Simple® drives us. Based in Tyler, Texas, the company is a leading national producer of ready-to-eat and ready-to-cook chicken and beef products and is the number one producer of chicken and beef fajitas in the USA. We proudly serve a broad portfolio of great-tasting, high-quality products sold throughout the US via retail, food service distributors, and restaurants. Our wide array of national customers includes prominent organizations such as Walmart, Costco, Sam’s Club, Sysco, and HEB. The company was established in 1975 by John Soules Sr., and the business is now in the second generation of family leadership. The organization has expanded dramatically over the past decade, and with its continued growth, it now has annual sales of approximately $1 billion. The company employs over 2,000 individuals and has three manufacturing facilities in Gainesville, Georgia; Valley, Alabama; and its headquarters in Tyler, Texas.

Overview

With the upcoming retirement of our Chief Financial Officer, we are seeking a new financial leader to help build and grow the operation profitably through this next stage. This report will report to the Co-CEO, with a dotted line to the President. The Chief Financial Officer will manage a team of approximately 30 finance and IT professionals through 3 direct reports. He/She will be responsible for directing all financial affairs of the organization, ensuring consistent accounting, control, planning, forecasting, tax, treasury, risk management/insurance, governance, cash flow, and working capital management, and maintaining effective banking relationships with the company’s lenders. This individual will be a member of the executive leadership team and one of a handful of senior executives setting the organization's overall corporate strategy and business plans to sustain industry leadership. As a family-owned, private company, the CFO will have to balance strategic vision with roll-up-your-sleeves execution. This person will be responsible for aligning values, strategy, structure, systems, and processes with the family and corporate goals to ensure the organization’s success in a competitive marketplace. This executive will develop and maintain a metrics-driven organization that enables the business to identify and act on opportunities proactively. The family leaders and the President will regard them as a trusted Co-leader of the business that clearly and transparently communicates business results and challenges straightforwardly and candidly. Importantly the successful candidate will lead our banking and lender relationships. This individual will lead the strategic and annual operating plan processes for the company, working with functional peers and leadership to ensure realistic, actionable plans are established. Importantly, the successful candidate will work closely with the supply chain organization and manufacturing to develop initiatives and metrics that deliver meaningful productivity.

Specific ongoing responsibilities and oversight will include:

Effective Accounting and Control: Our successful candidate will be responsible for creating a high-performing accounting and control function led by a Controller. We anticipate that our new CFO will bring additional insights to this function regarding controls, analysis, and reporting, thereby improving overall effectiveness in reporting and cash flow management.
Manufacturing Performance and Insight: Soules Foods is a manufacturing-intensive business, where performance in that function has a significant impact on profitability. This individual will be responsible for working with the head of operations to establish key performance indicators and ensure that measurement systems are in place to identify plant-specific gaps in performance across labor management, inventory control, waste, quality control, and safety.
Strategic and Business Planning: This individual will partner with ownership and executive management to determine long-term strategic direction and financial priorities. As part of this, he/she will develop and implement financial and operational strategies aligned with growth goals, such as expansion, diversification, or restructuring. It is expected that this individual will provide insight and analysis to drive decision-making on new business opportunities, partnerships, and acquisitions, and to position the organization for future activities such as outside investment.
Technology & IT Oversight: Our successful candidate will take ownership of IT strategy and operations, working in a capacity similar to that of a CIO. This will involve leading the company’s information systems, cybersecurity, data integrity, and digital transformation efforts. It is expected that the CFO will promote the use of technology, automation, and data analytics to enhance efficiency and decision-making. Ensuring IT infrastructure is scalable, secure and aligned with long-term strategy is paramount.
Leadership, Culture, and Change: Soules Foods continues to grow, evolve, and transform in this industry. This will require that the new Chief Financial Officer provide exceptional leadership and management skills. By retaining and developing our staff, they are expected to build a world-class financial organization. The CFO will also play a special role in shaping the organization's talent, capabilities, and culture, acting as a role model and leader to strike a balance between family ownership priorities and professional governance. This individual will assist in building a culture of accountability, transparency, and ongoing improvement. They will act as mentors to both the finance and IT teams, building internal capability and succession planning.

Qualifications:

The successful candidate as the Chief Financial Officer will have 15 or more years of experience in financial management and be a seasoned, high-energy, analytical, and strategic executive who combines inspirational leadership with flawless execution. We expect this person to have a background in accounting and finance and experience in food manufacturing/processing, where labor, waste, inventory control, astute capital investment, and a focus on cash management all play a critical role in the company's success. He/she must have strong experience working with lenders. Early-career training and expertise at a blue-chip company known for the sophistication of its financial function would be ideal. This would have been followed by a more entrepreneurial experience with a family company or, alternatively, in private equity. He/she will have developed a General Manager’s perspective during their career, including world-class strategic skills. Exposure to, or management of, information technology would be ideal given their responsibility for that function at Soules Foods.

A few other specific competencies include:

Operational Tenacity: This person must be able to see a plan through to implementation, rolling up their sleeves as needed, and develop the measurements to assess the company's financial success. Our successful candidate will have demonstrable experience building sophisticated financial processes and ingraining them in the organization. This person will have demonstrated the ability to translate the organization's mission into actionable, quantitative plans and will be passionate about achieving goals on an aggressive schedule.
Analytical Skills: This person will be able to dive deep into the details of the business while staying focused on the big picture. They will work with functional leaders to identify the key levers that most significantly impact the business, and then develop metrics to monitor performance in those areas. A key element of this position is the ability to think strategically and translate that strategy into specific, actionable initiatives that are consistently and transparently measured.
Managing Performance and People: This person will have a proven track record of translating overarching business goals into specific objectives for each member of the financial team. They will hold people accountable for the agreed-upon results. This person will be able to identify and keep others focused on the most critical metrics that drive the business. This person must be a strong manager capable of building teams and talent effectively across and up/down the organization.
Executive Presence and Gravitas: This person will have frequent interactions with owners, lenders, and other external constituencies. They must inspire confidence in those settings and operate well in the "plant floor" environment where our profits are made. The ability to effectively operate at both levels is essential.
Entrepreneurial Drive: This person will be willing and excited to work in a fast-paced, expanding company. They must act quickly to seize opportunities and recognize and capitalize on trends. This person will have the hunger to make things happen and the ability to change tactics midstream to maximize returns.

The Opportunity:

Because of the critical importance of this position to our organization, an attractive base salary, combined with incentive compensation, will be offered.

John Soules Foods

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