Chief Financial Officer
Industry: Construction with strong oil & gas/energy infrastructure relevance.
Confidential Search | Houston, TX
Position Summary
A privately held, project-based construction and industrial services company is seeking a hands-on, high-impact Chief Financial Officer to lead the finance function and serve as a strategic business partner to ownership and executive leadership.
This role requires more than technical accounting expertise. The ideal candidate will bring a strong combination of construction/project-based finance experience, FP&A and forecasting capability, operational leadership, executive presence, and the ability to build systems, structure, and accountability.
The CFO will help modernize financial operations, create project-level transparency, improve reporting accuracy, and establish scalable processes across a growing business.
Key Responsibilities
Strategic Finance Leadership
- Serve as a trusted advisor to ownership, the President, and executive leadership team
- Provide financial insight to support strategic decisions, growth initiatives, and capital allocation
- Lead annual budgeting, rolling forecasts, and long-range planning
- Build KPI dashboards and management reporting packages
Project / Construction Finance
- Implement strong project cost accounting processes across active jobs
- Improve visibility into project profitability, percent complete progress, cost to complete, change orders, cash flow by project, and WIP reporting
- Partner with operations leaders to evaluate project performance in real time
- Strengthen progress billing and collections processes
Accounting & Controls
- Oversee accounting operations including GL, AP, AR, payroll, monthly close, and financial reporting
- Improve internal controls, approval workflows, and financial discipline
- Ensure timely and accurate monthly financial statements
- Manage banking relationships, audits, insurance, and compliance matters
- Optimize current ERP/accounting systems
Organizational Leadership
- Assess current finance/accounting team structure
- Clarify roles, responsibilities, accountability, and delegation across the department
- Build and mentor a high-performing finance team
- Introduce scalable processes and best practices
Required Experience
- 10+ years of progressive finance and accounting leadership experience
- Prior CFO, VP Finance, or senior Controller experience
- Strong background in construction, pipeline, industrial services, EPC, infrastructure, or other project-based environments
- Deep knowledge of WIP accounting, job costing, progress billing, project forecasting, and cash management
- Proven ability to partner closely with operations and executive leadership
Preferred Experience
- Experience in founder-led, privately held, or entrepreneurial businesses
- Experience cleaning up, professionalizing, or building structure within underbuilt organizations
- Familiarity with closely held ownership structures
- ERP implementation or optimization experience
Leadership Attributes
- Hands-on and willing to dive into the details
- Strong communicator able to challenge respectfully
- Comfortable operating in fast-paced, direct, high-feedback environments
- Resilient under pressure and adaptable in ambiguous situations
- Decisive, solutions-oriented, and highly accountable
- Able to influence strong personalities and navigate competing priorities
- Process-minded without being bureaucratic
Location
Houston, TX preferred. In-office presence is valued, with flexibility where appropriate.
