Chief Financial Officer (CFO)
Confidential Manufacturing Company | South Suburbs of Chicago
Our client, a growing, privately held manufacturing company in the southern suburbs of Chicago, is seeking an experienced, hands-on Chief Financial Officer (CFO) to serve as a strategic business partner to ownership and help drive the next phase of organizational growth and operational excellence.
This is not a traditional, back-office CFO position. We are seeking a highly operational finance leader with expertise in manufacturing, systems, data integrity, profitability, and business process improvement. The ideal candidate enjoys spending time on the shop floor, partnering with operations leaders, and transforming information into actionable business intelligence.
The Opportunity
The CFO will play a critical role in strengthening financial controls, improving ERP utilization, enhancing reporting accuracy, building meaningful KPIs, and creating the organizational discipline needed to support continued growth.
Working closely with ownership and senior leadership, this executive will help integrate finance, manufacturing, operations, and technology into a cohesive decision-making framework.
Key Responsibilities
Financial Leadership
- Lead all accounting, finance, budgeting, forecasting, treasury, and cash management activities.
- Develop accurate and timely financial reporting and analysis.
- Improve profitability through enhanced costing, pricing, and margin analysis.
- Strengthen internal controls and financial governance.
Operational Finance
- Improve ERP utilization, data accuracy, and process consistency.
- Partner with manufacturing leadership to improve inventory management and costing accuracy.
- Develop operational dashboards, KPIs, and performance reporting.
- Analyze customer profitability and support strategic business decisions.
- Improve forecasting and planning disciplines across the organization.
Strategic Leadership
- Serve as a trusted advisor to ownership.
- Help create greater organizational structure, accountability, and scalability.
- Lead process improvement initiatives across finance and operations.
- Support future growth through stronger systems, reporting, and decision-making capabilities.
The Ideal Candidate
We are looking for a true manufacturing CFO who:
✔ Has a strong operational mindset
✔ Understands manufacturing processes, inventory, costing, and supply chain dynamics
✔ Is highly engaged and willing to work alongside operations teams
✔ Can bridge finance, ERP systems, analytics, and manufacturing operations
✔ Has experience building KPIs, dashboards, and accountability systems
✔ Thrives in a privately held, entrepreneurial, family-owned business environment
✔ Is a problem solver who enjoys creating order from complexity
✔ Possesses the executive presence to influence ownership and leadership, teams
Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, Business, or related field required
- CPA strongly preferred
- MBA a plus
- 10+ years of progressive financial leadership experience
- Significant manufacturing industry experience required
- Strong ERP, business systems, and process improvement background
- Experience within middle-market manufacturing organizations preferred
- Demonstrated success leading organizational change and business transformation
Why Join This Company?
- Direct access to ownership and executive leadership
- Opportunity to make a significant impact on company performance
- Stable, growing manufacturing organization
- An entrepreneurial environment where ideas are valued
- Competitive compensation package including bonus opportunity
- Ability to help shape the future of the business
If you are a hands-on manufacturing CFO who enjoys partnering with operations, improving business performance, and building scalable organizations, we would welcome a confidential conversation.
