Summary
The Chief Financial Officer will serve as a key strategic partner to the leadership team, providing the financial discipline and forward-looking planning needed to scale a rapidly growing business. As we expand across retail, wholesale, and DTC channels and into international markets, this role oversees all financial operations, from FP&A and cash flow management to inventory optimization and long-term strategic planning. We are seeking a decisive, conservative financial leader with deep FP&A expertise and a proven track record in high-growth environments, someone who can implement robust systems, hold departments accountable to budgets, and provide the clarity and confidence required for high-stakes decisions.
Key Responsibilities
Financial Strategy, Planning & Analysis
- Budgeting & Accountability: Implement rigorous department-level budgeting processes and hold leadership accountable to those targets.
- Strategic Projections: Develop sophisticated financial models for new store build-outs, real estate expansions, and wholesale opportunities, ensuring every LOI and growth initiative is fully stress-tested.
- Financial Discipline: Act as a critical filter for the business; evaluate proposed initiatives against financial health, capacity, and ROI, with the willingness to challenge assumptions and say "no" when necessary.
- Executive Reporting: Provide clear, actionable insights to the executive team, offering confident, data-backed recommendations on strategic moves rather than raw reporting.
Accounting, Close & Reporting
- Oversee the accounting team's monthly and annual close, ensuring reporting is accurate, timely, and consistent as transaction volume grows.
- Own the integrity of the financial statements and management reporting, maintaining well-documented, GAAP-compliant records.
- Oversee external audit, tax filings, and statutory compliance across all entities, working with outside advisors where appropriate.
Cash Flow & Inventory Management
- Inventory Optimization: Develop strategies to balance the high capital requirements of inventory (particularly with jewelry costs) against wholesale growth and production flows.
- Cash Flow Leadership: Proactively manage cash flow in a high-growth environment, ensuring sufficient liquidity to support expansion while maintaining operational stability.
- Capital & Credit: Lead negotiations for lines of credit and other capital resources, ensuring the company is well-positioned to fund future growth.
International Finance & Multi-Currency Operations
- Manage finance across multiple currencies, including consolidation, foreign exchange exposure, and intercompany transactions.
- Support entity structuring and cross-border tax efficiency as the business operates and grows across markets such as the UK/EU, Korea, and Japan.
- Partner with local advisors and in-market resources to ensure compliance and reliable reporting in each region.
Operational Leadership & Development
- Team Evolution: Assess and evolve the finance function to support the next phase of growth, building the structure and capabilities the business will need at scale.
- Process Improvement: Drive improvements to financial systems, reporting infrastructure, and internal controls, including NetSuite, and lead any ERP implementation or reimplementation required to support scale.
- Mentorship: Lead and develop the finance team, fostering a culture of accuracy, high performance, and accountability.
Risk Management & Corporate Governance
- Internal Controls & Compliance: Establish and maintain comprehensive internal control frameworks to ensure data integrity, mitigate fraud risk, and support audit readiness as the company scales.
- Regulatory & Tax Strategy: Oversee tax strategy and corporate structuring, keeping the business efficient and compliant as it enters new global markets.
- Risk Mitigation: Develop and implement enterprise risk management (ERM) policies, including comprehensive insurance strategies to protect against inventory loss, supply chain disruption, and business interruption.
Requirements
- 15+ years of financial leadership experience, ideally at the SVP of Finance or CFO level.
- Deep FP&A expertise: sophisticated financial modeling, forecasting, and scenario planning, including models for new store build-outs, real estate expansion, and wholesale opportunities, with the ability to turn analysis into clear strategic recommendations.
- Direct experience in a high-growth startup or scale-up environment. This is essential; the financial and operational demands of rapid growth differ significantly from those of a mature or stable business.
- In-house financial leadership experience, not solely consulting or advisory work. Candidates must have owned finance inside an operating company.
- Experience overseeing an accounting team and function, including monthly and annual close, financial reporting, audit, and tax.
- NetSuite experience required. Experience leading a NetSuite implementation or reimplementation is strongly preferred.
- International finance experience, including multi-currency operations and cross-border finance across markets such as the UK/EU, Korea, and Japan.
- Significant experience in retail or premium consumer-facing businesses, with a strong preference for luxury or jewelry given the complexity of variable costs and production.
- Proven track record across wholesale and DTC business models, including the cash flow demands of high-growth wholesale.
- Experience negotiating credit facilities and managing complex financial operations in a growth-oriented company.
- Decisive, confident leadership style; comfortable making difficult calls and advising founders and executive leadership directly.
- Experience leading business transformation is a significant plus.
