Confidential — Chief Financial Officer / Operating CFO
Position Overview
Our organization is seeking a highly hands-on, commercially minded financial leader to serve as Chief Financial Officer / Operating CFO for a growing construction business and its broader private-equity-backed platform.
This role is intentionally designed to bridge two traditional positions. At the operating-company level, the CFO will remain close to the accounting, financial reporting, job performance, and cash-management details of the business. At the platform level, the CFO will help build the financial structure, reporting infrastructure, capital strategy, and finance organization required to support continued growth and acquisitions.
The ideal candidate brings the technical depth and operating instincts of a strong Controller, combined with the strategic perspective, capital-markets experience, and leadership capabilities of an enterprise CFO.
This is a hands-on leadership role for someone who is comfortable getting into the data, understanding how the business makes money, challenging operational assumptions, and then translating that understanding into financial strategy and enterprise-level decision-making.
Operating Company CFO / Controller Responsibilities
The operating company is a construction business. The CFO will have direct responsibility for maintaining and improving the company's financial operations while providing meaningful financial insight to the operating leadership team.
Key responsibilities include:
- Oversee WIP and percentage-of-completion accounting.
- Identify and implement a standardized financial systems and software platform to be deployed across all entities under the parent company umbrella, with a defined implementation timeline and execution plan.
- Manage job costing, estimates-to-complete, gains and fades, and project-level financial performance.
- Develop and improve backlog, revenue, and profitability forecasting.
- Lead the monthly close and ensure timely, accurate financial reporting.
- Manage cash-flow and working-capital forecasting.
- Analyze capital expenditures, equipment utilization, and equipment investment decisions.
- Lead annual budgeting and ongoing forecasting processes.
- Prepare lender, surety, and other external financial reporting.
- Establish and strengthen internal controls and financial processes.
- Provide financial analysis and decision support to operational leadership.
- Identify opportunities to improve financial systems, reporting, processes, and controls.
- Work directly with accounting and operational data rather than relying solely on reports prepared by others.
The company currently operates on Sage 300 CRE, and the successful candidate should be comfortable working directly with the system, understanding its underlying data and processes, and improving how financial information is captured, analyzed, and reported.
Beyond traditional Controller responsibilities, this individual will be expected to understand the broader business implications of financial decisions, including capital allocation, financing, operational performance, cash generation, and enterprise value creation.
Platform CFO Responsibilities
In addition to leading the operating company's finance function, the CFO will serve as the financial leader for the broader platform as it grows and adds operating companies.
Platform-level responsibilities will include:
- Develop consolidated financial reporting across the platform.
- Lead platform-level budgeting, forecasting, and financial planning.
- Manage capital structure, liquidity, and cash deployment.
- Develop and maintain bank, lender, and other financing relationships.
- Prepare board, investor, and private-equity reporting.
- Coordinate tax, audit, and other external financial matters.
- Evaluate and manage capital allocation across operating companies.
- Support acquisition evaluation, financial diligence, valuation, and financing.
- Lead financial integration of acquired businesses.
- Establish platform-wide accounting policies, reporting standards, and financial controls.
- Build the finance organization, systems, and infrastructure necessary to support continued growth.
- Develop scalable financial processes that provide management and investors with consistent, timely, and actionable information.
Ideal Candidate
The ideal candidate will have demonstrated success operating at the intersection of accounting, operations, and corporate finance.
We are particularly interested in someone who:
- Has substantial experience in construction accounting and understands the financial drivers of a construction business.
- Is highly comfortable with WIP, percentage-of-completion accounting, job costing, ETCs, backlog, and project-level profitability.
- Has operated successfully in a Controller, CFO, or similar senior financial leadership role.
- Is willing and able to remain hands-on when the business requires it.
- Can move comfortably between detailed accounting issues and enterprise-level financial strategy.
- Understands cash flow, working capital, capital structure, financing, and capital allocation.
- Has experience working with lenders, sureties, investors, and/or private-equity sponsors.
- Can evaluate acquisitions and help integrate acquired businesses.
- Has the judgment and communication skills to partner effectively with operating leaders.
- Can build systems and processes rather than simply manage existing ones.
- Is comfortable working in an entrepreneurial, growing environment where responsibilities will evolve with the business.
Leadership Profile
The successful candidate will be both a financial operator and a strategic business partner.
They should be comfortable asking questions such as:
- What is actually happening at the job level?
- Where are we gaining or fading, and why?
- How reliable are our forecasts?
- Where is cash being generated or consumed?
- How should we allocate capital across the business?
- What financial infrastructure do we need before the next phase of growth?
- How should acquired businesses be integrated into a common financial framework?
- What information does management, the Board, and our investment partners need to make better decisions?
A critical component of this role is the ability to develop, strengthen, and scale the accounting team, ensuring the right structure, training, tools, and processes are in place to support both individual and team success. The CFO will be responsible for creating an environment where the accounting function is not only accurate and efficient, but also empowered, well-supported, and positioned to grow with the business.
The right person will bring credibility with the accounting team, operational leadership, lenders, investors, and the private-equity sponsor.
The Opportunity
This is an opportunity for a financial leader to play a central role in both the day-to-day performance of a successful operating company and the development of a larger, multi-company platform.
The position is best suited to someone who does not view the CFO role as purely strategic or the Controller role as purely accounting-focused. Instead, the ideal candidate sees strong financial leadership as a combination of technical accounting expertise, operational understanding, disciplined execution, capital management, and long-term value creation.
- As the platform grows, the scope of the role and finance organization will grow with it.
Qualifications
- Strong finance-based analytical skills
- 7 - 10 years' of finance experience
- CPA, CCIFP and/or MBA preferred
