We’re partnering with a long-time PE firm client that recently invested in an 80-year-old, market-leading custom project-based manufacturing and services business, which blends creative/design, engineering, manufacturing/fabrication, and project-based execution. The company has a strong brand and culture, an experienced CEO, and a compelling investment thesis focused on growing EBITDA by ~50% while continuing to drive top-line growth.
We seek a CFO to be a true strategic partner to the CEO, while taking the Finance & Accounting function to the next level, to include building out the team, bringing greater rigor and sophistication to processes, improving working capital, establishing stronger job costing and project-level profitability visibility, and leveraging new ERP/BI tools to create more insightful, forward-looking reporting and KPIs for management and the PE sponsor/Board.
The Opportunity
We’re partnering with a highly regarded private equity firm on an investment in a market-leading, project-based manufacturing and services business with a strong brand, an experienced CEO, and a compelling value-creation plan targeting significant EBITDA growth. This is an opportunity for a commercial, hands-on CFO to serve as a true strategic partner to the CEO, work closely with a sophisticated private equity sponsor, and play a central role in the company’s next phase of growth.
The CFO will lead the transformation of Finance, with responsibility for building the organization and infrastructure, strengthening financial discipline and visibility, improving profitability and cash flow, and supporting the company’s continued growth and future strategic alternatives. The role includes meaningful equity participation and the opportunity to contribute directly to the execution of the sponsor’s investment thesis.
Principal Goals & Responsibilities
- Build the Finance organization: Assess the existing Finance and Accounting team; establish the appropriate structure; build, develop, and retain high-performing talent, including a strong Controller and FP&A leader; address performance gaps and key-person dependencies.
- Establish financial discipline: Implement a repeatable GAAP-compliant close process with final financials within 10 days; establish a 13-week cash forecast and standardized EBITDA definition/bridge; lead monthly P&L and variance reviews; strengthen controls and deliver a clean annual audit with no material weaknesses or recurring deficiencies.
- Upgrade planning and reporting: Implement quarterly rolling forecasts, a bottoms-up/zero-based Annual Operating Plan, and a 3–5 year long-range plan; establish KPIs aligned with operational and value-creation priorities; deploy automated reporting and BI dashboards across Finance and Operations.
- Improve cash flow and working capital: Establish baseline DSO, DPO, DIO, and cash-conversion metrics with clear ownership; improve billing and collections, optimize AP and vendor/payment practices, reduce WIP and unbilled balances, and translate improvements into measurable debt reduction.
- Build project and customer profitability visibility: Implement standardized job costing across labor, materials, subcontractors, freight, and overhead; strengthen WIP and unbilled-revenue processes; establish profitability visibility across customers, project types, services, and geographies; partner with Sales and Operations on pricing, bid/no-bid decisions, margin improvement, and exiting unprofitable work.
- Maintain exit readiness: Establish a perpetual data room; maintain Quality of Earnings-ready financials and supporting schedules; enable the CEO to clearly articulate the company’s margin story, scalability levers, and cash conversion; evaluate major decisions based on EBITDA quality, net debt impact, and exit-multiple implications.
What We're Looking For
The successful candidate will be a hands-on, intellectually rigorous CFO who combines executive presence and decisiveness with strong collaboration, integrity, resilience, and a bias toward action. The ability to challenge constructively, operate effectively with imperfect information, translate complex issues into practical decisions, and build trust across the organization is essential.
Candidates should bring:
- Bachelor’s degree in Finance or Accounting required; CPA preferred.
- Senior Finance leadership experience in a complex, growing organization undergoing transformation.
- Deep technical expertise in GAAP reporting, close, audit, controls, EBITDA, FP&A, budgeting, forecasting, and strategic planning.
- Experience improving cash flow and working capital, with strong knowledge of WIP, collections, AP, cash conversion, and debt reduction.
- Strong project/job costing and profitability experience in a project-based business.
- Experience building and upgrading Finance organizations and implementing financial systems, reporting infrastructure, and BI tools such as Power BI or Tableau.
- Private equity or investor-backed experience, with familiarity with value creation, Quality of Earnings, EBITDA quality, net debt, and exit readiness.
- A highly commercial orientation and demonstrated ability to partner effectively with CEOs, Operations, Sales, and other executive leaders.
