About the Company
We are seeking an experienced Chief Financial Officer ("CFO") on behalf of a leading family-owned manufacturer of highly engineered fastening, textile, and wire and plastic component solutions serving a broad range of end markets, including automotive, industrial, government, and consumer applications (the "Company"). In addition to its manufacturing capabilities, the Company provides in-house engineering, design, and product development expertise, integrating advanced technologies with skilled craftsmanship to develop proprietary manufacturing solutions for its customers. Founded in 1883, the Company has built and maintained a longstanding reputation for engineering innovation, manufacturing excellence, and trusted customer partnerships for more than 140 years. Today, the Company operates a diversified portfolio of niche manufacturing businesses producing automotive seating components, plastic clips and fastening systems, wire carrier products, braided textile products, loop tape systems, straps and restraint products, military parachute cord, and other specialty textile solutions. The Company is a preferred manufacturing partner to many of the world's leading Tier 1 suppliers and OEM automotive manufacturers, providing highly engineered interior components and fastening solutions incorporated into many of the industry's premier vehicle platforms. The Company’s automotive capabilities include cut, sew, and assembly, wire carriers, seating integration systems utilizing foam and plastic injection molding, webbing, mesh, wind deflectors, and roller blinds. The Company is the only wire carrier supplier in North and South America, and its seating integration systems are designed and manufactured using the Company’s patented products, differentiated capabilities that have earned industry recognition, including GM Supplier Quality Excellence Awards. Beyond automotive, the Company has successfully diversified across several attractive end markets. The Company is the largest industrial carpet strip supplier in North America and manufactures industrial textile and cargo management solutions used in airports, hospitals, stadiums, schools and heavy equipment applications. Its apparel business continues to expand upon a leadership position established during the Company's earliest years, producing shoelaces, bootlaces, cords and specialty textile products for globally recognized brands, and the Company has extended these capabilities into the furniture, luggage, safety products, and sporting goods markets. The Company also maintains a century-long relationship with the U.S. government, dating back to 1912, when it became the first manufacturer of parachute cord. Today, the Company remains a trusted supplier of military parachute cords, webbing, bootlaces, and other mission-critical textile products.
While this CFO role will be base at the Company's state-of-the-art customer technical center and offices in Auburn Hills, the headquarters are in Cumberland, Rhode Island. The Company's primary production facility is located in Leon, Mexico, with additional commercial and manufacturing operations in the Czech Republic and China. Across its global operations, The Company remains focused on specialized, value-added products where technical expertise, product quality, and long-standing customer relationships create lasting competitive advantages.
About the Role
The CFO will provide overall direction and financial leadership to the Company while playing a significant role in the future growth and development of the organization. Candidates will have a strong accounting and operational finance background coupled with a history of cross-functional leadership and demonstrated team strengthening experience in an automotive manufacturing environment. The CFO will operate as a highly visible, hands-on business partner who is equally comfortable on the manufacturing floor and in the boardroom. Success requires an executive who combines deep operational finance expertise with humility, sound judgment, and a practical leadership style, earning credibility with plant teams while serving as a trusted advisor to ownership, executive leadership, and the Board.
Responsibilities
- Maintain a visible, regular presence across manufacturing operations, serving as an active business partner to plant leadership and operating teams.
- Own and continuously improve standard costing, cost accounting, plant-level P&Ls, variance analysis, and manufacturing financial reporting.
- Drive cost discipline across labor, materials, overhead, inventory, freight, scrap, warranty, and manufacturing efficiency.
- Strengthen Lean Manufacturing, Kaizen, and continuous improvement initiatives by measuring financial impact and reinforcing accountability.
- Support product launches, program launches, customer pricing discussions, and cost recovery initiatives while protecting baseline profitability.
- Partner closely with operations to improve productivity, inventory management, throughput, and operational performance through enhanced financial visibility.
- Deliver meaningful analysis around product, program, customer, and plant profitability to support commercial and operational decision-making.
- Lead annual budgeting, forecasting, rolling forecasts, and long-range financial planning with a strong operational focus.
- Track and interpret key manufacturing metrics including OEE, scrap, yield, inventory turns, delivery performance, labor productivity, and working capital.
- Develop forward-looking financial models, KPIs, and dashboards that support proactive decision-making across the organization.
- Maintain disciplined working capital management, weekly cash forecasting, and cash conversion performance.
- Partner with commercial and operational leadership on pricing strategy, margin improvement, customer profitability, and financial modeling.
- Lead all finance and accounting functions, including FP&A, accounting, cost accounting, treasury, tax, audit, payroll, inventory, fixed assets, and financial reporting.
- Ensure timely and accurate financial reporting, disciplined close processes, and strong internal controls across the organization.
- Provide executive oversight of the Company's ERP platform, IT organization, manufacturing finance systems, and business intelligence capabilities, continuously improving reporting and analytics and ensuring technology investments effectively support operational performance, reporting and decision-making.
- Enhance financial systems and reporting infrastructure to improve operational visibility and decision support.
- Oversee compliance with applicable banking, tax, regulatory, and statutory reporting requirements.
Qualifications
- Bachelor’s Degree in Finance and/or Accounting required; MBA and/or CPA strongly preferred.
- Twenty or more years of progressive finance leadership within complex global manufacturing organizations including in Mexico, China, and/or Europe.
- Prior experience as a CFO, Division CFO, or equivalent senior finance leader with full P&L responsibility, banking relationships, and Board exposure.
- Leadership experience within a global, multi-entity automotive, industrial, or complex manufacturing environment.
- Demonstrated success leading a mature, stable organization.
- Detailed, metrics-driven approach to leadership and financial decision-making.
- Manufacturing Finance Expertise
- Deep expertise in standard costing, operational accounting, plant finance, manufacturing KPIs, and cost discipline, with prior success improving operational efficiency through variance analysis and plant-level data.
- Strong understanding of Tier 1 or Tier 2 automotive manufacturing environments
