Our firm has been retained to identify the Chief Financial Officer for a rapidly growing, founder-led and private equity-backed field services business.
The company provides essential, project-based services through a distributed workforce and has built a strong reputation for technical expertise, operational execution, employee development and long-standing customer relationships.
The business is entering its next phase of growth and professionalization. The CFO will partner closely with the CEO, founders, Operations team, PE sponsor, and Board to build the financial infrastructure and strategic capabilities required to support continued expansion.
The Opportunity
The CFO will lead Finance & Accounting and combine strong technical accounting + FP&A leadership with an operational and forward-looking perspective. This executive will improve project-level financial visibility, strengthen planning and reporting, optimize cash and working capital, build the team, and implement more scalable processes and systems.
The role requires a hands-on leader who can move comfortably between strategic decisions and the underlying details. The CFO must be able to introduce greater rigor, structure and accountability while preserving the speed, culture and customer focus of an entrepreneurial organization.
Key Responsibilities
- Serve as a strategic partner to the CEO, founders, operating leadership, private equity sponsor and Board.
- Take full ownership of Finance & Accounting and establish confidence in the accuracy, timeliness and completeness of financial reporting.
- Strengthen the close, audit readiness, internal controls, tax compliance and general accounting disciplines.
- Improve percentage-of-completion revenue recognition, WIP reporting, job costing, cost-to-complete forecasting, change-order recognition, over- and underbillings, and project-level profitability reporting.
- Establish a consistent project-review process with Operations, Project Controls and Project Managers.
- Improve the flow of information between the field and Finance so labor, materials, equipment, scheduling changes and project risks are reflected promptly in forecasts.
- Build FP&A capabilities, including driver-based budgeting, forecasting, annual planning and long-range financial planning.
- Develop forward-looking KPIs and reporting tied to operational drivers such as labor productivity, utilization, backlog conversion, equipment deployment and project execution.
- Lead cash management, banking relationships, billing, collections, working-capital improvement and 13-week cash-flow forecasting.
- Evaluate and build the Finance & Accounting team across controllership, FP&A, project accounting and analytics.
- Lead finance process improvement and technology initiatives, including ERP/GL enhancements, reporting automation and standardization of core processes.
- Support strategic growth initiatives, capital allocation and the continued development of a scalable, multi-entity organization.
Candidate Profile
- CFO, divisional CFO, VP of Finance or accomplished Controller with substantial experience in a project-based, field-services or contracting environment.
- Deep, hands-on experience with percentage-of-completion accounting, WIP, job costing, cost-to-complete forecasting and project profitability.
- Strong technical accounting foundation, including GAAP reporting, internal controls, audits, tax compliance and lender reporting.
- Demonstrated success building or upgrading Finance & Accounting teams, processes, controls, reporting and systems in a growing organization.
- Strong FP&A orientation with experience developing operationally driven budgets, forecasts, KPIs and management reporting.
- Proven ability to partner with field operations and project managers to improve forecasting, cost visibility, margins and accountability.
- Experience managing cash flow, working capital, banking relationships and capital planning in a growing business.
- Comfortable operating in a founder-led, entrepreneurial and private equity-backed environment.
- Willing to remain hands-on while building the team and infrastructure required to support a larger organization.
- Experience with finance transformation, ERP implementation, multi-entity reporting or a successful liquidity event is highly valued.
- Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting or a related field required; CPA or MBA preferred.
- Minimum of 10 years of progressive accounting and finance experience.
This is a compelling opportunity for an operationally oriented finance leader who enjoys building, partnering closely with the business and helping a high-growth company scale.
