Job DescriptionAre you an operating CFO who loves to build models, challenge assumptions, and drive real business outcomes?The ideal candidate is a hands-on, strategic
Chief Financial Officer (CFO) to partner directly with the CEO and leadership team. In this role, you won't just report on financial data-you will own our financial strategy, capital allocation, and forecasting to fund responsible growth and maximize profitability.
What You Will Do- Own the Strategy: Drive the annual budget, rolling forecasts, and long-range financial plans, connecting enrollment, staffing, and school openings to revenue and cash.
- Manage Liquidity: Maintain a rolling 13-week cash forecast, surface funding needs early, and manage forecast-to-actual variances.
- Support Decisions: Present clear, data-driven spending and pricing recommendations to leadership, explicitly calling out assumptions, risks, and expected returns.
- Lead the Function: While the Controller owns day-to-day accounting execution and reconciliations, you will remain accountable for the overall control environment, team performance, and financial statements.
What You Bring- Proven CFO Experience: Deep expertise in financial modeling, cash management, capital allocation, and financial reporting.
- An Operating Mindset: A proactive, hands-on approach to building models and driving tactical business responses rather than just managing reporting.
- Mission Alignment: A strong desire to uphold our core values: Create WOW, Hunger for Growth, Always Take Ownership, Maniacal Sense of Urgency, and Practice Unity.
RequirementsRequired Qualifications and Skills- Finance leadership: Demonstrated ownership of budgeting, forecasting, cash management, and executive reporting in a multi-location or multi-entity business, supported by examples of personally owned work and measurable results.
- Accounting judgment: Working command of U.S. GAAP, revenue recognition, financial controls, and close oversight, demonstrated through a practical discussion of reconciliations and accounting decisions.
- Hands-on modeling: Ability to build and explain an integrated income statement, balance sheet, and cash-flow forecast, demonstrated in the interview case.
- Operating judgment: Evidence of improving profitability, cash conversion, or capital allocation, with a clear baseline, action taken, and measured outcome.
- Communication: Ability to explain a material variance, financial risk, and recommended action in plain language to the CEO, board, and operating leaders.
- Team leadership: Evidence of building or improving finance-team performance through clear ownership, coaching, documented processes, and dependable delivery.
- Demonstrated alignment with the company's mission and core values
Preferred Qualifications- Credentials: CPA, CMA, MBA or a relevant accounting or finance degree.
- Experience: 10+ years of progressive experience showing a clear, continuous trajectory of career growth and expanding responsibilities
- Sector experience: Vocational education, healthcare services, or another regulated, distributed operating business.
- Growth experience: Financial leadership through expansion, acquisitions, capital raises, or investor diligence, with clear evidence of personal responsibility.
- Systems experience: Improving ERP, billing, CRM-to-finance reconciliation, or business-intelligence workflows with measurable gains in accuracy or speed.
Benefits- Competitive salary & bonus
- Stock options
- Medical, vision, dental
- 401K with match
