Position: Chief Financial Officer
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Reporting Relationship: Deputy Chief Executive Officer
Website: https://www.jewishla.org/
Purpose of the PositionThe Jewish Federation Los Angeles is seeking an accomplished, strategic, and highly collaborative Chief Financial Officer to join the organization at an important moment in its continued evolution. As one of the most significant Jewish communal organizations in the country, the Federation operates at the intersection of philanthropy, community impact, organizational stewardship, and long-term financial sustainability.
The next CFO will inherit a strong platform with the opportunity to further elevate how financial strategy, stewardship, insight, and decision-making advance the Federation's mission. More than the organization's senior financial leader, the CFO will be an enterprise partner and steward of the resources entrusted to the Federation, helping ensure they are deployed thoughtfully today while strengthening Jewish life for generations to come.
Reporting to the Deputy Chief Executive Officer and serving as a member of the Executive Management Team, the CFO will lead the Federation's finance function and play an integral role in shaping enterprise strategy, strengthening organizational performance, and stewarding its financial and investment resources. Working closely with the Deputy CEO, executive leadership, the Board, and an engaged community of lay leaders, the CFO will bring financial insight, disciplined analysis, and a forward-looking perspective to organizational strategy and the decisions that shape the Federation's future.
For the right leader, this is an opportunity to put financial expertise in service of something much larger: the strength, resilience, and future of Jewish life. The CFO will help ensure that the generosity of today translates into meaningful impact now, while stewarding the resources and financial strength that will sustain safe, joyful, and connected Jewish life for generations to come.
The Leadership Mandate• Strategic business partner: Move beyond reporting what happened financially. The CFO should bring foresight, scenario planning and financial perspective into major organizational decisions.
• Steward for generations: Oversee the resources entrusted to the Federation with both today's mission and tomorrow's Jewish community in mind. The CFO will help leadership make thoughtful choices about where to invest, where to exercise discipline, and how to balance current community needs with long-term financial sustainability and the responsibility to preserve resources for generations to come.
• Trusted advisor and financial storyteller: Serve as a trusted advisor to executive leadership, the Board, and lay leaders, translating complex financial information into clear, timely, decision-useful insights. Bring candor, accessibility, and sound judgment to conversations, enabling stakeholders with varying levels of financial expertise to make informed decisions with confidence.
• Modernize systems, processes and insights: Build on recent systems improvements to further modernize financial processes, reporting, forecasting, and technology, identifying opportunities to leverage automation and emerging tools to improve efficiency, accuracy, transparency, and the quality of financial insight available across the organization.
• Build a high-performing, mission-connected finance organization: Build upon the strengths of the existing team while developing a high-performing, collaborative finance function known for accountability, service, accessibility, and partnership. The CFO will develop talent, create greater clarity around roles and processes, and ensure the finance team understands how its work enables the Federation's broader mission and impact.
Few CFO opportunities offer this combination of financial complexity, community impact, and generational consequence. The next CFO will have the opportunity to help shape the strategy of one of the country's most consequential Jewish communal organizations while stewarding resources that fuel work across Los Angeles, Israel, and around the world. For a finance leader motivated by both rigor and purpose, this is an opportunity to build lasting organizational strength while helping ensure the vitality, security, and continuity of Jewish life for generations to come.
Key Responsibilities• Lead the Federation's enterprise financial planning, budgeting, forecasting, and analysis, providing forward-looking insight into financial performance, liquidity, emerging risks, and opportunities to support executive and Board decision-making.
• Partner with the Deputy CEO to develop organizational strategy, ensuring financial considerations inform enterprise priorities, resource allocation, growth opportunities, and long-term sustainability; represent the organization and its mission with key internal and external stakeholders.
• Oversee operations of the accounting department, setting accounting policies and procedures to ensure recordkeeping is accurate and proper financial and internal controls are in place at all times in accordance with GAAP.
• Responsible for all contract processes, procedures and compliance.
• Assess and review accounting systems to ensure productivity and efficiency are maximized.
• Work with the Executive Management Team and department heads to drive the priorities of budget development and manage effective implementation of the annual budget & monitoring of the budget throughout the year with department heads.
• Manage the Federation's banking and financial institution relationships, including negotiation of terms and oversight of related services and agreements.
• Serve as a trusted financial advisor to the Board and lay leadership, providing clear, timely, decision-useful reporting and executive support to the Finance & Administration, Budget, Audit, Investment, Risk Management, Pension, and other financial committees and subcommittees, and partner with COO as appropriate. Assure coordination of staff support activity with appropriate Federation committees.
• Investment, Treasury & Long-Term Stewardship:
- Oversee the stewardship of the community's endowment and long-term investment assets, working closely with the Investment Committee to establish and execute investment policy, asset allocation, and spending policy that balance current needs with protecting the Jewish future for generations.
- Select, manage, and evaluate outside investment advisors, consultants, and fund managers, establishing clear expectations around performance, risk, reporting, benchmarks, and fee transparency.
- Lead treasury and liquidity management, balancing cash requirements for current programs, grants, and allocations with the responsible management and growth of restricted and unrestricted reserves.
- Bring forward opportunities for mission-aligned and impact investing, helping the Board and Investment Committee thoughtfully weigh financial return, risk, liquidity, and the Federation's shared values.
• Development & Philanthropy
- Partner with the Development team on planned and legacy gifts, including complex and non-cash assets such as real estate, closely held business interests, and securities, ensuring each gift is appropriately evaluated, accepted, valued, accounted for, and managed in partnership with legal, tax, and outside advisors as appropriate.
- Ensure donor-restricted and endowed funds are tracked, managed, and deployed in accordance with donor intent, providing clear and transparent reporting that builds confidence and trust with donors, executive leadership, and the Board.
• Oversee management of retirement plan(s).
• Manage relationships with partner organizations and former beneficiary agencies on shared programs, benefits and billings.
• Develop relationships with relevant fiscal agents and bodies locally and nationally; stimulate and facilitate lay leaders' policy making & advisory participation in the affairs of Federation.
• Supervise Federation and certified audits.
• Recommend & assist in formulation of new fiscal and compliance policies & procedures & modification of existing policies & procedures.
• Provide financial information to support disposition of community owned facilities.
• Serve as a member of The Federation's Executive Management Team. Campaign assignments as designated by senior leadership. Participate in development of management's proposal to the Union by providing financial analysis supporting Contract negotiations. Be available to the Deputy Chief Executive Officer for additional assignments as needed.
The CandidateThe Federation is seeking a CFO who sees finance not simply as a function to manage, but as a strategic lever for mission, impact, and long-term resilience. This leader will combine sophisticated financial expertise with the judgment, curiosity, and interpersonal effectiveness to operate as an enterprise leader, equally comfortable engaging deeply in complex financial matters and helping colleagues and lay leaders understand what the numbers mean for the organization's strategy, priorities, and future.
This individual will be a relationship-oriented finance executive rather than a finance leader who operates at a distance from the organization. The CFO will be visible, accessible, and collaborative, able to earn trust across the organization while also having the confidence to raise difficult questions, challenge assumptions, and provide an independent financial perspective.
Equally important will be humility, emotional intelligence, and a genuine interest in people. The successful candidate will listen and learn before acting, build trust across levels of the organization, and be willing to engage in the details when necessary while empowering others to own their work. This is a leader who will bring both high standards and humanity to the finance function.
Candidates may come from nonprofit, philanthropy, healthcare, higher education, professional services, or other complex environments, although meaningful exposure to nonprofit finance, fund accounting, or similarly complex mission-driven financial models will be highly valued. Regardless of sector, they should understand what it means to serve a mission-driven institution with sophisticated governance, multiple stakeholders, and significant fiduciary responsibility.
Experience and Qualifications• 10+ years progressive senior financial leadership.
• Sophisticated experience within a complex, multi-stakeholder organization.
• Meaningful nonprofit/fund accounting experience or highly transferable equivalent experience.
• Significant experience with budgeting, forecasting, financial reporting, cash/liquidity, audit and controls.
• Experience leading and developing finance teams.
• Experience presenting to Boards/committees.
• CPA/MBA/advanced degree preferred.
• Jewish communal experience welcomed but not required.
Knowledge, Skills, and Leadership Competencies• Exceptional financial acumen, with demonstrated expertise in financial planning and analysis, budgeting, forecasting, accounting, financial reporting, cash management, internal controls, and organizational financial strategy.
• Strong strategic and data-info
