Chief Financial Officer

Pinnacle Search; Atlanta (GA); On-site; USD 250,000 - 360,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity participation

Growth opportunities

Job summary

Pinnacle Search partners with a mature private equity backed business in Atlanta to recruit a hands-on CFO who will partner with the CEO and sponsor to elevate finance and accounting functions. This role leads a transformation to govern cash flow, profitability and strategic planning across projects and customers, with equity participation for value creation.

The successful candidate will build an enduring finance organization, implement robust processes, and deliver forward-looking reporting

Qualifications

• 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.

Responsibilities

• Build the Finance organization: assess, structure, develop and retain talent including a strong Controller and FP&A leader; address performance gaps.
• Establish financial discipline: implement a GAAP-close within 10 days; 13-week cash forecast; monthly P&L and variance reviews; support clean audits.
• Upgrade planning and reporting: implement rolling forecasts and long-range plans; deploy automated reporting and BI dashboards.
• Improve cash flow and working capital: baseline DSO, DPO, DIO; improve billing/collections and reduce WIP.
• Build project and customer profitability visibility: standardize job costing; collaborate with Sales on pricing and margins.
• Maintain exit readiness: data room, QOE-ready financials, EBITDA quality, and exit implications.

Skills

GAAP knowledge

FP&A

Budgeting & Forecasting

Cash flow management

Costing & profitability

ERP/BI tools

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Finance or Accounting

CPA preferred

Tools

Power BI

Tableau

ERP systems

Job description

We’re partnering with a highly regarded private equity firm that recently invested in an well established market-leader, performing custom manufacturing and services, blending project-based creative/design, engineering, manufacturing/fabrication, and installation. The company serves iconic brands, has a strong culture built over the past eight decades, with family roots, and is led by an experienced Chief Executive Officer who knows the business well. The company has grown to $500+M and has significant potential to drive growth through new customer acquisition, share of wallet expansion, pricing, and future M&A. Through more disciplined and data-driven processes, their is meaningful margin expansion opportunities.

We seek a Chief Financial Officer to serve as a trusted strategic partner to the CEO, while taking the Finance & Accounting function to the next level, to include developing and building upon the team, bringing greater rigor and sophistication to processes, improving working capital, and establishing strong job costing, estimating, and contracting capabilities. The CFO will lead the team in developing analytics to provide insights into the value creation drivers, delivering data-driven and project-level visibility into project and customer, profitability, and leveraging new ERP/BI tools to create forward-looking reporting and KPIs for management and the PE sponsor/Board.

The role includes meaningful equity participation and the opportunity to contribute directly to the execution of the sponsor’s investment thesis.

The Opportunity

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 strong 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.