Chief Financial Officer

Korn Ferry; Milwaukee (WI); Hybrid; USD 350,000 - 600,000; Full time

Job summary

Korn Ferry Group is partnering with a client to identify a Chief Financial Officer based in Wisconsin or Illinois for a hybrid role. The CFO will shape long-term strategy, align finance and procurement to enterprise goals, and partner with the CEO and SLT to drive growth and sustainable performance.

The role emphasizes building a scalable finance function, capital allocation, and enterprise-wide financial governance, while developing talent and ensuring operational excellence across shared

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in finance or accounting required and a minimum of 15 years of experience, advanced degree preferred.
• CPA license required.

Responsibilities

• Collaborates with SLT on strategic direction, budgets, and annual plans to increase impact.
• Sets long-range financial vision and strategy for Accounting, Procurement, and FP&A.
• Oversees enterprise financial planning, forecasting, budgeting, reporting, and performance management.
• Provides executive oversight of revenue, cash flow, and investment prioritization.
• Advises on major transactions, contracts, and funding models.
• Leads governance, audits, tax, insurance, and treasury functions.
• Ensures Shared Services alignment to enterprise strategy and scalable infrastructure.
• Builds relationships with Exec Team and Board to discuss performance and risk.
• Directs organizational design and succession planning.
• Project and Continuous Improvement: manages change and supports major initiatives.

Skills

Strategic Mindset

Leadership

Business Insight

Courage

Education

Bachelor’s degree in finance or accounting

CPA license

Job description

Korn Ferry has partnered with our client on their search for a role, Chief Financial Officer.

Location

Hybrid / Location must be based in WI or IL

The Opportunity

This is a compelling opportunity for a business-oriented financial executive to help shape the next chapter of an organization with significant scale, a powerful mission, and ambitious plans for growth. As the organization expands its retail footprint and extends its mission more deeply into the communities it serves, the CFO will help ensure that growth is financially sound, appropriately funded, and sustainable over the long term. The role calls for a leader who can protect the fundamentals while bringing a forward-looking perspective to capital allocation, investment strategy, enterprise performance, and the financial implications of strategic choices.

Reporting directly to the CEO and serving as a key member of the Senior Leadership Team, the CFO will be an important thought partner on the broader direction of the enterprise. This leader will translate complex financial considerations into clear business insights, strengthen financial acumen across the leadership team, and help connect commercial performance with mission impact. The CFO will bring the perspective to challenge assumptions, anticipate emerging risks and opportunities, and help leadership understand how decisions made today will shape the organization in the future.

Equally important, the CFO will have the opportunity to build for the future, developing the Finance and Procurement organization, strengthening talent and succession, and ensuring that systems, processes, and capabilities evolve alongside the enterprise. The opportunity is ultimately broader than leading a finance function: it is to help build a stronger, more scalable, and more sustainable organization capable of expanding both its business and its impact.

Position Summary

As a member of the Senior Leadership Team (SLT), sets the long-term vision and enterprise strategy for the organization and ensures alignment of financial Shared Services business functions to the overall organization strategies and plans. Partners with the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) to execute on the vision across enterprise. In addition, the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) will actively participate with Goodwill Industries International (GII) and Goodwill agency affinity groups in the development of common strategies and capabilities to ensure the sustainability of the overall Goodwill movement.

Reporting directly to the Chief Executive Officer, the Chief Financial Officer is focused on long term growth and sustained profitability, building and delivering core capabilities that drive performance and growth. Sets long-term strategic vision (10+ years) and provides operational oversight for Accounting, Procurement, and Financial Planning and Analysis. Additionally, acts as a strategic business partner to all members of the Senior Team and provides insightful, innovative thinking and problem solving on critical issues.

The Chief Financial Officer will serve as a key enterprise leader and strategic partner to the CEO, Senior Leadership Team, and Board of Directors, with responsibility for ensuring the organization has the financial strength, discipline, and capabilities necessary to advance its mission and support its next phase of growth. The CFO will balance rigorous stewardship of the organization’s financial fundamentals with a forward-looking approach to enterprise strategy, capital allocation, investment, and sustainable growth.

Beyond leading the Finance and Procurement functions, the CFO will bring a broad business perspective to the organization, helping leaders understand the financial implications of strategic and operational decisions and connecting financial performance to longer-term organizational impact. The CFO will be expected to strengthen financial acumen across the enterprise, develop a scalable and high-performing Finance and Procurement organization, and ensure that financial insights inform decision-making at every level.

Specific responsibilities include:

• As a member of the Senior Leadership Team, collaborates with SLT on strategic business direction, corporate goals, the 3-year strategic plan, and annual budgets to continuously increase organizational impact across the community. Advises the CEO on matters of financial strategy, enterprise performance, capital planning, and long-term sustainability, keeping the organization’s mission, values, and strategic vision at the forefront of decision-making and actions.
• Sets the long-range financial vision and strategy for the organization, providing executive leadership for Accounting, Procurement, and Financial Planning and Analysis to ensure financial stewardship, operational discipline, risk-informed decision-making, and sustained profitability.
• Develops and oversees enterprise financial planning, forecasting, budgeting, reporting, and performance management processes that provide timely, accurate, and actionable insights to the CEO, Senior Leadership Team, and Board of Directors.
• Provides executive oversight of enterprise financial performance, including revenue, margin, cash flow, expense management, capital allocation, and investment prioritization; recommends short- and long-term actions to achieve financial targets and support sustainable growth.
• Partners with the Chief Operating Officer to align financial planning, operational performance, pricing, capital investments, and business case analysis with enterprise growth objectives, operational priorities, and expected return on investment.
• Partners with the Chief Compliance and Administrative Officer on regulatory, contractual, grant-related, and risk management matters to ensure fiscal compliance, cost allowability, documentation integrity, internal controls, audit readiness, and alignment between financial practices and applicable funding, contract, donor, and regulatory requirements.
• Leads enterprise financial governance, internal controls, external audits, tax and reporting obligations, insurance, treasury, banking relationships, investment oversight, and financial policies to safeguard organizational assets and support strong fiduciary accountability.
• Ensures Finance and Procurement Shared Services capabilities, service delivery, and staffing are aligned to enterprise strategy, customer needs, and operational requirements; drives continuous improvement, process discipline, and scalable financial infrastructure across the organization.
• Cultivates effective relationships with the Executive Leadership Team and Board of Directors to assure open and transparent communication on financial performance, enterprise risk, capital needs, and progress toward strategic and operating goals.
• Advises on major transactions, contracts, partnerships, funding models, and strategic initiatives, ensuring financial implications, risks, and opportunities are clearly understood and aligned with organizational priorities.
• Board of Director meetings: provides updates on financial performance, enterprise financial strategy, capital needs, operational results, risk considerations, and progress toward goals for areas of responsibility.
• Leading and Developing Talent: Directs organizational design for multiple departments and oversees development and training of staff. Ensures ongoing succession planning and development within and outside of unit. Actively networks and sources for positions throughout the organization.
• Project and Continuous Improvement: Establishes project priority and timing, articulates vision for organizational changes. Authorizes use of organizational time, talent, and financial resources to support projects and improvement initiatives. Manages change through effective communication and coaching throughout the organization. Builds and participates in leadership coalition supporting and implementing the change and frequently serves as Project Sponsor for major initiatives.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in finance or accounting required and a minimum of 15 years of experience, advanced degree preferred.
• CPA license required.

Success in this role will require more than deep financial expertise. The CFO must bring the strategic perspective, business judgment, leadership presence, and courage to operate as an enterprise executive, balancing disciplined stewardship with the organization’s ambitions for growth and increased mission impact. This leader will think beyond the finance function, anticipate changing market and organizational dynamics, and help translate the organization’s vision into thoughtful, sustainable action.

• Strategic Mindset: Develops and integrates organizational strategies to achieve and sustain competitive advantage. Explores future scenarios and leverages organizations differentiators to develop viable long-term strategy. Adjusts business strategies in response to changing market dynamics and business need.
• Drives Vision and Purpose: Demonstrates and a commitment to the organizations purpose and vision and ensures clarity around mission, vision, and the guiding principles.
• Business Insight: Demonstrates thorough business/industry knowledge and can synthesize business information and respond to changing market dynamics effectively. Proactively monitors external factors and policies that may affect the organization. Uses knowledge to plan work and guide decision making.
• Courage: Fosters a culture that supports people taking well-reasoned risks, regardless of outcome and appropriately advocates for decisions that are for the good of the organization. Confronts actions that are inconsistent with the Guiding Principles and demonstrates the ability to provide leadership through high‑stakes situations, crises, or conditions of uncertainty.