Director of Strategic Finance & FP&A

Foreword Companies; Gallatin (TN); On-site; USD 160,000 - 230,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance included

Company-paid life insurance

401(k) match

Paid time off

Paid parental leave

Job summary

Foreword Companies is seeking a Director of Strategic Finance & FP&A to partner with the CFO and executive team. You will translate enterprise strategy into financially grounded plans, lead long-range planning, scenario analysis, and capital allocation across Foreword Companies.

You will own budgeting, performance management, pricing and profitability analysis, M&A modeling, and governance of data models and BI dashboards.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, or related field required.
• Progressive strategic finance, FP&A, or corporate finance experience required.
• Experience with enterprise planning, performance management, and M&A modeling preferred.
• Strong Excel and financial modeling skills.
• Ability to communicate with executives and translate complex analysis into clear recommendations.

Responsibilities

• Lead annual budgeting and planning for balance sheet, cash flow, financing capacity, and milestones.
• Develop long-range plans and scenario models outlining assumptions, ranges, risks and financial implications.
• Establish formal handoffs from rolling forecast to strategic planning and scenario work.
• Build and monitor KPI scorecards with BI-enabled reporting.
• Provide executive-ready business cases with clear recommendations and ownership.

Skills

Strategic finance

FP&A

Financial modeling

Executive communication

Cross-functional partnership

Excel proficiency

Data governance

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Finance/Accounting/Economics

Advanced degree / CPA / CFA valued

Experience in enterprise planning / corporate finance

M&A modeling / synergy tracking

Multi-entity experience

Tools

BI software

Data modeling

Forecasting tools

Job description

Foreword Companies is a growing group of businesses serving the commercial construction and e-commerce industries, and we’re building something pretty special. We work hard, have fun, care genuinely about one another, and give people room to grow and make an impact. Our purpose (Glorify God, Grow People, Change Lives) isn’t just something written on a wall; it shapes how we do business and treat people. We also offer some pretty great benefits, including free employee health insurance, company-paid life insurance, a 401(k) match, paid time off, and paid parental leave.

Job Summary:

The Director of Strategic Finance & FP&A is a senior strategic finance leader and key partner to the Chief Financial Officer and executive leadership team, responsible for translating enterprise strategy into financially grounded plans, investment decisions, and performance actions across Foreword Companies. This role leads enterprise and long-range planning, scenario analysis, executive decision support, capital allocation, growth initiative evaluation, business-case development, M&A modeling, and pricing and profitability analysis. The Director partners closely with the Corporate Controller for validated actuals, accounting assumptions, liquidity baselines, and the Controller-owned rolling forecast, and with BI & Automation for governed data models, dashboards, and scalable reporting. Through rigorous analysis and clear recommendations, this role helps leadership evaluate strategic opportunities, allocate resources, and make informed decisions that support sustainable enterprise growth and long-term value creation.

Supervisory Responsibilities:

• Provide strategic finance leadership across enterprise planning, performance management, capital allocation, and executive decision support.
• Build repeatable FP&A and strategic finance processes without creating unnecessary bureaucracy.
• Develop finance capability and talent as the strategic finance function grows, with the ability to expand into broader finance leadership responsibility.
• Partner across Accounting, Operations, Commercial, and BI & Automation while respecting clear ownership boundaries and required handoffs.
• Exhibit strong leadership behaviors aligned with the company’s Great 8 Leadership Core Competencies; consistently model sound judgment, accountability, collaboration, and professional conduct.
• Exhibit the company’s core values: Good Character, Fun, Above and Beyond, Genuinely Cares, and Passionate about Winning.

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Lead the annual budgeting and planning process, including balance sheet, cash flow, financing capacity, and strategic milestones.
• Develop long-range plans and scenario models that clearly document assumptions, ranges, risks, and financial implications.
• Establish a formal handoff from the Controller-owned rolling forecast into strategic planning and scenario work.

Performance Management

• Translate financial and operating performance into corrective actions with clear owners, timing, and quantified financial effects.
• Identify forward-looking risks and opportunities and provide recommendations to executive leadership.
• Launch and maintain an executive KPI scorecard and monthly business review package supported by BI-enabled automation.
• Partner with the Corporate Controller to establish governed definitions for margin, profitability, working capital, EBITDA, and cash.

Capital Allocation & Finance Capability

• Evaluate strategic initiatives and capital requests for strategic fit, cash requirements, return, risk, capacity, NPV, ROIC, and payback.
• Support financing analysis, banking and lender-readiness activities, and executive evaluation of capital alternatives.
• Maintain transparent approval gates and post-investment tracking for approved capital and strategic initiatives.
• Lead pricing economics, margin interpretation, and profitability analysis across entities, products, customers, and channels.
• Recommend commercial or operating actions using finance-governed definitions and reconciled financial data.
• Develop scenarios connecting pricing, volume, mix, cost, and margin assumptions to expected enterprise outcomes.

M&A and Integration

• Build and maintain M&A models, investment cases, synergy baselines, and financial scenarios for acquisitions, integrations, logistics initiatives, and new ventures.
• Track performance against approved investment cases and communicate variances, risks, and required actions.

Executive Decision Support

• Develop executive-ready business cases that clearly present alternatives, assumptions, tradeoffs, recommendations, and value implications.
• Provide performance narratives, root-cause analysis, scenarios, recommendations, owners, and expected financial effects to the CFO and executive leadership.
• Support enterprise decisions with financially grounded analysis while maintaining clear accountability for decision ownership.

Analytics Partnership & Governance

• Partner with BI & Automation to define approved business requirements, KPI logic, targets, exception rules, and acceptance criteria.
• Use governed dashboards and data models to improve reporting consistency, transparency, and decision speed.
• Ensure strategic finance analyses reconcile to validated financial data and approved accounting assumptions.

Role Boundaries & Critical Handoffs

• Strategic Finance owns planning interpretation, business cases, M&A models, capital and ROI analysis, and executive performance narrative.
• Strategic Finance does not own technical accounting conclusions, financial statement close, the 13-week cash model or rolling forecast, data warehouse architecture, BI engineering, or dashboard platform administration.
• Maintain disciplined handoffs with the Corporate Controller, BI & Automation, the CFO, and executive leadership so financial definitions, data lineage, decision rights, and accountability remain clear.

Required Skills/Abilities:

• Strong financial planning and analysis capability, including annual budgeting, long-range planning, forecasting, scenario analysis, and performance management.
• Advanced financial modeling skills, including capital allocation, NPV, ROIC, payback, pricing economics, profitability, and M&A modeling.
• Ability to reconcile strategic analysis to controlled financial data and clearly communicate assumptions.
• Strong executive communication and decision-support skills, with the ability to convert complex analysis into clear recommendations and actions.
• Strong business partnership skills across Accounting, Operations, Commercial, and analytics teams.
• Experience building scalable, repeatable planning and performance processes in a growing or multi-entity organization.
• High proficiency in Microsoft Excel and financial modeling; experience working with BI-enabled reporting and governed data models strongly preferred.
• Strong judgment, analytical thinking, problem-solving, accountability, and attention to detail.

Education and Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, or a related field required.
• Advanced degree, CPA, or CFA valued but not required.
• Progressive strategic finance, FP&A, corporate finance, or related experience required.
• Experience with enterprise planning, performance management, capital allocation, and executive decision support strongly preferred.
• M&A modeling and/or synergy tracking experience strongly preferred.
• Experience operating in a multi-entity, growth-oriented environment preferred.

Physical Requirements:

• Prolonged periods sitting at a desk and working on a computer.
• Must be able to lift up to 15 pounds at times.
• Ability to operate effectively in a fast-paced, evolving, multi-entity environment.
• Occasional travel to operating locations as needed.

Annual salary, plus eligibility for performance-based bonus opportunities based on individual performance and company objectives.

Foreword Companies is an equal opportunity employer. Employment decisions are based on qualifications, merit, and business needs and are made without regard to any characteristic protected by applicable law.