Chief Financial Officer responsible for financial strategy, budgeting, forecasting, liquidity management, capital allocation, profitability improvement, financial reporting, controls, and executive decision support. The CFO partners with the CEO and leadership team, leads finance performance, builds integrated financial models, oversees accounting judgment and close processes, and supports growth, expansion, and investor-related activities.
Are
you an operating CFO who loves to build models, challenge assumptions, and
drive real business outcomes?
Cox
Consulting Network has been exclusively retained by a mission-driven, fast
growing, PE-owned for-profit education provider who is seeking a Chief
Financial Officer. The company leverages streamlined learning models to
give students a clear pathway to success without a lifetime of debt.
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.
Requirements
Required
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
Cox Consulting Network Austin, Texas, USA Office
Austin, TX, United States
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