Chief Financial Officer

If you are unable to complete this application due to a disability, contact this employer to ask for an accommodation or an alternative application process.

Full Time Exec/Sr Level Mgr Akron, OH, US

6 days ago Requisition ID: 1109

Who we are:

Sequoia Financial Group is a growing Registered Investment Advisor (RIA), headquartered in Northeast Ohio, offering financial planning and wealth management services. At Sequoia, we exist with a singular purpose: to enrich lives. Our values define how we behave and guide us through the pursuit of our purpose to enrich lives. At Sequoia, our core values are:

• Integrity. We act in the best interests of others by providing an honest, consistent experience for our clients and team.
• Passion. We pursue our full potential, seeking to continually enhance and evolve our ability to serve our clients and team.
• Teamwork. We subordinate our egos to work together for the benefit of our clients.

Our promise to team members is that you will grow with us. From experienced advisors to new college grads to transitioning principals, every team member will find Sequoia a place to refine their professional mission, move into new opportunities, go deeper, and lead further. We are built to help you build a career here as a long-term contributor in our work to enrich lives for generations.

Role Overview - This role can sit in either Akron, Mayfield Heights or Westlake, OH.

At Sequoia, the CFO helps the whole firm see itself clearly. This is a senior leadership role responsible for building a finance function that matches where we're headed — sharpening our discipline, strengthening our profitability, and, just as importantly, translating our numbers into a story our people can rally around.

We're an RIA approaching $50 billion in AUM, which means real scale, complexity, and a lot of moving parts across our acquired firms. That calls for a CFO who brings precision and discipline to how we plan, forecast, and report — while keeping pace with our growth goals of 40% annually (25% inorganic, 15% organic).

Reporting to the President and working closely with the Executive Committee, the CFO leads financial strategy and annual planning, FP&A, and performance reporting for the firm, and partners with leadership on capital management and sponsor relations. The CFO also works hand-in-hand with the President and the Head of Advisors on the planning that shapes our advisor workforce — headcount, productivity, capacity, and compensation — so those decisions are grounded in solid financial thinking.

Key Priorities at This Stage

• Build a finance function with the rigor and structure to match Sequoia's ambitions
• Drive margin expansion and smarter operating leverage — not just top-line growth
• Help our team see the big picture: connect the numbers to our progress toward Vision 2030
• Optimize advisor, client/segment, and channel economics and productivity
• Ensure integration consistency across acquired firms
• Keep our financials clean, audit-ready, and easy to stand behind — for sponsors, lenders, and ourselves
• Institutionalize benefit tracking and realization of program business cases

Core Responsibilities

1. Enterprise Financial Strategy & Value Creation

• Lead execution of the value creation plan, with a focus on EBITDA expansion and cash flow
• Translate firm strategy into clear financial targets, KPIs, and accountability
• Find and act on margin improvement opportunities (pricing, cost structure, productivity)
• Bring data-driven insight to strategic conversations at the executive and Board level
• Help shape the financial narrative that supports our growth and acquisition activity
• Run a fully-integrated PMO Business Case process, including:
  • Project portfolio linked to the Annual Planning Process and Executive Committee priorities
  • Benefit realization tracking
  • Benefits tied to capacity model and gearing ratios through our financial tracking systems

2. Communicating Financial Performance & Our Vision 2030 Story

• Turn financial results into a clear, honest narrative the whole firm can understand — not just the Executive Committee
• Regularly share how we're tracking toward Vision 2030, so every team can see how their work fits into the bigger picture
• Make financial performance approachable — turn complex data into insight people can actually use, regardless of their background in finance
• Build transparency and trust into how we talk about our wins, our challenges, and everything in between
• Champion a culture where understanding how we're doing is shared broadly, not held close in Finance

3. Advanced FP&A & Performance Management

• Lead a high-functioning FP&A team with institutional-grade rigor
• Build driver-based forecasting models covering:
  • Net flows (organic + inorganic)
  • Fee realization and pricing tiers
  • Advisor and firmwide headcount and productivity
  • Client segmentation and profitability
• Deliver monthly business reviews (MBRs) with insights people can act on
• Standardize KPI frameworks across business units and acquired firms
• Improve forecast accuracy and forward visibility (debt and covenant thresholds, capital needs, scenario analyses)

4. M&A Integration & Platform Standardization

• Support our acquisition strategy with financial diligence and structuring input
• Track integration savings, growth, and synergy realization
• Standardize chart of accounts, revenue recognition, billing process and cadence, and compensation structures (in partnership with Organization Development)
• Track and report deal performance against the underwriting case
• Help eliminate operational redundancies across the platform

5. Accounting, Controls & Audit Readiness

• Keep our financials clean, consistent, and audit-ready under GAAP
• Lead the annual audit and support quality of earnings (QoE) work
• Strengthen internal controls and governance
• Oversee complex multi-entity consolidations and ownership structures
• Ensure our financial reporting aligns with RIA regulatory requirements (in partnership with Compliance)

6. Advisor Economics & Compensation Execution

• Partner closely with the President and Head of Advisors on headcount, productivity, capacity, and compensation planning, so advisor workforce decisions are backed by sound financial thinking
• Bring transparency to regional and segment advisor economics
• Refine compensation structures to align incentives with firm profitability, support recruiting and retention, and balance growth with margin discipline
• Analyze client-level and segment-level profitability
• Provide insight into pricing strategy and fee compression dynamics

7. Systems, Data & Infrastructure

• Lead the evolution toward one integrated financial, capacity, and data ecosystem
• Oversee financial tracking systems, data management, and reporting tool enhancements — including AI that automates process and surfaces deeper financial insight
• Build toward a single source of truth for financial and operational data
• Enable real-time or near-real-time visibility into performance
• Support scalability for continued acquisitions and growth

8. Capital Structure & Sponsor Relations (Supporting Role)

• Support the CEO and President in managing relationships with our private equity sponsors and lenders
• Help monitor debt facilities, covenant compliance, and leverage ratios
• Offer input on capital structure decisions as they relate to our growth and risk profile
• Assist with refinancing, recapitalization, or exit-readiness work as needed

9. Team Leadership & Development

• Build and lead a strong, scalable finance organization (FP&A, accounting, treasury, shareholder services)
• Recruit and develop top finance talent, building the bench strength the team needs to grow into Vision 2030
• Assess and grow talent to meet the evolving needs of Vision 2030
• Establish clear processes, accountability, and performance management

10. Shareholder Services & Workplace Facilities

• Oversee shareholder services, including cap table administration, equity holder recordkeeping, and shareholder communications and reporting
• Ensure shareholders have a clear, well-supported experience, from routine questions to major equity events
• Oversee workplace facilities across our office locations, making sure our spaces support the team experience and our growth

Qualifications

Experience

• CFO or senior finance executive at a scaled organization with $500M+ in annual revenue and multi-entity complexity — financial services experience is a plus, not a requirement
• Experience in private equity-backed environments
• A track record of leading post-acquisition integration and multi-entity consolidation
• Solid grounding in debt financing, capital structure, and lender relations
• Experience getting a company audit-ready and through QoE

Technical Expertise

• Deep understanding of AUM-based revenue models and billing complexity
• Familiarity with advisor compensation and recruiting economics
• Understanding of organic vs. inorganic growth drivers and margin dynamics in wealth management
• Strong financial modeling and data analytics capabilities
• Familiarity with regulatory and compliance frameworks for RIAs is a plus, not a requirement

Leadership Profile

• Brings discipline and structure without over-engineering it
• Earns credibility with team, investors, lenders, and Board members
• Balances strategic thinking with hands-on execution
• Drives accountability across a distributed, growing organization
• A genuinely strong communicator — someone who can turn complexity into a story the whole firm can follow and connect to Vision 2030
• Skilled at recruiting and developing talent, with a track record of building teams people want to stay on
• Ideally located in Northeast Ohio
• Has built teams and capabilities before, and knows what it takes to meet Sequoia's growth commitments

Success Metrics

• Consistent EBITDA margin expansion, free cash flow conversion, and cash flow growth
• High forecast accuracy and financial predictability
• Successful integration and performance tracking of acquisitions
• Clean audits and exit-ready financials (QoE readiness)
• Improved advisor productivity and profitability metrics
• A firm where people at every level understand how we're performing and why it matters to Vision 2030
• Scalable systems and processes that support continued growth

Work Authorization & Sponsorship:

Applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis without requiring employer sponsorship to commence or continue employment at any point in time.

EEO Statement:

At Sequoia, we value and respect differences in our workforce. We actively encourage everyone to apply. Sequoia is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, genetics, disability, age, veteran status or any other characteristic protected by law.

Working Conditions:

Frequent minimal physical effort such as sitting, prolonged periods working on a computer, standing and walking is required for this role. Depending on location, occasional moving and lifting light equipment and/or furniture may be required. This role may require occasional travel, including travel to client sites, company offices, or industry events, as needed.

Employer Rights:

This job description does not list all of the job duties of the job. You may be asked by your supervisors or managers to perform other duties. You may be evaluated in part based upon your performance of the tasks listed in this job description. The employer has the right to revise this job description at any time. This job description is not a contract for employment and either you or the employer may terminate your employment at any time for any reason.