Chief Financial Officer | Director of Finance

The City of Springfield is seeking an accomplished, forward-thinking financial leader to serve as its Chief Financial Officer/Director of Finance .

Springfield is Missouri's third-largest city and is located in one of the state's fastest-growing regions. This is an exciting time to join the City’s Leadership Team as Springfield advances a broad effort focused on modernization, streamlining, process reengineering, and greater organizational effectiveness.

Under the City Manager's strategic direction, the City is building a fiscally sound future through stronger systems, thoughtful stewardship, and disciplined decision-making. The next Chief Financial Officer will play a critical role in shaping that future by protecting the City's financial integrity while helping lead meaningful organizational change.

THE OPPORTUNITY

This is more than an opportunity to manage the finances of a major municipal organization. Springfield is seeking a leader who can:

• Strengthen long-term financial sustainability.
• Modernize financial systems, practices, and processes.
• Improve how work gets done across the organization.
• Provide City leaders with timely, meaningful financial information.
• Connect resources to organizational priorities and community needs.
• Balance innovation with responsible stewardship of public resources.

The successful candidate will be more than a technically accomplished finance professional. We are seeking an executive leader who combines financial expertise with curiosity, sound judgment, courage, humility, and the ability to build trusted relationships.

THE LEADER WE ARE SEEKING

The successful leader will:

• Create clarity — Translate complex financial issues into understandable choices and establish clear priorities, expectations, responsibilities, and measures of success.
• Build trust — Earn credibility through competence, transparency, consistency, ethical conduct, communication, and follow-through.
• Think long term — Consider the financial consequences of decisions five, ten, and twenty years into the future.
• Challenge constructively — Respect why existing practices were created while remaining willing to question whether they continue to serve the organization effectively.
• Build partnerships — Position Finance as both a guardian of public resources and a trusted partner to departments.
• Develop people — Strengthen organizational capacity through coaching, professional development, succession planning, and clear expectations.
• Deliver results — Move important work from discussion to execution and measure whether improvements achieve the intended results.

Reporting directly to a Deputy City Manager and serving on the City's executive Leadership Team, the Chief Financial Officer will serve as Springfield's principal financial advisor and provide executive leadership for the City's financial operations.

A LEADER FOR FINANCIAL STEWARDSHIP AND TRANSFORMATION

Springfield is looking for a leader who can operate successfully in two worlds:

Protect what matters. Maintain strong financial controls, accurate reporting, responsible budgeting, sound investments, prudent debt management, transparency, compliance, and stewardship of public resources.

Transform what can be better. Challenge outdated practices, modernize financial systems, simplify inefficient processes, improve access to meaningful financial information, and help build a more agile and sustainable organization.

The successful candidate will understand that these are not competing priorities. Strong financial stewardship provides the foundation for thoughtful innovation.

Modernize the City's ERP and Financial Systems

The CFO will help lead the modernization of the City's ERP and financial systems. This will be more than a software project. It will be an opportunity to improve data, workflows, accountability, reporting, and the way employees and departments interact with Finance.

Reengineer How Work Gets Done

The CFO will help foster a culture of continuous improvement by asking:

• Why do we do it this way?
• What purpose or control are we trying to achieve?
• Can we achieve that purpose more simply, quickly, or effectively?
• Should the process be standardized, automated, consolidated, redesigned, or eliminated?

The goal is not change for the sake of change. It is thoughtful modernization that reduces unnecessary administrative burden while preserving accountability and appropriate controls.

WHAT YOU WILL LEAD

The Chief Financial Officer/Director of Finance will provide leadership for:

• Financial strategy and long-range planning
• Annual operating and capital budgeting
• Accounting and financial reporting
• Treasury, cash management, and investments
• Debt management and capital financing
• Accounts payable and payroll
• Procurement and purchasing
• Financial policies and internal controls
• Audit coordination
• Revenue and expenditure accounting
• Licensing and other assigned administrative functions
• ERP and financial systems modernization
• Financial data, analytics, forecasting, and decision support
• Process improvement and organizational modernization

The CFO will also provide financial advice to the City Manager and City Council and work collaboratively with department directors throughout the organization.

WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE

Success will include accurate budgets, reliable financial reporting, clean audits, compliance, responsible investments, and strong internal controls. Springfield expects more.

Over time, the successful CFO/Director of Finance will help create an organization that:

• Anticipates financial challenges earlier.
• Clearly understands its long-term obligations and financial capacity.
• Makes better-informed resource and investment decisions.
• Uses modern, reliable, integrated financial systems.
• Uses meaningful data to support decisions.
• Has simpler and more effective financial policies and processes.
• Reduces unnecessary manual work and administrative burden.
• Maintains strong controls while providing responsive internal service.
• Develops the next generation of financial leaders.
• Builds confidence among City leadership, employees, City Council, and the community in the stewardship of public resources.

EXCELLENT COMPENSATION PACKAGE

The position offers an excellent total compensation package, including an anticipated starting salary of $205,000 annually , with compensation flexible based on qualifications.

Benefits include:

• No-cost employee-only health insurance
• Pension through the Local Government Employee Retirement Systems (LAGERS), with the employee contribution paid 100% by the City and full vesting after five years
• Deferred Compensation 457(b) plan with employer match programs
• Annual performance increases
• Generous leave, including holiday, vacation, floating holidays, exempt, and sick leave
• $740 monthly car allowance

To learn more about the City's competitive benefits package, Click here.

LEAD WITH CLARITY. SERVE WITH PURPOSE.

• If you are a financial leader who values public service, sees opportunities where others see longstanding processes, and can balance innovation with responsible stewardship, we invite you to consider the opportunity to help shape Springfield's financial future.