Chief Financial Officer - Access Community Health Network (Chicago IL.) (Chicago)

Access Community Health Network (ACCESS) is one of the nation's largest Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), operating 35 health centers across the Chicagoland area and serving more than 150,000 patients annually. We are at a critical financial inflection point, and we need a Chief Financial Officer who brings the toughness, curiosity, and strategic depth to help us navigate it.

The CFO will serve as a driving force behind ACCESS's financial transformation — modernizing how we operate, optimizing how we generate and protect revenue, and positioning the organization for long‑term sustainability in an evolving healthcare landscape.

Key Responsibilities

Lead the Financial Turnaround

• Own the path to operating margin recovery — identify, prioritize, and execute cost and revenue levers with urgency
• Challenge every expense line with a 'zero‑based' mindset; eliminate what doesn’t drive outcomes
• Drive span‑of‑control analysis and workforce efficiency improvements across the organization
• Partner with the CEO and Senior Leadership Team (SLT) to translate financial reality into operational decisions — not just create reports

Deliver hard messages to peers and the Board when the numbers require it.

Transform the Finance Function

• Modernize the finance team's tools, workflows, and capabilities — the goal is a department that operates at the speed of the business
• Lead the adoption of AI and automation across finance operations: forecasting, close processes, variance reporting, and decision support
• Reduce time spent on manual, low‑value tasks and redeploy team capacity toward strategic analysis
• Build a culture of outcomes accountability within the finance team — what gets measured gets done

Drive Revenue Strategy

• Partner with managed care and revenue cycle leadership to optimize value‑based contracts and shared savings arrangements
• Understand and actively manage ACCESS's position across capitation, pay‑for‑performance, and FFS revenue streams
• Oversee 340B program financial strategy; develop mitigation and diversification plans given policy uncertainty
• Identify and develop non‑traditional revenue opportunities: grants diversification, capital partnerships, and new program development

Serve as a Strategic Partner to the CEO and Board

• Provide financial perspective that shapes — not just validates — organizational strategy
• Develop and maintain a trusted relationship with the Finance Committee; present with clarity, candor, and confidence
• Build a three‑to‑five‑year financial outlook that anticipates regulatory, payer, and workforce headwinds before they become crises
• Represent the financial voice in SLT discussions on growth, investment, and organizational design

Manage Core Financial Operations

• Lead daily financial operations across finance, revenue cycle, and facilities, with dotted‑line financial governance for Pharmacy and Laboratory
• Oversee annual budgeting, audits, grants fiscal management, and regulatory compliance
• Manage treasury, cash flow, liquidity, and debt obligations
• Maintain and strengthen internal controls and financial integrity

What We Are Looking For

• Has operated as a CFO or senior finance executive in a complex, multi‑site, margin‑constrained provider setting
• Has demonstrably changed something — not just managed it. Track record of outcomes, not just oversight
• Brings genuine toughness: able to make hard calls, deliver difficult messages, and hold the line under pressure
• Is personally and actively using AI tools in their day‑to‑day work — not just aware of the trend
• Can influence peers without authority and earn credibility through competence, not title
• Experience in healthcare finance in a provider setting

Preferable

• FQHC experience preferred
• Familiarity with value‑based care models, capitation structures, and managed care contract dynamics
• Has led or participated in a financial turnaround
• Has implemented AI or automation tools within a finance function — with specific, measurable results
• Has restructured a finance team, not just inherited one

Education & Credentials

• Master's degree (MBA, MHA) with finance or accounting focus, or Bacheler’s degree with equivalent experience required
• CPA designation preferred
• Ten (10) + years of progressive finance leadership; CFO or VP Finance experience required
• Healthcare finance experience strongly preferred; exceptional candidates from adjacent industries will be considered