Chief Financial Officer

Chief Financial Officer

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.

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