Controller

Accounting Manager To Controller

Reports To: Senior Vice President, Finance

Location: Grand Rapids, MI. In office four days per week.

Harrison Gray Search is helping build the accounting function for a new private equity backed commercial fleet services roll-up in Grand Rapids. The CEO wants to add real finance talent to the team, and we will set the title based on the experience of the person we find.

Our client is building a national network of commercial truck repair shops and mobile service providers serving small and mid-sized fleets. The platform launched in 2026, and finance, operations and shared infrastructure are all being built right now.

Commercial truck repair is a large, fragmented market that is starting to professionalize. Fleets want higher uptime and tighter regulatory compliance. Many independent shop owners have built good businesses without the capital or the systems to scale past a few locations.

The platform buys founder-led repair businesses and brings them onto a common operating model. It provides performance metrics, centralized parts procurement, shop management technology, and technician recruiting and training. Acquired shops keep their local leadership and their customer relationships.

The sponsor is an established private equity firm with three other operating platforms, all above $20 million EBITDA. Two of them run more than forty locations each.

The Role

This is the first dedicated accounting hire in the business. There is no accounting department, no ERP and no close calendar. Whoever takes this seat builds all of it and runs it alone for a while.

The work is hands-on. You will be preparing the entries and the reconciliations yourself while you design the processes that eventually replace the manual work. As acquisitions close you will take on purchase accounting and bring the acquired books onto one chart of accounts and one close calendar.

Depending on experience, this hire can come in anywhere from Accounting Manager to Controller. The work is the same at either level. We will set the title and the compensation to fit the person.

Key Responsibilities

• Own day-to-day accounting operations including general ledger, accounts payable and receivable, payroll, cash management, and inventory and parts accounting
• Build and then run the monthly, quarterly and annual close
• Prepare consolidated financial statements under GAAP
• Perform balance sheet reconciliations, revenue recognition analysis, expense accruals and payroll reconciliations
• Write and maintain internal controls, accounting policies and financial procedures from the ground up
• Build financial visibility into shop-level performance, labor utilization, parts margin and operating KPIs
• Support budgeting, forecasting and monthly variance analysis
• Track cash flow, EBITDA, working capital and covenant compliance in a leveraged environment
• Handle purchase accounting and financial integration as acquisitions close, including migrating acquired businesses onto the platform's systems and close calendar
• Support selection and implementation of an ERP
• Work directly with external auditors, tax advisors and lenders
• Manage sales and use tax compliance and multi-state payroll tax administration
• Build the accounting team as the platform grows

Qualifications and Experience

• CPA required
• Bachelor's degree in accounting, finance or a related field
• Early career foundation in public accounting, at a Big 4, national or regional firm
• Five or more years of progressive accounting experience, with the level of the role set accordingly
• Currently in an in-house accounting role is a plus, though candidates still in public accounting are welcome
• Solid working knowledge of GAAP, financial reporting and internal controls
• Has personally owned a month-end close rather than supervised one from a distance
• Comfortable with multi-entity accounting and consolidations
• Based in Grand Rapids or commutable West Michigan, and able to be in the office four days a week
• Wants to do the detailed work personally in the early stage
• Works well in a fast paced, acquisitive environment

Helpful but not required

• A leveraged, private equity backed or high growth environment
• Post-acquisition integration work, including purchase accounting and opening balance sheets
• NetSuite or another mid-market ERP, particularly an implementation
• Inventory and cost accounting, including standard versus average cost
• Multi-location services businesses with location-level P&Ls
• Distributed or variable hourly workforces and multi-state payroll
• Commercial truck, transportation, field service, automotive parts, dealership or logistics exposure

Why This Opportunity

• You design the chart of accounts, the close, the controls and the reporting
• Direct access to the CEO, the COO and the sponsor from day one, on a team small enough that you are in the room
• Real M&A integration experience through an active acquisition pipeline
• The accounting team is expected to grow to several people as the platform scales
• Title and compensation set to fit you