Senior Recruitment Consultant (Interim Finance & Accounting)

Interim & Consulting CFO Practice Lead (Recruiter), Career Group Search

Career Group Search is the executive search division of Career Group Companies, founded in 1981 by Susan Levine. We build leadership teams in finance, accounting, and the C-suite for clients ranging from Fortune 100 companies to boutique startups, and we specialize in retained search within accounting and finance. We are a WBENC-certified women-owned business, regularly named to Forbes’ list of America’s Best Executive Recruiting Firms, and ranked #12 on Crain’s New York Business list of the largest executive recruiters for 2025. With offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Miami, and Dallas, we are open to where this person is located.

About the Role

As our Interim & Consulting CFO Practice Lead, you will build and own a new line of business: placing interim, fractional, and project-based finance executives with our clients. These include CFOs, VPs of Finance, Controllers, and transformation leads. You will partner with our Senior Search Consultants and client leadership to meet urgent and transitional finance needs, such as a sudden CFO departure, a pre-IPO buildout, an ERP implementation, an audit remediation, or a turnaround. This is a true 0→1 build, with the opportunity to define how the practice operates from the ground up.

What You’ll Do

• Own the full cycle for interim and consulting placements, from intake and sourcing through contracting, onboarding, and extension or conversion.
• Build and maintain a bench of vetted interim finance executives who are ready to deploy within days, not months.
• Partner with existing Career Group Search clients to identify interim needs, and cross-sell the practice alongside our retained search work.
• Develop new client relationships with PE-backed companies, startups, and mid-market firms that need finance leadership quickly.
• Structure engagements, including scope, rates, duration, and conversion terms, and manage the commercial relationship throughout the assignment.
• Check in regularly with placed executives and clients to ensure delivery quality and to surface extensions and follow-on work.
• Create the practice’s playbook, covering screening criteria, assessment frameworks, pricing models, contract templates, and key metrics such as time-to-deploy, bench utilization, extension rate, and conversion to permanent hire.
• Build the brand through thought leadership, market insights, referral programs, and events that position Career Group Search as the go-to partner for interim finance leadership.
• Represent Career Group Search externally to senior finance executives and client leadership.

What We’re Looking For

• 5+ years of recruiting, search, or staffing experience focused on senior finance and accounting talent.
• A strong network (ideally of CFOs, Controllers, and senior finance leaders, ideally including those who work on an interim or fractional basis) and an ability to build long-lasting relationships.
• Experience structuring and managing contract, interim, or consulting engagements, including rate negotiation and client management.
• A working knowledge of finance functions, so you can credibly assess candidates on FP&A, controllership, audit, systems implementations, M&A, and transactions.
• A business development mindset, with comfort originating new clients and expanding existing relationships.
• Strong communication skills, and the ability to earn the trust of both C-suite clients and senior candidates.
• An outcome-oriented approach, with the ability to move fast when clients need someone in seat immediately.

Nice to Haves

• Experience launching or scaling an interim, fractional, or contract practice at a search or staffing firm.
• A background in finance or accounting, such as a CPA, Big Four, or industry experience.
• Relationships within private equity, venture capital, or portfolio operations teams.
• Familiarity with the ATS Bullhorn or the ability to quickly adopt new systems.

Ideal Qualities

• Entrepreneurial drive: You want to build something, not inherit it, and you are energized by owning a division.
• Speed with judgment: You can deploy talent quickly without compromising quality.
• Commercial instinct: You see where an interim engagement can lead, whether that is an extension, a permanent conversion, or a retained search.
• Operational rigor: You bring structure to a new practice and track what matters.
• Low ego, high ownership: You hold yourself to a high standard and collaborate generously with the wider Career Group team.