Financial Director

Good Finance Director roles are rarer than they should be. Most are a bigger version of the job you already have. This one is not.

Our client is a five-year-old, founder-led group of four businesses in staffing and workforce services, based in the Indianapolis metro. The group generates around $40m USD in revenue and has a clear plan for significant growth over the next two to three years. They are hiring a Finance Director to own finance across all four businesses from day one.

What you would own

This is a new seat, created by growth. The group has outgrown its current finance function and is building a shared service centre in Indiana to support what comes next. You would run it, reporting directly to both the Group CFO and the US CEO. Two direct lines, not a dotted one.

Day to day that means payroll, management accounts and board reporting. Underneath it sits the part that makes this interesting: a contract-led business where you price by state, carry a different burden in each one, and manage exposure contract by contract. Compliance reports into you. So does the lending relationship, including drawdowns and covenant reporting. You would inherit a team of four. You would arrive in time for the budget process and a UKG implementation.

What they are actually looking for

Someone commercial. Not someone who produces accurate numbers, because that part is assumed, but someone who reads the numbers and then does something with them.

In practice that means you have negotiated real money out of a supplier or a lease. You have looked at how work gets priced and changed it. You have spotted a client or a service line quietly underperforming and said so, and spotted one overperforming and pushed resource at it. You have found money the business did not know was there.

It also means you want to sit near the sales floor rather than behind it. The finance leader they want is an extension of how the group wins business, not the function that explains why it cannot. You would be in front of clients a couple of times a month.

The essentials

• CPA qualified. Non-negotiable.
• Contract-heavy finance experience. Several hundred contractors or billable heads, across multiple states. Complexity matters far more here than scale.
• You have managed or seriously mentored people.
• Five days a week on site, north of Indianapolis. The approach to hours is a mature one: the office is home base, not a place that counts your minutes. But there is no remote version of this job.

You do not need to be a Finance Director today. If you are a financial controller or head of finance ready for the step up, this is the role to have a conversation about.

What you get

A base of $130,000–$150,000 and total earnings around $180,000, with a quarterly bonus tied to deliverables you can influence. On top of that, you would join a long-term incentive plan, so what you can earn is not limited to base and bonus.

A chairman and a Group CFO who intend to develop you, exposure to work most finance leaders at your level never touch, and the expectation that you grow into the Group CFO seat over time.