Director of Finance and Business Operations

Job Description:

The following information aims to provide potential candidates with a better understanding of the requirements for this role.

About @Orchard

@Orchard LLC is a professional services and workforce solutions firm operating at the intersection of people, science, and technology. Since our inception in 2010, we have evolved from helping major organizations build and transition high-performing teams into a growing federal prime contractor delivering mission-critical services directly.

We are building a people-first, process-driven, and technology-forward organization designed to support sustainable growth while delivering meaningful outcomes for our government and commercial customers.

Position Summary:

@Orchard LLC is seeking a Director of Finance & Business Operations to build and run the financial and operating backbone of our growing organization.

This is a senior, hands-on delivery role with broad ownership across finance, accounting, financial planning and analysis, project economics, business operations, management reporting, financial controls, systems, data, and process improvement.

Reporting directly to the CEO, the Director will have broad visibility across the business and will play a central role in improving how @Orchard operates and scales. The role combines senior financial judgment with direct execution: the Director will personally build and improve financial models, processes, systems, data flows, controls, and management information.

The successful candidate will own and operate the financial environment today while helping build the processes, systems, automation, and AI-enabled capabilities that make the company more visible, accountable, efficient, and scalable.

Success is measured in business outcomes: task orders delivering the margin they were priced at, cash arriving sooner after work is performed, recovered revenue leakage, visible recruiting-client economics, and a back office that costs less per dollar of revenue as the company grows.

Responsibilities:

Financial Performance & Decision Support

Own cash and liquidity visibility, including 13-week cash forecasting.

Build and maintain the budget, rolling forecasts, scenario analysis, working capital, and profitability analysis.

Analyze labor economics, utilization, staffing capacity, indirect costs, and overhead.

Develop management reporting that enables leadership to understand performance, changes, risks, and areas requiring action.

Accounting, Cost Architecture & Financial Control

Own the quality, integrity, and usefulness of accounting results and the underlying financial architecture.

Review month-end and year-end close, perform variance analysis, and own cost structure, coding standards, AP/AR controls, billing support, and payroll-to-accounting integrity.

Establish and continuously improve the chart of accounts, cost structure, close design, data organization, and financial controls which ensures historical and current information is accurate, comparable, and useful for management decisions.

Establish and Maintain government-compliant accounting and financial-control practices, systems, and supporting records.

Ensure labor and timekeeping information supports accurate costing, payroll, billing, forecasting, and project controls.

Own the internal accounting result while leveraging an outsourced accounting provider that posts transactions and performs reconciliations.

Ensure @Orchard is prepared for Government reviews and audits.

Contract & Project Financial Performance

Translate awarded task orders and contract economics into operating budgets, financial baselines, and management reports.

Maintain forward visibility and financial control across actuals, burn, ETC/EAC, revenue, margin, billing, funding and ceilings as applicable, forecasts, and exceptions.

Work closely with Program Managers so emerging financial and economic issues become visible early enough to act.

Business Operations, Management Information & Control

Continuously improve the information environment connecting project, program, customer, and company performance.

Work from source to decision by understanding how data is captured, establishing processes and SOPs that produce reliable business data, and configuring and improving the systems through which it flows.

Train and support people responsible for data inputs and establish feedback and accountability loops.

Organize authoritative data into reliable management information.

Establish sound processes, clear ownership, authoritative data, effective controls, and well-configured systems across the information environment.

Use integration, automation, and AI to reduce manual work, improve analysis, surface exceptions and insights, and increase what a lean organization can accomplish.

People & Corporate Operations

Own the business infrastructure supporting reliable and efficient employee and corporate operations.

Manage systems, workflows, controls, integrations, reporting, and specialist relationships supporting core employee lifecycle and corporate administrative processes.

Oversee the accurate and timely administration of recruiter commissions.

Ensure these functions operate reliably and efficiently while leveraging specialist providers for work requiring dedicated expertise.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in finance, accounting, business administration or relevant fields is required. An advanced degree or technical finance certification (CPA or CMA) is preferred.

Hands-on finance experience spanning accounting and FP&A, including financial modeling, forecasting, close and accounting processes, and management reporting.

At least 5 years of experience with government contracting economics.

Experience operating in a small business government contracting environment preferred.

Hands-on experience establishing, operating, or maintaining government compliant accounting and financial-control environments.

Experience with the economics of a labor-driven professional-services business, including utilization, labor cost, staffing capacity, indirect costs and overhead, and project profitability.

Advanced financial modeling and Excel capability, with strong aptitude for data, financial systems, process improvement, and management information.

Demonstrated ability to personally execute while effectively directing and leveraging specialist resources.

Strong understanding of how contract structure, labor, hours, costs, revenue, margin, billing, and cash connect.

Ability to work from source data through processes and systems to reliable management information, analysis, insight, and action.

Technical Skills / Core Competencies:

Advanced Excel and financial modeling.

FP&A, budgeting, forecasting, cash management, scenario analysis, and profitability analysis.

Government-contracting finance, labor costing, timekeeping, project controls, and indirect cost structures.

Accounting architecture, financial controls, reconciliations, billing support, and management reporting.

Business systems, data flows, data quality, process design, SOP development, workflow improvement, and systems configuration.

Integration, automation, and practical application of AI to improve analysis, quality, speed, and operating leverage.

Working partnership with program, business, and corporate leaders.

Ability to direct specialist providers' scoped work and hold it to standard for quality, timeliness, and results.

Why Join @Orchard?

At @Orchard, you will see the whole business and have the opportunity to materially influence how it operates.

You will work directly with the CEO and alongside program and business leaders, with room to challenge existing approaches, simplify processes, improve how information moves through the company, and apply technology where it creates real economic value.

This opportunity is designed for someone who enjoys building while operating, broad accountability, direct access to decision-makers, complex cross-functional problems worth solving, and seeing the impact of their work.

Compensation: Competitive salary and benefits package commensurate with experience.

@Orchard LLC is an equal opportunity employer. xhyhwjd We encourage all qualified candidates to apply, regardless of race, gender, age, disability, or other protected characteristics.