Director of Finance

Director Of Finance

Gamer's Choice is a team of passionate gamers, creators, and innovators based in Queens, New York. What began as a small local shop has grown into one of the leading destinations for Trading Card Game players and collectors around the world. We're driven by a shared love for gaming and community, offering both an engaging online experience and a vibrant in-store atmosphere. Our mission is to be the ultimate home for fans to connect, compete, and celebrate the games they love. While Yu-Gi-Oh! has always been our foundation, we're expanding into exciting new titles like Pokémon, One Piece, Riftbound League of Legends, and Disney Lorcana. Our Long Island City store serves as the heart of our community, hosting tournaments, events, and gatherings that bring players together both in person and online.

Location: Long Island City, Queens, New York

Work Environment: On-site, founder-led, fast-growing multi-channel retail and ecommerce business. Hands-on and cross-functional, with regular time spent alongside Sales, Buying, and Operations.

Schedule: Core Hours Monday – Friday 10:00 AM – 6:30 PM

(Because critical financial work and cross-functional decisions cluster around close, planning cycles, and major sales events, your actual hours will flex based on business needs.)

Reports to: CEO

Base Salary: $175,000 – $250,000 per annum

This role is compensated with a fixed base salary. Compensation within the band is determined by demonstrated experience, scope of responsibility, and ability to operate with full ownership in a high-intensity environment. Performance bonus eligibility may be evaluated after six months in the role, based on demonstrated performance and business needs. Equity is not a part of our current compensation structure.

Role Overview

The Director of Finance owns the company-wide financial picture, the model, the cash, the margins, and the capital plan, and turns it into clear decisions leadership can act on. Reporting directly to the CEO, this person builds the finance function from a founder-plus-bookkeeper setup into a reliable system the business runs on, while partnering closely with Sales, Buying, and Operations to deploy cash where it earns the highest return.

Time and Intensity Expectations

This is a high-ownership role in a fast-moving, founder-led business. Critical financial work clusters around month-end close, planning cycles, inventory buys, and major sales events, and the intensity rises with them. You'll have flexibility in how you structure your week, but you're expected to be present and fully engaged when key financial decisions are being made. This is a hands-on builder's role, not a delegate-and-review seat.

Who Is This Role For

• Builder mindset, not maintainer: Has a track record of walking into messy or low-infrastructure environments and actually building the finance model, reporting, and rhythms from scratch, not just "owning" something that already worked.
• Operator, not ivory-tower CFO: Comfortable spending time with Sales, Buying, and Ops, and translating what they see on the floor and in live shows into numbers and back into clear recommendations. Think "business operator who speaks finance".
• Pattern recognition for e-commerce/inventory businesses: Can quickly see the story in SKU mix, fees, discounts, and working capital, and spot where margin and cash are leaking without a perfect dataset.
• Calm in chaos with high standards: Stays steady when the numbers are messy, but refuses to let them stay that way. Raises the bar on accuracy and discipline without creating bureaucracy that slows the business down.
• Clear, direct communicator with the CEO: Comfortable pushing back on bad ideas, presenting trade-offs in plain English, and acting as a true thought partner on "Can we afford this?" and "What happens if we do X?"

What You Will Actually Do

• Own company-wide financial model, cash, and capital plan: Build and maintain the 3-statement model and 13-week cash forecast, and use it to guide hiring, inventory buys, marketing spend, and when/how we raise outside capital.
• Own unit economics and margin improvement program: Define SKU and channel-level margins, pricing and discount guardrails, and CAC/payback rules, and run an ongoing margin program to improve overall profitability.
• Own finance infrastructure, close, and reporting: Build the finance function from founder + bookkeeper into a simple, reliable system for month-end close and weekly/monthly reporting that leadership can run the business on.
• Own financial partnership to Sales, Buying, and Ops: Work directly with Sales, Buying, and Operations to turn data into clear decisions on where to grow, where to cut, and how to deploy cash for the highest return.
• Own high-level tax and corporate structure strategy: Partner with external tax advisors to design and maintain the right entity structure, basic tax planning, and compliance so the company can scale, raise capital, and eventually exit without avoidable tax or structural issues.

Within The First 90 Days, The Director Of Finance Is Expected To:

• Cash and P&L baseline: Stand up a simple, working 13-week cash forecast and a first pass at channel-level P&L using whatever data exists today. It doesn't need to be perfect; it needs to be honest and updated on a consistent weekly cadence.
• Reliable financial reporting: Establish a repeatable month-end close process, with books closed in a consistent timeframe and revenue, COGS, and major expense categories reconciled every month so leadership can rely on the numbers for decisions.
• Unit economics visibility: Build SKU and channel-level gross profit estimates that cover the majority of revenue and keep them updated regularly. These become the standard for pricing, promo, and inventory decisions.
• Margin improvement: Using those unit economics, lead a simple margin improvement program (pricing tweaks, mix changes, cost negotiations) that produces a clear, measurable lift in net margin versus the starting baseline you establish.
• Fundable and bankable position: Clean up historical financials with an external CPA, assemble a basic data room (P&L, balance sheet, cash, key KPIs), and build relationships with relevant lenders (local banks, specialty finance, or revenue-based lenders) so the CEO has strong options for a credit line or growth capital when needed.

How You Will Be Measured

• Accuracy and reliability of the financial model, 13-week cash forecast, and leadership reporting.
• Consistency and timeliness of the month-end close.
• Coverage and accuracy of SKU- and channel-level unit economics across the majority of revenue.
• Measurable improvement in net margin versus the baseline you establish.
• Readiness for lender or buyer due diligence, clean historical financials, and a usable data room.
• Quality of financial partnership: whether Sales, Buying, and Ops make better, faster decisions because of the numbers you provide.

Why This Role May Not Be A Fit

This role is not a fit if you want a mature finance org with established systems and a team under you on day one, or if you'd rather maintain clean books someone else built than build from messy data. It is not a fit if you need a perfect dataset before you make a call, or if you'd rather stay in the spreadsheet than spend time on the floor and at live shows with Sales, Buying, and Ops. If you're looking for a purely strategic CFO seat removed from execution, this isn't it. We're looking for a builder who owns the result.

Why This Role Matters

Finance is the nervous system of a fast-growing, inventory-heavy business. Every hiring decision, inventory buy, marketing dollar, and capital raise depends on knowing the real numbers and what they mean. The person in this role turns messy data into honest answers to "Can we afford this?" and "What happens if we do X?" This is the seat that protects the company's ability to grow, raise, and win, and it reports directly to the CEO because the decisions it informs are that important.

Qualifications

• 7-12 years of experience in finance or accounting, with at least 3+ years in a leadership or director-level role.
• Built finance from the ground up in a similar business: Has previously built or rebuilt the finance function (models, close, reporting) for a founder-led ecommerce, retail, or inventory-heavy company in roughly the $10–100M