Controller | High-growth DTC brand with near-term exit in sight

Ember Search has been retained on a Controller search for a fast-growing, profitable, direct-to-consumer consumer brand backed by a top-tier VC firm.

The company has grown from single-digit millions in revenue in 2024 to approaching triple-digit millions today, 10x year over year while staying profitable. It sits in a large, repeat-purchase consumer category that almost no one is doing at scale, and unlike most DTC brands, it owns its own R&D lab and invests heavily in product development. The business is actively exploring M&A to vertically integrate its supply chain, and is being run with a near-term exit clearly on the horizon, likely in the next 2 to 3 years.

The leadership team is ex-McKinsey across the board, with a CFO who comes from a strategic finance background in banking and PE. The company hires for smart and humble, runs on high trust and autonomy with strong documentation underneath, and has scaled the business 10x in a year without losing operating discipline.

Location: New York, NY (Hybrid, 3 to 4 days/week in office, Brooklyn)

The Role

You will be the senior accounting leader inside the business, reporting directly to the CFO and owning the build of the accounting function as the company scales toward exit. The company currently works with an outsourced accounting partner, so you will not be building from scratch. You will inherit that relationship and own building the company's internal accounting capability from there.

You will:

- Manage the outsourced accounting partner and lead the monthly close, building toward a clean, repeatable, audit-ready set of books

- Lead the company's first audit, including selecting and managing the audit firm

- Drive the timing decision and transition from QuickBooks Online to a more sophisticated ERP

- Partner with the CFO on M&A activity, including diligence support and post-close integration of any acquired business

- Build inventory, cost accounting, and manufacturing accounting capability inside the company

- Support board, lender, investor, and diligence requests

- Prepare the financial backbone for a near-term exit, including the cleanup, controls, and reporting an acquirer will want to see

- Build the accounting team underneath you as the business scales

Candidate Profile

- 8 to 12+ years of accounting experience, including meaningful time at a high-growth CPG, consumer, or e-commerce business

- CPA required

- Strong physical inventory and manufacturing accounting experience (candidates with only CPG experience will be considered if they are smart, hungry, and ready to learn the manufacturing side)

- Has led an audit, or been a strong number two through one

- Track record of building and managing accounting teams

- Growth-stage exposure, ideally from $20M scaling toward $100M+

- Bias to action, builder mindset, and comfort operating in ambiguity

Why This Role

This is a build seat, not a maintain seat, at a profitable DTC business pointed at a near-term exit. You will own the accounting function end-to-end at the moment the company professionalizes its back office for a first audit, an ERP migration, potential M&A, and a transaction. You will partner directly with a strategic finance CFO who wants a real right hand and the lead accounting voice, not a number two. The team is small, the operators are exceptional, and the seat carries genuine ownership of audit, integration, ERP, and the run to exit.

Equal Opportunity Statement

Ember Search and our client are equal opportunity employers. We are committed to building diverse and inclusive teams and do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability status, or any other protected status.