Finance Lead / Manager

Location: Traverse City, MI Salary: $120,000.00 USD Annually - $150,000.00 USD Annually Description: Senior Finance Lead
Primary Objective
The Senior Finance Lead safeguards financial integrity while acting as an essential strategic advisor to sales, operations, and procurement teams. The role guarantees the delivery of timely, accurate, and standard-compliant financial records while systematically upgrading systems, data architectures, internal controls, and workflow tech stacks to elevate executive decision-making.
Moving beyond standard accounting functions, this role sits at the intersection of business strategy, data science, financial stewardship, and process engineering. The successful candidate will leverage technology and data intelligence to build automated, highly scalable, and decision-driven workflows.
Core Mission
Protect financial integrity. Establish trusted data structures. Drive commercial performance. Optimize operational efficiency.
The position spans three core operational pillars:
1. Financial Governance & Reporting
Lead and maintain the operational excellence and compliance of core accounting functions.

• Direct full-cycle period-end close processes (monthly, quarterly, and annual).
• Ensure strict compliance with governing accounting standards and GAAP across all financial statements and disclosures.
• Implement robust internal control frameworks, procedures, and documentation that mitigate risk without introducing operational drag.
• Manage balance sheet reconciliation and maintain integrity across key ledgers, including accruals, fixed assets, reserves, and operational balances.
• Spearhead audit preparation, manage review cycles with external auditors, and foster continuous audit readiness.
• Direct foundational transactional workflows (Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable) via automated, exception-directed operational designs.
• Resolve complex accounting treatments for non-standard or intricate business agreements.
• Oversee corporate compliance requirements across tax, treasury, banking, and risk management functions.
• Recruit, mentor, and elevate team performance across accounting and governance functions.

2. Data Intelligence, Analytics & Automation
Cultivate data fluency across all core finance functions by mastering underlying data infrastructures rather than relying solely on static outputs.

• Analyze enterprise data structures to surface underlying trends, operational risks, emerging opportunities, and root causes.
• Design and deploy automated analytical dashboards, dynamic visualizations, and centralized datasets to empower self-service commercial analysis.
• Establish rigorous reconciliation protocols and data verification models to guarantee enterprise data integrity.
• Modernize routine accounting workflows by moving away from manual spreadsheet reliance toward automated, exception-driven tech pipelines.
• Collaborate with IT and Systems teams to optimize data architecture, software integrations, and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems.
• Harness modern analytical platforms, advanced Excel logic, BI suites, AI tools, and automation tech to accelerate reporting turnarounds.
• Actively audit existing manual processes to continuously standardize, automate, or eliminate redundant reporting tasks.
• Upskill team members on quantitative modeling, automation toolsets, and data analytics.

3. Commercial Strategy & Operational Partnership
Serve as the key financial partner to growth, operations, vendor management, and fulfillment teams.

• Deeply analyze commercial economics, vendor contract structures, customer agreements, and operational flows.
• Evaluate pricing strategies, quote structures, bid proposals, and contract terms prior to execution.
• Conduct profitability assessments across accounts, products, and operational programs.
• Drive operational forecasting models covering revenue pipelines, backlog, fulfillment costs, and working capital needs.
• Assess vendor payment terms, cost structures, and sourcing options to optimize cash flow and liquidity.
• Evaluate financial and balance sheet impacts for custom capital expenditures and non-standard commercial agreements.
• Communicate complex financial metrics and operational insights clearly to non-financial executives.
• Uncover operational efficiencies to proactively expand gross margins, accelerate cash generation, and optimize working capital.

Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A)
FP&A is an integrated core discipline across the finance organization rather than an isolated department.

• Own and validate financial assumptions across commercial and operational channels.
• Maintain the quantitative inputs and assumptions powering the organization's overarching financial forecast and business model.
• Analyze variance between actual and projected performance through operational drivers.
• Contribute to annual budgeting cycles and long-term strategic plans.
• Build dynamic scenario models evaluating sensitivity around pricing, volume, vendor costs, and working capital parameters.
• Drive cross-functional alignment across finance to publish an integrated corporate outlook.

Continuous Improvement & Process Optimization
Accountability extends beyond executing financial operations to continuously refining and scaling those operational workflows.

• Standardize and simplify business processes prior to applying automation tools.
• Identify and eliminate low-value reporting tasks and legacy spreadsheets in favor of scalable system solutions.
• Clean and validate data at the source point rather than performing repetitive downstream corrections.
• Partner with Systems & Tech leads on enterprise software integrations and digital transformation initiatives.
• Reinvest efficiency gains from automation into high-value advisory work and decision support.
• Build scalable finance architecture capable of handling substantial organizational growth without requiring proportional headcount increases.

Expectations & Leadership Attributes

• Proactive Stewardship: Takes initiative and drives solutions independently without waiting for direction.
• Team Development: Delegates effectively and invests in training and developing team members.
• Cross-Functional Influence: Builds trust and strong working relationships across diverse operational teams.
• Balanced Judgement: Maintains rigid control standards while remaining pragmatic about business needs.
• Clear Communication: Translates technical financial metrics into actionable strategic insights for cross-functional partners.
• Agile Problem Solving: Comfortably transitions between granular accounting rules, large datasets, and executive-level strategy.
• Technical Curiosity: Actively explores how systems work and embraces modern tools to enhance workflow efficiency.
• Decisive Ownership: Resolves operational issues autonomously within scope while escalating material enterprise risks appropriately.

Candidate Qualifications
Required

• Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, or a related quantitative field.
• Strong mastery of GAAP and foundational accounting principles.
• Progressive accounting/finance experience managing multi-faceted business models.
• Proven track record leading period-end close routines, financial statement generation, balance sheet reviews, and external audits.
• Demonstrated experience working with ERP platforms and advanced financial reporting suites.
• High proficiency in Excel alongside experience handling large, complex datasets.
• Strong problem-solving, quantitative, and analytical capabilities.
• Demonstrated capability (or high potential) for leadership and team development.
• Ability to break down complex transactional structures into clear data and financial impacts.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills across executive and operational audiences.

Preferred / Highly Valued

• Professional certifications such as CPA or CMA.
• Technical experience with Power BI, SQL, data visualization tools, automated workflow tools, or AI-assisted finance platforms.
• Background handling complex commercial contracts, unit economics, fulfillment networks, or cost accounting models.

Benchmarks for Success

• Financial outputs and source datasets are consistently accurate, timely, and actionable.
• Financial governance operates smoothly, resolving standard issues without requiring routine executive escalation.
• Period-end closing processes require significantly less manual effort year-over-year.
• Audit readiness is maintained as a continuous operational state rather than an annual project.
• Operational partners actively seek out finance as a strategic advisor before entering commercial commitments.
• Strategic business decisions regularly integrate margin, cash flow, risk, and working capital modeling up front.
• Manual data aggregation drops as automated, self-service tools are adopted.
• Measurable capacity created via automation is successfully redirected toward strategic decision support.

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