CFO, PE-backed Commercial MEP Platform Roll-up

Overview

This role is responsible for building and leading a new platform finance function for a Midwest union-labor commercial mechanical, HVAC, plumbing, process piping, and specialty trade roll-up. The Chief Financial Officer will serve as the CEO’s principal finance partner to the Board, sponsor, lenders, and surety providers.

• Position: CFO (First CFO for the platform)
• Location: Remote
• Travel: Approximately 50% to operating companies across the Midwest and to board and sponsor meetings
• Reporting To: CEO & Executive Chairman

The organization is pursuing an acquisition-led growth strategy expected to roughly double the platform entering 2027 and to carry it to materially greater scale by the end of the decade. This seat is weighted toward post-close integration and ongoing management.

Responsibilities

Strategic leadership & executive partnership

• Act as a trusted advisor to the CEO, Board, and investors on financial strategy, performance, and enterprise risk.
• Serve as primary liaison to the sponsor, lenders, and Board; absorb a sponsor reporting load heavier than the CEO’s.
• Lead long-term financial planning, budgeting, variance analysis, forecasting, and capital allocation; translate financial and operational data into actionable insights that drive EBITDA growth, cash flow, and risk mitigation.
• Evaluate strategic initiatives, investments, and acquisitions using a disciplined risk/return approach.
• Prepare concise, insight-driven reporting and board presentations; support exit readiness including investor presentations and diligence processes.

Project controls, planning & performance management

• Own project controls across the platform, including work in progress, percentage of completion, margin fade, under/over billings, cost in excess of billings, and project cash flow.
• Implement controls that proactively assess and mitigate operational risk.
• Use work in progress schedules as a forecasting instrument (not just reporting); diagnose margin erosion to root cause before it reaches the profit and loss.
• Partner with operating company presidents to review schedules line by line.
• Establish and monitor KPIs aligned with the value creation plan; lead enterprise-wide financial analytics and performance management.
• Drive working capital efficiency and cash flow optimization (accounts receivable, accounts payable, retainage, and work in progress) and build cash forecasts that reflect job-by-job conversion in long-duration businesses.

Financial operations, systems & technology ownership

• Build platform controllership from a standing start; oversee accounting, financial reporting, treasury, tax, audit, and compliance to produce high-quality, reliable financial statements on time.
• Ensure timely, accurate GAAP-compliant reporting and audit readiness; compress the close from a one-to-two week timeframe toward a three-to-four day discipline.
• Maintain strong internal controls and a clear Delegation of Authority framework (approval thresholds, spending authority, and accountability across platform and operating companies).
• Lead liquidity planning, forecasting, and banking relationships; design and continuously optimize bank account structure for cash management, visibility, control, and scalability across a multi-entity platform.
• Own business requirements and finance-module scope for ERP and financial systems implementation, upgrade, and standardization across operating companies.
• Partner with the Senior Director of IT on platform-level program delivery.
• Provide executive oversight of enterprise IT strategy, cybersecurity, and data governance as they affect financial data, controls, and reporting, including financial and capital dimensions of the fleet management program.

Acquisition integration, capital structure & surety

• Own post-acquisition integration end to end (people, processes, chart of accounts, systems, reporting, and performance tracking).
• Support acquisitions at approximately two to four per year, weighted about 70% integration and ongoing management against 30% deal support (deal count is not a scoring driver).
• Own the management forecast, run project and work in progress diligence, and carry closing statement work and post-close working capital.
• Pressure-test Quality of Earnings and tax work led by Corporate Development (which owns negotiation and the data room), partnering with executives and investors to evaluate target financials, working capital, cash flow, and surety implications.
• Own covenant compliance, lender reporting, and the borrowing base certificate.
• Ensure acquisition alignment with credit agreements; oversee lender compliance certificates and develop lender presentations and financing materials.
• Manage principal and interest forecasting; coordinate lender approvals, amendments, and waivers.
• Lead financing, refinancing, and capital structure optimization while monitoring leverage with credit partners.
• Manage the surety relationship directly rather than through a broker.
• Maintain and optimize bonding capacity and indemnity obligations; manage carrying cost to complete on bonded work and forward bonding needs.
• Lead enterprise risk management alongside corporate insurance and risk transfer strategies.

Leadership & governance

• Build the platform finance organization from a standing start:
  • First hire: Corporate Controller (budgeted to start as soon as possible)
  • Then: Vice President of Finance
  • Then: Financial Planning & Analysis in the back half of 2027
• Lead by doing; act as a player-coach, including performing work below title during ramp-up.
• Set standards for operating company finance leaders who report to their presidents; drive adoption through influence and partnership.
• Ensure governance and compliance through strong internal audit, compliance, and governance frameworks.
• Be measured on whether direct reports stay and grow; managerial failure is identified as a key risk for this seat.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, or a related field required.
• CPA strongly preferred; MBA a plus.
• Fifteen or more years of progressive finance leadership experience.
• Currently or previously Chief Financial Officer of an operating company, division, or business unit. A Controller or Senior Vice President of Finance who has been the head of finance for a business also qualifies; a Vice President of Finance who has never held the top finance seat does not.
• Structural complexity is the scale gate (not revenue): multi-entity, multi-state, union and bonded, with several operating companies under one roof. A platform of seven or eight operating companies across three states qualifies where a larger single-entity operator does not.
• Significant experience in private equity-backed companies, including operating within leveraged capital structures with covenant compliance, lender reporting, and debt management.
• Industry experience in industrial services, construction, or related sectors required, with the following preference order:
  • mechanical or MEP specialty first
  • then specialty trade under a general contractor
  • then general contracting
  • then project-based businesses outside contracting
• Deep working command of cost-to-cost, percentage-of-completion accounting, and work in process (threshold technical requirement).
• Proven success scaling multi-entity or decentralized organizations and designing scalable financial and cash management infrastructure.
• Demonstrated M&A experience, including oversight of financial diligence and the ability to pressure-test third-party Quality of Earnings and tax work (rather than perform it), plus post-acquisition integration onto common systems, reporting, and controls.
• Knowledge of surety bonding and construction financial metrics, including experience with risk management, governance frameworks, and internal controls.
• Experience with ERP and financial systems implementation, migration, and consolidation across a decentralized, multi-entity environment; familiarity with data analytics tools.
• Strong grounding in GAAP, corporate finance, and treasury, with advanced financial modeling, forecasting, and cash flow management.
• Experience in union labor environments, including multiemployer pension and withdrawal liability, certified payroll, and fringe benefit fund reporting is valued but not a screen; forecasting literacy on a labor base that moves on bargaining cycles matters.
• Demonstrated people leadership with a record of direct reports who stayed and were promoted; ability to influence and challenge stakeholders constructively and drive change through influence.
• Low ego and hands-on, solutions-oriented; able to hold a room under scrutiny in management presentations, with a lender, and eventually with a buyer; bring problems forward early with a proposed answer attached.

Preferred Qualifications

• Central or Eastern time zone preferred.
• Residence near a major airport.
• Familiarity with forecast-driven construction project controls and long-duration cash conversion dynamics.

Compensation & Benefits

• Competitive base salary, annual performance bonus, and meaningful equity participation in the platform.
• Specific compensation details are to be discussed in the first conversation.