Director of Finance Cleveland, Ohio Area | Manufacturing / Life Sciences Our client, a growing, private equity-backed manufacturing organization in the Cleveland, Ohio area, is seeking a high-impact Director of Finance to provide financial leadership across the organization. With approximately $70-80 million in revenue and a strong growth trajectory, this is an excellent opportunity for a finance leader to make a meaningful impact within an entrepreneurial, acquisition-oriented environment. The Director of Finance will serve as a key business partner to senior leadership, providing financial insight and leadership while overseeing core accounting, financial planning and analysis, forecasting, reporting, and operational finance activities. This role is ideal for a hands-on finance professional who combines a strong accounting foundation with sophisticated analytical and business-partnering capabilities.
Key Responsibilities:
Lead the organization's financial planning, forecasting, budgeting, and reporting processes.
Provide financial leadership and business partnership to the President, executive leadership team, and operational leaders.
Oversee monthly financial reporting, analysis, and presentation of results to senior management and ownership.
Analyze financial performance, including revenue, gross margin, operating expenses, working capital, and cash flow.
Develop and monitor key financial and operational KPIs to support business decision-making.
Partner with Operations, Supply Chain, Sales, and other functional leaders to improve profitability, productivity, and financial performance.
Oversee and enhance financial models, forecasts, and scenario analyses to support strategic planning and growth initiatives.
Provide leadership over accounting functions, ensuring accurate and timely month-end close and financial reporting.
Maintain strong knowledge and oversight of U.S. GAAP, internal controls, and accounting policies.
Provide oversight of inventory and cost accounting, including standard costs, manufacturing variances, COGS, and gross margin analysis.
Partner with external auditors, tax advisors, banking partners, and other outside professionals.
Support cash management, working capital optimization, and cash-flow forecasting.
Prepare financial information and analysis for ownership, senior leadership, and board-level reporting.
Support acquisition activity, including financial due diligence, integration planning, and post-acquisition financial reporting.
Identify opportunities to improve financial processes, systems, controls, reporting, and organizational efficiency.
Help build scalable finance infrastructure to support continued organic and acquisition-driven growth.
Lead, mentor, and develop accounting and finance team members.
Qualifications:
Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, or a related field required; Master's degree and/or CPA preferred.8+ years of progressive accounting and finance experience, preferably within a manufacturing, life sciences, medical device, specialty products, or other complex product environment.
Strong combination of accounting, FP&A, financial analysis, and operational finance experience.
Demonstrated experience with budgeting, forecasting, financial modeling, and variance analysis.
Strong understanding of inventory accounting, cost accounting, COGS, manufacturing variances, and gross margin.
Experience working closely with operational leaders and using financial information to drive business decisions.
Strong knowledge of U.S. GAAP, financial reporting, internal controls, and month-end close processes.
Experience improving financial processes, reporting infrastructure, and internal controls.
Advanced Excel and financial modeling skills; experience with ERP systems required.
Excellent communication skills and the ability to present complex financial information clearly to both financial and non-financial audiences.
Demonstrated leadership ability with a hands-on, collaborative approach.
Required Experience:
Private equity-backed company experience.
Acquisition, integration, or financial due diligence experience.
Experience supporting a multi-entity or acquisition-oriented organization.
Life sciences, bioscience, medical device, or highly engineered manufacturing experience.
CPA or other advanced financial/accounting designation.
Experience preparing management, ownership, or board-level financial reporting.
Experience building or upgrading finance processes and infrastructure in a growing organization.
The Opportunity:
This is an opportunity for a finance leader who wants to be more than the steward of the numbers. The successful candidate will have the opportunity to influence strategy, improve financial performance, build scalable processes, support acquisitions, and work directly with senior leadership and ownership. The ideal candidate is equally comfortable discussing financial statements with the accounting team, manufacturing performance with Operations, and growth strategy with the executive team.
Location: Cleveland, Ohio area
Industry: Manufacturing / Life Sciences
Environment: Private Equity-Backed / Growth-Oriented
