The CFO will own OBERLAND’s full financial function end-to-end and serve as a strategic partner to leadership, client teams, and operations. This is a hands-on role for someone who thrives in agency economics: managing budgets and forecasts, leading AR/AP, negotiating and protecting scopes of work, and ensuring that operations are consistently profitable.

You’ll build systems that make performance visible, predictable, and improvable—while maintaining strong vendor relationships and helping client engagements stay healthy and well-structured.

Financial Leadership & Strategy

• Lead OBERLAND’s financial strategy to support sustainable growth, profitability, and cash stability.

• Translate business goals into clear financial plans and operating targets (revenue, margin, utilization, cash).

• Provide leadership with actionable insights on performance, resourcing, pricing, and client profitability.

• Create scenario plans for pipeline variability, staffing changes, and margin improvement opportunities.

Budgeting, Forecasting & Performance Management

• Own annual budgeting and rolling forecasting (monthly/quarterly), ensuring accuracy and accountability.

• Develop and maintain agency dashboards for KPIs (gross margin, net margin, utilization, effective hourly rate, burn, AR aging).

• Partner with department leads and client teams to align staffing plans with forecasted work.

• Identify risks early (scope creep, margin erosion, delayed collections) and implement corrective actions.

Agency Operations Profitability

• Ensure every engagement is structured to be profitable through strong financial oversight of project economics.

• Support pricing strategy, rate cards, staffing models, and profitability thresholds by client/project.

• Partner with client services to monitor delivery vs. budget and ensure timely change orders.

Accounts Receivable / Accounts Payable (AR/AP)

• Own the AR/AP function, ensuring accurate billing, timely collections, and clean vendor payments.

• Implement and enforce billing discipline: invoicing schedules, approvals, backup documentation, and client requirements.

• Manage cash flow forecasting and working capital planning.

• Build a consistent collections process and partner with client leads to resolve payment issues quickly.

Client Scopes, Contracts & Commercial Negotiation

• Negotiate scopes of work (SOWs), retainers, and project terms with clients alongside leadership/client services.

• Ensure SOWs reflect clear deliverables, assumptions, exclusions, timelines, and change-order mechanics.

• Protect the agency from under-scoping and margin leakage by enforcing “scope clarity + commercial clarity.”

• Review client contracts for financial risk (payment terms, indemnities, caps, cancellation, netting, etc.) and propose improvements.

Vendor Management & External Relationships

• Communicate with and manage relationships with key vendors, freelancers, and partners.

• Negotiate vendor rates and terms to protect margin and ensure delivery reliability.

• Oversee purchasing discipline and ensure vendor commitments align with client budgets and SOW terms.

Banking, Financing & Strategic Transactions

• Own and manage OBERLAND’s banking relationships, serving as the primary point of contact for operating accounts, treasury services, and cash management tools.

• Establish and maintain appropriate financing and credit facilities (e.g., revolving line of credit) aligned to the agency’s working capital needs and seasonality.

• Prepare materials required for lenders (financial statements, forecasts, covenant reporting), and ensure ongoing compliance with any credit agreements.

• Optimize cash strategy (sweep accounts, short-term instruments where appropriate, payment timing) to support stability and growth.

• Evaluate and lead execution on strategic transaction opportunities that arise (e.g., minority investments, recapitalizations, M&A inquiries), including:

  • coordinating diligence and data rooms,

  • partnering with outside counsel/advisors,

  • building valuation and deal-structure scenarios, and

  • advising leadership on risks, returns, and long-term implications.

• Manage relationships with external advisors as needed (bankers, brokers, investment banks, legal, tax, and accounting partners) and ensure process discipline and confidentiality.

Financial Operations & Process Ownership

• Oversee all financial processes: month-end close, financial reporting, payroll coordination, taxes (with external partners), and compliance.

• Improve systems and workflows for accuracy, speed, visibility, and audit readiness.

• Own internal controls, approval workflows, and policy documentation (expenses, purchasing, billing, etc.).

• Manage external partners such as accounting firms, tax advisors, and (as needed) banking relationships.

• You are responsible for the overall growth of the agency’s bottom line.  This puts you in a position of great authority and responsibility.  It also means you will get credit and be held accountable for things beyond your control.  As the agency’s financial leader, the buck stops with you.  Good or bad. 

• Become trusted enough by our vendors, clients, employees and partners that they look to you to identify how we can play a bigger role in our business.

• You will be the financial face of the agency to the world.  Represent us well.

• You will be at the center of communications with internal teams, client teams, vendors and potential M&A reps, and we expect you to build effective, lasting relationships with them by communicating clearly and in a timely manner.

• Bring a high level of energy and enthusiasm to the agency, and for the agency, each day.

• Make us better by strategically pushing issues and challenging our perspectives. Don’t be a wallflower. We are hiring you to make a difference.

• Take the initiative. Learn fast.

• 20+ years of finance experience in an advertising/creative agency environment (required).

• Poise and focus during intense moments, meetings and busy time periods at the agency.

• Resilience and realistic optimism.

• Hard working, roll-up your sleeves attitude. 

• Comfortable with the uncomfortable nature of doing new things for the first time.  We are inventing the future of purpose driven communications, and it's a continuous experiment.  

• Experience implementing or optimizing financial tools (ERP/accounting systems, time tracking, project budgeting tools).

• Background supporting purpose-driven, mission-led, or values-based organizations.

• Demonstrated expertise in agency economics: utilization, realization, margin management, resourcing models, project accounting.

• Proven ownership of budgets, forecasts, cash flow, AR/AP, and financial reporting.
  
  

• Strong commercial ability: comfort negotiating client scopes, pricing, and contract terms.

• Track record of improving financial processes, creating operational discipline, and building scalable systems.

• Excellent communication skills—able to partner with creative, strategy, accounts, and operations teams effectively.

• High integrity, sound judgment, and the ability to operate confidently with sensitive information.

• Agency Profitability + Efficiency

  • Achieve 15% or better operating margin on a continuous basis

  • Manage team to 85% or better utilization

  • Ensure actual performance is within 5% of forecasts

• Secure a new operating line of credit

Base Salary: $200,000 plus performance triggered bonuses