Director - Portfolio Chief Accounting Officer (Software/SAAS) - Private Equity Advisory

By joining our rapidly growing Private Equity practice, you will serve as a trusted partner to our Private Equity clients and their portfolio companies. You’ll bring your first-hand experience, unique perspectives, and functional knowledge to deliver tailored integrated solutions that solve today's challenges and set the foundation for future success. With support from experienced leaders and a dedicated coach, you will join a collaborative community that invites you to contribute beyond the scope of client delivery.  

In today’s competitive deal market, Private Equity is increasingly turning to operational enhancements as a driver for value creation in their investment portfolio. It is essential for Private Equity funds to have a portfolio support team, either internally or externally, to guide CFOs as they build a scalable accounting and finance function that supports the investment thesis. We are experienced operators, who serve as an extension of leading Private Equity sponsors to drive meaningful and sustainable operational changes across their portfolios.

• Leadership
• Provide leadership to the Office of the CFO during periods of significant change (e.g., post-acquisition, implementation of new financial systems, preparing for transactions, challenging financial statement audits, etc.)

• Regularly interface and report out to the C-Suite, operating partner, and deal team
• Serve as a ‘Swiss Army Knife’ driving change across the Office of the CFO
• Able to communicate complex accounting concepts in plain English to PE Sponsors with a Valuation, EBITDA & Operating Efficiency lens
• Ability to manage and balance multiple stakeholders including PE Sponsor, management team, and external auditors

• Value Creation Mindset
• Understand the interrelationship and implications of accounting conclusions on EBITDA and debt covenant calculations
• Identify opportunities to increase EBITDA
• Empower the Office of the CFO function to create value across the organization
• Operate with the speed, efficiency and urgency with which the Sponsors expect from their teams and consultants

• Audit Readiness / Technical Accounting
• Provide expertise in handling intricate transactions, technical accounting standards, policy implementations, and operational accounting
• Offer guidance on nuanced accounting policies across various domains of U.S. GAAP and / or IFRS, including business combinations (purchase accounting), consolidation (analysis of VIEs and determination of Primary Beneficiaries), derivatives, revenue recognition, lease accounting, impairment, troubled debt structuring, bad debt and loan loss methodologies, foreign currency accounting, and stock-based compensation, among others
• Navigate matters related to audit and accounting with external auditors
• Assist companies with operationalizing complex technical accounting (e.g., multiple element arrangements, stock compensation expense, etc.)

• General Accounting Close Support
• Aid clients in developing a streamlined monthly close process
• Ensure all major balance sheet accounts are reconciled to the subledger and lead any required subledger cleanups
• Assist with cash-to-accrual conversions and the creation of supporting schedules
• Guide the implementation of cloud-based finance and accounting systems
• Review the preparation of journal entries, invoices, and reconciliation of accounts during monthly or annual closings

• Financial Reporting Support
• Improve financial planning and analysis (budgeting, forecasting, data analysis)
• Ability to link accounting changes to KPIs and key reporting tools (i.e. ARR, topline waterfall models, etc.)
• Review of monthly internal financial reporting packs
• Review of monthly lender reporting

• Integration Support
• Liaise with business units outside of accounting to incorporate relevant functions into an integration plan
• Help IT teams integrate acquiree and acquirer financial systems

• Software/SaaS KPIs
• Ensure the FP&A function provides accurate and timely KPI reporting
• Understand and identify key trends in the Software & SaaS KPIs (e.g., ARR, retention, churn)
• Lead teams through the bookings to billings to revenue reconciliation across the ARR snowball

• 15+ years of related management consulting experience or a combination of consulting and industry experience with prior experience working with Private Equity Operating Partners and Private Equity-backed Portfolio companies
• Prior experience as a Chief Accounting Officer in a Private Equity-backed environment within the Software and SaaS industry
• Prior Audit experience of Software and SaaS Clients within Big 4, Regional Accounting or similar
• Prior experience with accounting and / or finance systems preferably NetSuite
• Expertise in simplifying complex accounting topics for diverse audiences with varying levels of understanding
• Experience working buy and build investment strategy and roll-up strategy are a plus
• Experience with -OR- significant exposure to various data analytics tools such as: Tableau, PowerBI, Alteryx, Snowflake, SQL, Python, etc.
• Experience mentoring and developing junior team members and helping project teams resolve multi-faceted issues

• Qualifications:
• Bachelor’s degree in accounting or finance
• CPA or CA certification preferred
• As one might expect, travel is innate in some of our projects.  With that said, our approach to travel is a thoughtful, meaningful one and we do our best to avoid scheduling back-to-back extended travel projects.  Even so, travel will vary project-to-project based on client preferences and may sometimes come in “bursts”