SVP of Finance & Accounting

Job Summary: The SVP of Finance & Accounting serves as the financial steward of Saxbys, providing both strategic financial leadership and hands-on accounting management. This role owns the full scope of the finance function — from day-to-day cafe and HQ accounting to capital strategy, treasury, unit economics, and board- and investor-facing financial leadership — ensuring financial health, compliance, and growth across the organization. As Saxbys evolves beyond four-wall cafe economics into a multi-revenue-stream platform, this leader will bring the expertise and rigor needed to grow responsibly and translate our experiential-learning mission into a hard financial business case. This is a startup-stage build: the right person gets into the details, designs the processes the function needs, and builds a team that can execute against them at scale. The role is a direct strategic partner to the CEO/Founder and a primary financial point of contact for the Board of Directors and outside investors.

What You Will Own

• Financial Management: Oversee all financial operations including 4-wall cafe accounting, HQ accounting, and financial reporting. Develop and implement financial policies, procedures, and controls to ensure accuracy, compliance, and operational efficiency.
• Budgeting & Forecasting: Lead the annual budgeting process for cafes and HQ departments. Create, analyze, and present financial reports and forecasts to leadership, providing actionable insights to drive business decisions.
• Strategic & Long-Range Planning: Develop new partnership pro formas and financial models to evaluate business opportunities, expansion initiatives, and capital investments. Lead capital allocation across competing growth paths — cafes, strategic partnerships, and future platform revenue streams — balancing risk and innovation and defending the resulting tradeoffs. Own a rolling 3–5 year financial plan and translate complex financial data into strategic recommendations for the CEO/Founder and Board.
• Treasury & Capital Management: Manage cash flow, liquidity, and working capital across cafe and HQ operations. Own banking relationships and credit facilities, and evaluate and execute financing strategies (debt, equity, or lease financing) needed to fund growth.
• Partner Unit Economics & Growth Analytics: Define and measure partner acquisition cost, lifetime value, and payback for our long-cycle, higher-ed sales motion, using cohort and location-ramp analysis. Partner with the Partnerships team to instrument clean pipeline and cost data in HubSpot (distinguishing heavy hitters, standard partners, and management-fee accounts) so unit-economics models are built on real inputs. Translate the experiential-learning mission into a financial business case that shortens the sales cycle and lowers acquisition cost.
• Board & Investor Relations: Serve as the primary financial point of contact for the Board of Directors and outside investors. Prepare board decks, financial packages, and periodic investor updates. Support capital raises and strategic transactions, including due diligence coordination, data room management, and cap table oversight.
• Tax Strategy & Compliance: Ensure adherence to accounting principles, tax regulations, and financial reporting requirements, and own proactive tax planning (entity structure, credits, and multi-state exposure) rather than compliance alone. Own the relationship with our third-party tax and audit firm, serving as the primary point of contact for engagement scope, audit timelines, and deliverables. Identify and mitigate financial risks through effective internal controls, insurance coverage, and audit procedures.
• Financial Systems & Technology: Own the roadmap for accounting and financial reporting systems, ensuring platforms and tools scale with the organization; partner with the Technology team where finance systems intersect with broader HQ platforms.
• Team Development & Process Building: Build and lead a high-performing accounting team, providing mentorship, training, and career development opportunities. Get into the details to map out clear, scalable processes — close cycles, reporting cadences, partner-facing financial workflows — and hold the team accountable to executing against them. This is a startup-stage function that needs hands-on process design, not just management of what already exists.

Who You Will Support

• CEO/Founder: Act as a direct strategic thought partner on financial strategy, capital allocation, and long-range planning — translating financial complexity into clear, decision-ready narratives.
• Board of Directors & Investors: Prepare board materials, investor updates, and ad hoc analyses; serve as a trusted financial advisor and primary liaison for financing conversations and due diligence requests.
• Operations Team: Provide financial analysis and insights to support operational decision-making. Collaborate on cafe performance metrics, labor models, and cost management strategies.
• Executive Leadership: Deliver timely and accurate financial reporting to inform strategic decisions. Serve as a trusted advisor on financial matters affecting the organization.
• Department Heads: Partner with department leaders to develop and manage budgets, analyze spending patterns, and identify opportunities for efficiency and growth.
• Partnerships Team: Partner closely on financial modeling for new partnerships, cafe openings, and expansion opportunities, and on capturing clean pipeline and cost data to ground unit-economics models in real inputs.

Who You Will Supervise

This position will supervise the accounting team and plan for scalable team growth as the organization expands.

What Success Looks Like

• Financial statements and dashboards delivered accurately and on time that enable real-time decision making
• Annual budgeting process completed efficiently with cross-departmental alignment
• Develop cost allocation models that accurately reflect departmental resource utilization
• New partnership pro formas developed within 2 business days of request
• Establish financial controls that scale efficiently with company growth
• Board and investor materials delivered accurately and proactively, ahead of key meetings and decisions
• Capital strategy (financing and cash management) supports growth objectives with no liquidity gaps
• A rolling 3–5 year financial plan is maintained and refreshed at least annually
• Partner-level CAC, LTV, and payback are tracked by cohort and refreshed on real HubSpot pipeline and cost data
• Capital allocation decisions across cafes, strategic partnerships, and new revenue streams are backed by clear analysis and defensible tradeoffs
• Core finance processes (close, partner kickoff support, reporting cadences) are documented and scale without dropped balls

Where You Excel

• Financial Acumen
• Executive Communicator
• Startup Builder
• Adaptable to Change
• Master of Prioritization
• Developer of Talent
• Data Management

What You Have Done

• 7+ years of progressive accounting and finance experience
• Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, or related field; CPA preferred
• Experience managing multi-unit accounting operations
• Proven success developing and leading accounting teams
• Experience with financial modeling and pro forma creation
• Experience preparing board materials and/or managing investor or lender relationships
• Experience with capital raising, debt financing, or treasury functions preferred
• Experience at a company of similar scale and maturity that was diversifying its revenue model beyond a single core channel
• Experience building financial or operational processes from the ground up in a fast-scaling or startup environment
• Background in hospitality or retail finance preferred

What is Required

• Support, exhibit, and promote Saxbys Mission and Core Values in all daily activities
• Ability to travel up to 10% of the time
• Valid driver's license
• Physical requirements:
• Able to stand, walk, and smile for extended periods of time
• Able to stoop and kneel
• Push, pull, lift or carry up to 35 lbs
• Ascend or descend ladders, stairs, ramps