What are the responsibilities and job description for the Corporate Controller position at Mid-States Bolt & Screw?
- Title: Corporate Controller
- Reports to: Chief Financial Officer
- Direct reports: Accounting team
- Location: Burton, MI (on-site preferred)
Mid-States Bolt & Screw is scaling! The Corporate Controller is to lead day-to-day finance operations, build scalable processes, and enable the CFO to focus on strategic initiatives including capital strategy, M&A, and value creation. The CFO will retain ownership of capital structure, lender and sponsor relationships, board engagement, M&A strategy, and enterprise value creation. The Controller owns the finance operating engine that supports it.
Core Responsibilities
Accounting Leadership and Controls
- Lead the accounting team. Set expectations, develop people, appropriate delegation, and accountability for ownership of work.
- Own a structured and timely month-end close process without sacrificing quality.
- Own balance sheet integrity. Monthly reconciliations are completed, reviewed, and substantiated.
- Serve as the quality control point before financials are finalized with the CFO.
- Partner with the CFO on accounting policy, judgment areas, technical accounting research, and audit readiness.
- Maintain and continuously improve internal controls appropriate to a PE-backed business.
- Own day-to-day cash management, short-term liquidity forecasting, and working capital visibility.
- Partner with sourcing and operations on AR, AP, and inventory levers that move cash conversion.
- Produce borrowing base reporting and lender deliverables.
- Drive the annual budget and rolling forecast process under the CFO's direction.
- Own variance analysis. Explain drivers, not just numbers.
- Build clear, decision-grade reporting for branch and functional leaders. Support CFO-led reporting to the executive team and board with analysis and underlying data.
- Take primary ownership of recurring financial analysis and reporting cadence currently performed by the CFO.
- Treat automation and AI as core tools of the role, not optional projects. Identify, prioritize, and lead automation of close tasks, reconciliations, reporting, and recurring analysis.
- Use the existing technology stack (data warehouse, BI, AI tooling) to remove manual effort and create capacity. Capacity gained is reinvested into higher-value work, not headcount reduction.
- Document and standardize finance workflows so the function scales cleanly with organic growth and acquisitions.
- Partner with IT and the CFO on finance system improvements, integrations, and data quality.
- Support due diligence, quality of earnings coordination, and financial workstreams on acquisitions.
- Execute opening balance sheet build and purchase accounting workstreams with external advisors, under CFO direction.
- Map acquired entities' charts of accounts, close calendars, and reporting into the Mid-States standard.
- Stabilize accounting and reporting for newly acquired businesses, then standardize and absorb them into the Mid-States finance operating rhythm.
- Work directly with branch managers, sourcing leadership, and operations to drive financial understanding and accountability.
- Translate financial results into operating insight branch leaders can act on.
- Support the management cadence with clear narratives and metrics. No data dumps.
- Help raise financial literacy across the organization.
Mid-States is built on five values. This role lives them every day.
Value
What It Looks Like In This Role
EMPOWERMENT
Pushes ownership of work directly to the accounting team. Trusts and develops team. Measures own success by the team's capacity, not personal hours worked.
INTEGRITY
Owns the numbers. Surfaces issues early, including bad news. Holds the line on accounting discipline, controls, and reconciliations even when it is inconvenient.
GRIT
Comfortable in a PE-backed, fast-moving, multi-site environment. Finishes what is started. Closes the loop on forecasts, and integration tasks without prompting.
INNOVATION
Treats automation, AI, and process redesign as core to the job. Actively reduces manual work in reporting, and recs as a force multiplier, not a headcount play.
ONE TEAM
Partners genuinely with branch leaders, sourcing, IT, and operations. Translates finance into language the business actually uses. No silos, no score boarding.
Ideal Background And Experience
- Eight or more years of progressive finance and accounting experience, including senior accounting leadership.
- Bachelor's degree in Accounting required. MBA strongly preferred.
- Experience in a private-equity-backed, multi-site, or growth-oriented company. Distribution, manufacturing, or industrial services preferred.
- Strong technical accounting foundation: US GAAP, close mechanics, balance sheet discipline, lender reporting.
- Real FP&A experience: budgeting, forecasting, variance analysis, KPI design.
- Proven experience in leading and developing accounting teams. Has practical experience in delegating tasks to build team capacity, beyond just holding management titles.
- Hands-on experience with M&A: opening balance sheets, purchase accounting, integration workstreams.
- Hands-on experience with Epicor Prophet 21 (P21) and Power BI strongly preferred.
- Comfort and curiosity with modern finance technology: data warehouse and BI tools, automation, and AI applied to finance workflows.
- Comfortable operating at both strategic and detailed execution altitude.
Mid-States Bolt & Screw is a 90-plus-year-old industrial distribution platform in the middle of an active growth and value creation chapter. The finance function is being rebuilt to support it. This role offers the rare combination of a high-trust seat next to the CFO, real ownership of the accounting and FP&A function, exposure to M&A and integration work, and a sponsor environment that actually invests in technology and talent. It is a strong platform for a Controller who wants to scale with the business, build a finance function the right way, and be measured by outcomes.