Chief Financial Officer

ABOUT THE ROLE

Pressed Cafe is a fast-growing, high-volume restaurant brand seeking a Chief Financial Officer who can build the financial backbone this company needs to move at speed, without sacrificing the discipline that got us here.

This is a builder's role, not a maintainer's role.

The CFO will own Finance, Accounting, Purchasing, and IT, and will partner directly with the Co-Founders to turn aggressive unit growth into durable, profitable growth. This means more than clean books and tight controls. It means architecting the systems, teams, and capital strategy to support a brand that isn't slowing down, and positioning the company for what comes next, whether that's franchising, licensing, or commissary expansion.

The ideal candidate has led finance inside a high-volume, multi-unit restaurant or retail organization. They know how a P&L moves at the store level. They've built or supported alternative growth models. They've scaled controls and infrastructure ahead of where the business is going, not behind it, and they understand what it takes to build a finance function that grows with the brand.

This is a hands-on, highly visible seat in a founder-led company. The right candidate is just as comfortable building a five-year capital plan as walking a restaurant floor during a Friday dinner rush.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

The CFO leads four functions — Finance, Accounting, Purchasing, and IT — and is accountable for the financial and operational infrastructure that lets Pressed Cafe scale 3-4x without losing discipline, speed, or culture.

STRATEGIC FINANCE & CAPITAL ALLOCATION

• Partner with the Co-Founder & CEO and executive team to set long-term financial strategy and growth plans.
• Build financial models for new-unit development, ROI analysis, and multi-year growth forecasting.
• Maintain a disciplines capital structure through strategic capital allocation, working capital optimization, and prudent investment of growth initiatives.
• Lead scenario planning, risk assessment, and sensitivity analysis across a rapidly expanding portfolio of high-volume locations.
• Advise the executive team on capital structure optionality, including future financing or strategic alternatives.

FINANCIAL OPERATIONS, REPORTING & CONTROLS

• Oversee all financial operations, including accounting, FP&A, tax, audit, and compliance.
• Build scalable systems, processes, and controls that can support a company 3-4x its current size without breaking.
• Ensure accurate, timely financial reporting, budgeting, and forecasting at both the corporate and restaurant level.
• Safeguard company assets, cash, and financial integrity; proactively identify and mitigate financial risk.
• Implement KPIs and dashboards for store-level performance, regional performance, and corporate financial health.

RESTAURANT-LEVEL PERFORMANCE & UNIT ECONOMICS

• Own company-wide and restaurant-level P&Ls.
• Drive visibility into restaurant-level profitability across all sales channels, margins, and labor efficiency.
• Partner with Operations leadership to translate financial analytics into actionable, store-level results.
• Build and refine restaurant pro formas, new-unit budgets, and payback models for every stage of growth.
• We expect our CFO to understand how restaurants actually run — not just how the spreadsheet looks.

CAPITAL PROJECTS & CONSTRUCTION FINANCE

• Own the financial planning, budgeting, and cost tracking for every new restaurant build and remodel, from pro forma to ribbon cutting.
• Partner with Development and Operations to ensure capital is allocated with discipline, projects stay on budget, and ROI assumptions hold up against actual results.
• Proactively assess how the company's capital needs and risk profile shift as the development pipeline grows and build the financial frameworks to stay ahead of it.
• Establish underwriting standards and return thresholds that keep growth ambitious and financially sound at the same time.

PURCHASING, SUPPLY CHAIN & VENDOR STRATEGY

• Lead the Purchasing function, including vendor negotiation, contract strategy, and supplier risk management.
• Drive cost optimization across food, packaging, and supply chain categories without compromising quality or availability.
• Partner with Operations and commissary/distribution teams to ensure supply chain reliability keeps pace with unit growth.
• Build purchasing systems and reporting that scale cleanly as unit count and order volume multiply.

TECHNOLOGY & SYSTEMS LEADERSHIP

• Own the IT function and the technology roadmap supporting a rapidly multiplying unit count.
• Evaluate and manage technology investments across POS, labor and scheduling platforms, financial planning systems, and warehouse/inventory management.
• Ensure the company’s data and reporting infrastructure scales ahead of growth, not behind it.
• Maintain a strong risk and security posture across financial systems and restaurant technology.

LEADERSHIP & CULTURE

• Build and mentor a high-performing finance, accounting, purchasing, and IT organization aligned with the company’s entrepreneurial, growth-oriented culture.
• Serve as a trusted advisor to the Co-Founder & CEO, providing clear insight and data-driven recommendations.
• Foster cross-functional collaboration with Operations, Development, Marketing, and HR.

QUALIFICATIONS

• 10-15 years of progressive financial leadership, with significant experience in multi-unit restaurants, hospitality, or retail required.
• Proven success scaling a high-growth, high-volume organization through a meaningful inflection point
• Strong background in capital-intensive development, construction finance and ROI modeling
• Deep understanding of restaurant P&Ls, unit economics, labor models, and food and packaging cost management.
• Experience with capital projects, construction finance, and development ROI modeling.
• Direct oversight of, or close partnership with, Purchasing, Supply Chain and IT functions.
• Experience with franchising, licensing, or other alternative growth models preferred.
• Experience in a privately owned or founder-led company strongly preferred.
• CPA, MBA, or related advanced degree strongly preferred.

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic under applicable law.