Chief Financial and Operations Officer

Position Overview:

The CFO/COO is a senior executive responsible for company-wide strategic planning, financial stewardship, and operational leadership. This role has full accountability for the performance, integration, and alignment of all departments, ensuring the organization executes profitably, compliantly, and efficiently across all public-sector & private construction projects in RI and MA.

This executive partners closely with ownership and senior leadership to translate strategy into execution, maintaining strong financial controls while driving operational excellence, risk management, and scalable growth.

Key Responsibilities:

Executive & Strategic Leadership

• Serve as a principal advisor to the President/CEO and ownership on strategy, risk, operations, and financial performance.
• Lead company-wide strategic planning, annual business planning, and long-range financial forecasting.
• Translate strategic objectives into measurable operational and financial goals.
• Ensure alignment across estimating, operations, finance, compliance, safety, and support functions.
• Drive a culture of accountability, transparency, collaboration, and continuous improvement.

Financial Leadership & Oversight (CFO Function)

• Oversight of financial reporting, budgeting, forecasting, and cash flow management.
• Oversight of WIP schedules, job cost reporting, margin analysis, and variance tracking.
• Maintain strong internal controls and GAAP-compliant financial practices.
• Oversee bonding capacity and surety relationships and banking relationships, credit facilities, and capital investment.
• Oversee annual audits, tax planning, and coordination with external CPAs/Advisors.
• Manage insurance programs (GL, WC, OCIP/CCIP where applicable).
• Support strategic pursuits through financial modeling, bid reviews, and risk analysis.

Operational Leadership (COO Function)

• Oversee end-to-end operational performance including preconstruction and estimating, project management and field operations, project controls, scheduling, and documentation.
• Establish and monitor KPIs for project margins, schedule performance, change management, and labor productivity.
• Drive consistent execution across all project types and delivery models.
• Ensure effective coordination between office and field operations.
• Champion process standardization, best practices, and scalability.

Public Sector Compliance & Risk Management

• Ensure full compliance with federal, state, and municipal public procurement requirements, prevailing wage and certified payroll (RI/MA), MBE/WBE participation, reporting, and documentation, and labor compliance.
• Oversee claims prevention, subcontractor risk, and dispute avoidance.
• Lead enterprise risk management related to contract terms, schedule delays, and change orders and claims exposure.
• Ensure consistent, documented contract administration across all projects.

People, Systems & Infrastructure

• Oversee HR and talent strategy in partnership with leadership including workforce planning, leadership development, and performance management.
• Drive adoption and optimization of enterprise systems related to ERP/job costing, project management platforms, and payroll and compliance tools.
• Build scalable infrastructure to support growth without sacrificing control.
• Mentor department heads and develop future leaders.

Success Metrics & Accountability

The CFO/COO will be accountable for:

• Company-wide profitability and cash flow performance.
• Consistent achievement of target gross margins.
• On-time, accurate financial reporting.
• Strong bonding and banking relationships.
• Successful execution of all projects with minimal claims.
• Operational efficiency and reduced cost overruns.
• Measurable improvement in organizational accountability and performance.

Position Qualifications:

Requirements

• 15 years of progressive leadership experience in construction, with a strong background in general contracting and significant exposure to public-sector work.
• Proven experience managing companies in the $50M–$150M revenue range.
• Deep understanding of job costing, construction accounting, WIP reporting, bonding, insurance, and public procurement.
• Demonstrated success leading multi-department organizations.
• Strong financial acumen combined with operational credibility.

Preferred

• CPA, CCIFP, or equivalent financial credential.
• Experience in RI/MA construction markets.
• Background in non-union worker in the public sector and labor relations.
• Experience working directly with owners.

Leadership Competencies

• Strategic and systems-based thinker.
• Decisive, accountable, and detail-oriented.
• High integrity with strong ethical standards.
• Clear communicator with the ability to influence across all levels.
• Comfortable balancing long-term strategy with day-to-day execution.