Industry
Finance recruiting for consulting firms.
No postings. No stacks of resumes. No chasing. You interview a short list.
Financial Headhunters: Align your finance leadership search with the specific revenue cycles and project margin controls of your consulting firm.
This is what we do all day: recruit accounting, finance, banking and insurance professionals.
No upfront fee. You pay only if you hire.
Need someone now? Call 305-306-4829.
We offer a candidate replacement guarantee on standard search agreements. The applicable period and exact terms are set out in the signed client recruiting agreement.
- Controller
- CFO
- VP Finance
- FP&A Director
- Accounting Manager
- Director of Accounting
- Assistant Controller
- Tax Director
- Treasury Manager
- Internal Audit Director
- Senior Accountant
- Financial Analyst
- Head of Financial Reporting
- Commercial Lender
- Chief Credit Officer
- Business Systems Finance Lead
- No upfront fee
- Pay only if you hire
- Accounting, finance, banking and insurance
- We reach people who aren’t on job boards
- Replacement terms on standard searches
How long did your last search take?
How much did the empty seat cost while you waited?
Every week a finance seat stays empty costs you in overtime, late closes and work that waits. We go straight to people already doing the job.
01
What does this hire really come down to?
Your firm survives on the precision of your project accounting. A finance leader here must understand that utilization is not just a metric but a fundamental unit of currency that dictates your cash position. They have to connect the dots between consultant time entries, complex billing schedules, and the eventual collection of accounts receivable. If they cannot explain how unbilled work affects the current month's margin, they will struggle to provide the data your partners need for quarterly distributions.
You need an operator who balances firm-wide financial integrity with the needs of individual practice leads. They must be comfortable enforcing controls on engagement budgets without stifling the speed of client delivery. This requires someone who knows how to spot erosion in project economics before it becomes a structural problem. They should be able to translate complex service-based accounting into plain language that helps partners understand the true profitability of their specific engagement portfolios.
Great candidates have spent their careers refining the reporting cadence inside firms that sell time and expertise. They understand the difference between standard accrual accounting and the nuanced revenue recognition required for multi-stage client engagements. They move when they hit a ceiling in their current firm or seek a role with more direct influence over financial strategy. You are looking for a partner who owns the financial reality of the firm and drives the performance of the back-office team.
02
What do we check before you see anyone?
- 01We verify their experience managing time-and-material or fixed-fee billing cycles. We ask them to walk through how they identified a revenue recognition lag when a project budget neared its cap.
- 02We confirm they have successfully held operational staff accountable for project-level reporting, as someone who only managed corporate accounting will fail to handle your practice-level demands.
- 03We analyze their track record with complex work-in-progress reporting to see if they can identify, age, and resolve billing bottlenecks before those issues drain your cash flow.
- 04We test their ability to manage partner equity distributions and internal financial data. We ask them how they handled a calculation adjustment for a partner compensation cycle.
- 05We validate their technical fluency in professional service platforms, specifically looking for mastery of integration between time-tracking systems and the core general ledger accounting software.
- 06We assess their ability to explain financial results to non-financial partners. We ask them to describe how they presented a project margin report to a practice head to justify a budget change.
03
Where do we find them?
We source from established professional service firms, boutique architectural practices, and engineering consultancies that operate on similar billing and project-tracking models. We prioritize professionals who have managed the transition from purely transactional accounting roles into strategic finance leadership within these high-touch service environments.
These candidates are often currently employed and focused on delivering results in firms with rigid project economics. They move when they find an opportunity to solve more complex financial problems, own a larger share of the firm's strategic planning, or shift from a supportive role to a position of genuine operational authority.
04
Which hiring mistakes should you watch for?
- 01Hiring candidates who come exclusively from manufacturing or product-based environments, as they frequently misunderstand the urgency and complexity of service-based revenue cycles.
- 02Overvaluing heavy corporate experience at the expense of someone who has actually managed the gritty details of project billing and utilization tracking in a partnership.
- 03Failing to define which finance systems the hire will control, leading to a candidate who lacks the technical capacity to clean up your firm's data.
05
The search in three steps
- 01We define your specific operating model and the reporting needs of your partners to build a clear, technical brief that targets the right level of functional expertise.
- 02We map the market and conduct direct outreach to find high-performing professionals, screening them specifically on their ability to handle your firm’s unique billing and margin challenges.
- 03We conduct deep-dive interviews and present only those candidates who possess the required technical skills and the operational mindset to improve your firm's financial health immediately.
06
Which related hiring decisions are worth comparing?
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Related positions we recruit
- Chief Financial Officer (CFO)
- Division / Business Unit CFO
- Chief Accounting Officer
- SVP Finance
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- Director of Finance
- Head of Finance
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- Corporate Controller
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- VP of Accounting
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- General Ledger Manager
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- Senior Accountant
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- VP FP&A
- Director of FP&A
- FP&A Manager
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- VP Corporate Development
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- Budget Manager
- VP of Tax
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- Tax Manager (corporate)
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- Partnership Tax Manager
- Property Tax Manager
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- Director of Accounting Operations
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- Accounts Payable Manager
- Accounts Payable Supervisor
- Procure-to-Pay Manager
- Accounts Receivable Manager
- Billing Manager
- Order-to-Cash Manager
- Credit Manager
- Director of Credit
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- Director of Payroll
- Payroll Manager
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How your CFO search runs
How does The Six-Step Search work?
One sequence, from a well-defined seat to a shortlist you can judge.
Search Calibration
We start with a call about the seat, the books, the owners and the people the hire will work with. We learn what the role must fix in the first year and what would make a candidate wrong even if the resume looks right.
You get: A written search brief: scope, must-haves, deal-breakers and the pay range, agreed with you.
Market Mapping
We map the companies and institutions where the right people already work: similar size, similar ownership, similar complexity, in your market and in others.
You get: The target list of companies and institutions we will search, reviewed with you before outreach.
Professional Contact Intelligence
We find direct ways to reach the people on the map. Most are employed and not reading job boards, so reaching them takes real research.
You get: Direct routes to people who are not on job boards, researched for your search.
Persistent Personalized Outreach
We call and write to people individually and follow up. Interest varies, so we discuss the actual opportunity rather than promising a particular response.
You get: One-to-one conversations about your actual role, followed up, never a mass email blast.
Live Candidate Qualification
We speak with every candidate before you do. We check scope, systems, reporting lines, compensation expectations, location and why they would move.
You get: Only candidates we have spoken with, checked on scope, systems, pay, location and motive.
Candidate Intelligence and Process Support
You receive a short written brief on each finalist covering what they have done, where they are thin and what they want. Then we help with interviews, references and the offer.
You get: A short written brief on each finalist, plus help with interviews, references, counteroffer risk and the offer.
Questions people ask
When can we expect to review a shortlist for our finance lead?
We focus on a thorough search rather than promising an arbitrary timeline. You can expect a professional, qualified shortlist once we identify the specific talent that fits your firm's unique operational needs.
How do you confirm a candidate has the operational mindset needed for our specific service firm?
We test their experience against your firm's specific economic drivers like utilization, engagement margin, and billing cycles. We also assess how they manage the relationship between financial reporting and partner decision-making.
Can you keep our hiring project on schedule during our peak busy season?
Yes, we prioritize candidates accustomed to the hourly billable requirements of professional services. We will align our sourcing pace with your firm's revenue cycle without lowering our vetting standards.
How do you manage confidentiality when contacting potential candidates?
We maintain full confidentiality during your firm's search. Our team manages sensitive outreach to protect your brand and the candidate's career.
What determines the fee for our engagement?
We verify that candidates can track client demands against project profitability. We operate on a contingency basis where you bear no cost for the search until you hire a candidate via a signed offer.
What about counteroffers on a CFO hire?
We ask every CFO candidate early why they would move and what their employer might do to keep them. Counteroffer risk goes in the written brief before you make an offer.
What is your guarantee?
We offer a candidate replacement guarantee on standard search agreements. The applicable period and exact terms are set out in the signed client recruiting agreement.
What don't you do?
We do not post your CFO job and forward whoever applies. We do not send stacks of unscreened resumes, and we do not recruit outside accounting, finance, banking and insurance.
Start a search
Tell us about the seat.
No upfront fee. You pay only if you hire.
We offer a candidate replacement guarantee on standard search agreements. The applicable period and exact terms are set out in the signed client recruiting agreement.