General Contractors Finance Recruiting

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.

Start a Search Work out what the vacancy costs you

01

What does this hire really come down to?

Your next finance leader must manage the persistent tension between field-level project managers and corporate reporting requirements. Success is defined by their ability to audit cost-to-complete reports with enough professional skepticism to stop bad data from reaching your balance sheet. Without this grip, your WIP schedules become retrospective documents rather than tools that actually inform your bidding strategy and project cash management.

Construction finance requires verifying the physical reality of retainage and overbillings against subcontractor payment obligations. We look for individuals who translate construction activity into financial indicators for lenders and sureties. The hire must demonstrate how they challenge project managers when estimates shift to protect project margins from financial loss.

Good people leave their current firms when they stop learning or when their accounting department becomes a bottleneck to the company's growth. They want a seat where their input on job profitability and cash flow forecasting changes how the company bids and builds. If your current team is buried in manual reconciliations rather than predictive analysis, you need an operator who can modernize your systems without breaking your firm's core production rhythm.

02

What do we check before you see anyone?

01Proof of direct experience managing WIP schedules where they personally reconciled job costs against field reports to confirm revenue recognition on long-term contracts.
02Evidence of technical comfort with construction-specific ERP environments, verifying they can build reports that extract data without requiring heavy manual work or custom external coding.
03Verification that they understand the specific bonding and surety requirements impacting your cash liquidity, including how retainage impacts the company's daily borrowing capacity.
04Ability to explain the mechanics of handling disputed change orders, showing they possess the negotiation skills required to manage financial risk before it hits the books.
05Examples of how they have audited project manager estimates, demonstrating they have the backbone to question field assumptions and resolve discrepancies before they reach executive reporting.
06Validation of work history in a firm of similar size and complexity to reduce the time spent learning your internal team structure.

03

Where do we find them?

We source from high-performing heavy civil, commercial and multi-family firms where the finance team is deeply integrated into operational decision-making. We avoid candidates coming from generic service industries where revenue and cost tracking lack the project-based complexities found in construction.

We target individuals who currently manage complex job-costing structures and seek firms with more rigorous reporting demands. Ask how they provided data to field managers to help lower direct costs on a previous project.

04

Which hiring mistakes should you watch for?

01Hiring candidates based purely on their tenure at large-scale entities without verifying their actual exposure to day-to-day job cost tracking and field-level variance analysis.
02Overlooking the necessity of construction-specific software fluency, assuming a standard enterprise platform expert can easily learn the nuances of complex project accounting cycles.
03Accepting passive communicators who avoid the conflict inherent in reconciling project manager estimates, which ultimately leaves leadership with inaccurate information regarding contract performance.

05

The search in three steps

01We conduct a deep dive into your current project reporting, software dependencies and surety requirements to define the exact baseline for our outreach efforts.
02We execute targeted, persistent outreach to currently employed professionals within the construction sector who match your specific organizational profile and reporting cadence.
03We provide a vetted shortlist of candidates who passed tests involving your firm's specific project scenarios. Ask them to explain the process they used to resolve a disputed subcontractor payment.

06

Which related hiring decisions are worth comparing?

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How your Construction 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.

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Questions people ask

How long is the initial outreach cycle before I see a list of candidates?

We prioritize detailed verification over speed to confirm candidate quality. We do not set specific dates, but we begin presenting candidates after we complete our structured outreach and interview cycles.

How do you test their ability to question field assumptions about project costs?

We move past resume review by testing candidates against construction accounting scenarios you face. We ask them to describe the process for reconciling a job cost report when field data conflicts with invoice totals.

Can you keep the interview process quiet while we work during the busy season?

Yes, we are accustomed to searching during peak project and reporting times. We minimize your team's involvement until the final stages of the interview process.

How do you keep our firm's identity private until the end?

We protect your firm's identity during the initial outreach phase. Our search process is designed to be discreet until we have confirmed interest from qualified, vetted professionals.

Are there any costs before I decide to hire one of your candidates?

Your decision to add a finance professional carries no financial obligation unless you choose to hire one of our candidates. We align our payment terms with your onboarding of the successful hire.

What about counteroffers on a Construction CFO hire?

We ask every Construction 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 Construction 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.

Finance recruiting for general contractors.

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