About the Organization
Our client is a family-owned, international food and beverage organization with restaurant operations spanning multiple countries, including Canada. The company operates a growing portfolio of globally recognized quick-service restaurant brands.
With a strong track record of growth and an entrepreneurial culture, the organization continues to invest in its people, operations and finance infrastructure to support its expanding business across multiple entities, brands, jurisdictions and currencies.
About the Opportunity
Our client is seeking a Director, Finance to join its Canadian finance leadership team and play a key role in strengthening the organization's financial reporting and controllership capabilities.
Reporting to the VP, Finance and CFO, this role will have primary responsibility for entity-level and brand-level financial reporting across the Canadian business, with a particular focus on the organization's largest brand portfolio. The Director will also oversee Canadian cash forecasting and provide financial insight and support to senior leadership.
This is a predominantly controllership-focused leadership position, ideally suited to a strong accounting and finance professional who combines technical depth with commercial awareness and the ability to operate in a growing, multi-entity organization.
While the immediate mandate is focused on Canada and core controllership responsibilities, there is meaningful opportunity for the successful candidate to expand their scope over time into group-level FP&A, commercial finance, M&A and broader strategic finance responsibilities.
Key Responsibilities:
Financial Reporting & Controllership
- Take ownership of financial reporting across all Canadian legal entities.
- Oversee the preparation, review and delivery of accurate and timely monthly, quarterly and annual financial statements.
- Ensure appropriate accounting policies, controls and reporting processes are maintained across the Canadian organization.
- Review financial results and investigate significant variances, trends and anomalies.
- Ensure the integrity and consistency of financial data across entities and reporting periods.
- Partner with the VP, Finance and CFO to ensure Canadian reporting meets group requirements.
- Coordinate with external auditors, advisors and other stakeholders as required.
- Support the ongoing enhancement of financial controls, processes and reporting infrastructure.
- Identify opportunities to improve the efficiency, accuracy and scalability of the Canadian finance function.
Brand-Level Reporting
- Own financial reporting and analysis across the Canadian brand portfolios.
- Develop and maintain brand-level reporting that provides leadership with clear visibility into financial and operating performance.
- Analyze brand performance against budget, forecast and prior periods.
- Provide meaningful variance analysis and identify key drivers of financial performance.
- Partner with operational and brand leadership to translate financial results into actionable business insights.
- Ensure consistency between entity-level accounting and brand-level management reporting.
Cash Flow & Treasury
- Own cash flow forecasting across the Canadian entities.
- Develop and maintain short- and medium-term cash flow forecasts.
- Monitor cash requirements, working capital and liquidity across the Canadian business.
- Partner with the VP, Finance and CFO on broader treasury and cash management activities.
- Provide visibility into upcoming funding requirements and significant cash movements.
- Support relationships with banking partners and other financial institutions as required.
FP&A & Commercial Finance
- Support the annual budgeting, forecasting and planning processes.
- Provide financial analysis and decision support to Canadian leadership.
- Partner with operational stakeholders to understand business performance and financial drivers.
- Support scenario modelling and analysis for key business initiatives.
- Contribute to the development of management reporting and performance metrics.
The precise scope of FP&A and commercial finance responsibilities will evolve as the finance organization continues to develop.
Strategic & Group Finance
- Support the VP, Finance and CFO on broader finance initiatives and special projects.
- Provide financial analysis and support for strategic initiatives, including potential M&A activity where appropriate.
- Participate in finance transformation, systems implementation and process improvement initiatives.
- Contribute to initiatives designed to create greater consistency between Canadian and broader group finance processes.
- Develop the capability to take on broader group-level responsibilities as the organization and the individual's experience evolve.
The Ideal Candidate
The successful candidate will be a strong controllership and financial reporting leader who is comfortable operating in a dynamic, entrepreneurial environment.
You will likely bring:
- 8–12+ years of progressive accounting and finance experience, including significant controllership or financial reporting responsibility.
- Strong technical accounting and financial reporting capabilities.
- Experience overseeing multiple legal entities and/or business units.
- Experience producing entity-level and management-level financial reporting.
- Strong understanding of budgeting, forecasting and financial analysis.
- Experience with cash flow forecasting and working capital management.
- Strong analytical skills and the ability to identify the underlying drivers of financial performance.
- Experience working with external auditors and other professional advisors.
- Experience in a multi-entity, multi-location or complex operating environment.
- ERP experience; exposure to Sage or Sage Intacct would be an asset.
- Experience with finance transformation or ERP implementation would be considered an asset.
- CPA designation or equivalent professional accounting qualification is preferred.
- Strong communication skills and the ability to build relationships with senior stakeholders and operational leaders.
- A hands-on approach and willingness to operate at both the detailed and strategic levels.
- Restaurant or food & beverage industry experience is not required. Experience within a complex, multi-entity organization is more important.
What Makes This Opportunity Unique
This role provides the opportunity to join a growing organization and take meaningful ownership of the Canadian finance and reporting function across multiple entities and brands.
The immediate mandate is strongly rooted in controllership, financial reporting, brand performance and cash forecasting, providing the successful candidate with a broad understanding of the Canadian business.
At the same time, the role has significant room to evolve. As the finance organization grows, there is an opportunity for the Director to expand into FP&A, commercial finance, M&A and broader group-level responsibilities, creating a strong path toward future senior finance leadership opportunities.
