Finance Director

The National Restaurant Association and National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation are proud to be part of a highly respected industry, providing hospitality, opportunity, and quality of life. Much like the industry we represent, we have a dynamic, diverse, and inclusive culture grounded in trust, hospitality, collaboration, and innovation. These core values inspire our work, and we are looking for in a Finance Director, to support Business Process Optimization, PMO and Compliance.

As Finance Director, you will play a critical leadership role in modernizing and strengthening the organization's finance operations through business process outsourcing (BPO) and offshoring optimization, enterprisewide financial process reengineering, and disciplined project management. In partnership with the CFO and Controller, you will work to improve efficiency, scalability, compliance, and reporting quality across endtoend finance processes.

In addition, the Finance Director will provide PMO leadership for finance transformation initiatives, leading key audit, and compliance activities, and serving as a change leader ensuring finance operations are well controlled, consistently executed, and aligned to business needs.

Ideal candidates bring a minimum of ten years progressive experience with exposure to finance operations, accounting, or transformation initiatives, as well as demonstrated experience with BPO and/or offshoring models in a finance environment. Position requires a highly collaborative leader and strategic thinker with strong execution discipline.

The role operates out of our Chicago office with a required three days onsite, Monday - Wednesday, with flexibility to work remote on Thursday and Friday.

We are proud to offer our team members comprehensive benefits, designed to support their financial, professional, and personal well-being. In addition to outstanding healthcare coverage (medical, dental and vision), competitive salaries, generous vacation and leave time, we offer a matching 401(k) plan, a unique collection of corporate discounts and memberships, as well as programs to support career and skills development, learning and tuition assistance, and so much more.

Responsibilities

Business Process Outsourcing & Offshoring Optimization

• Lead the design, optimization, and ongoing management of outsourced and offshore finance services, ensuring cost efficiency, service quality, and strong internal controls.
• Define clear process ownership, scope, service levels (SLAs), and performance metrics for outsourced finance functions.
• Partner with internal stakeholders and external service providers to stabilize operations, resolve issues, and continuously improve service delivery.
• Evaluate opportunities to expand or rebalance outsourced and/or offshored activities across recordtoreport, procuretopay, ordertocash, and reporting processes.
• Ensure robust documentation, knowledge transfer, and standardized processes to support scalability and operational resilience.

EndtoEnd Finance Process Reengineering

• Lead the reengineering of core finance processes to improve efficiency, accuracy, timeliness, and transparency across the finance function.
• Map currentstate and futurestate processes, identifying any control gaps, redundancies, and automation opportunities.
• Partner with Process Owners and teams (i.e., IT, P&C, Facilities) to align systems, workflows, and reporting structures.
• Drive standardization of finance policies, procedures, and operating documentation.
• Support ERP, reporting, and systems optimization initiatives that enable streamlined, datadriven finance operations.

PMO Leadership & Finance Transformation

• Serve as PMO lead for finance initiatives including outsourcing transitions, system implementations, process redesign, and reporting enhancements.
• Develop detailed project plans, milestones, dependencies, and risk mitigation strategies for finance initiatives.
• Track initiatives, manage interdependencies, and deliver clear, executiveready status reporting to finance leadership.
• Ensure finance transformation initiatives remain aligned with strategic and enterprise priorities, timelines, and available resources.
• Drive disciplined execution while adapting to evolving business needs and priorities.

Compliance, Audit & Risk Support

• Lead yearend financial statement audits performed by independent public accountants, serving as the primary finance liaison.
• Lead the annual Form 990s and Form 990T information gathering process for tax returns prepared by independent public tax accountants.
• Provide oversight and coordination for annual benefit plan audit in partnership with the Controller and external auditors. Review 5500 draft filing before submission.
• Ensure compliance requirements are embedded into redesigned finance processes and outsourced service models.

1. Stakeholder Partnership & Leadership

• Act as a trusted operational and strategic partner to the CFO, Controller, and business leaders.
• Translate complex finance operations, compliance, and transformation topics into clear, actionable insights.
• Champion change management through clear communication, strong documentation, and stakeholder engagement.
• Provide guidance and direction to internal teams and outsourced partners, fostering accountability and continuous improvement.

Essential Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in accounting, finance, or related field.
• 10+ years of progressive finance experience with exposure to finance operations, accounting, or transformation initiatives.
• Demonstrated experience with BPO and/or offshoring models in a finance environment.
• Strong project and program management skills with the ability to manage multiple, complex initiatives.
• Solid understanding of endtoend finance processes and internal controls.
• Experience leading or coordinating audits, tax filings, and regulatory compliance activities.
• Strong analytical, documentation, and processmapping skills.
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to influence across levels and functions.

Nice to Have

• CPA and/or MBA
• Experience in nonprofit, association, or multientity environments.
• ERP and reporting system implementation or optimization experience.
• NetSuite Planning & Budgeting, Hyperion, or equivalent experience.
• Experience leading finance shared services, outsourcing, or transformation initiatives.

Mindset & Attributes

• Strategic thinker with strong execution discipline.
• Processoriented and controlminded, with a continuous improvement mindset.
• Comfortable operating in complex and evolving environments.
• Collaborative leader with strong stakeholder management skills.
• Actionoriented, accountable, and results focused.
• Curious and driven to understand beyond the numbers to find root causes.
• Applies professional skepticism, verifying data and assumptions with care.
• Communicates through data storytelling, turning insights into clear outputs.
• Actionoriented and resultsfocused, taking ownership and driving work forward.
• Comfortable with ambiguity, adapting quickly as priorities or information shift.
• Collaborative with positive intent, working openly and constructively with others.
• Strong data validation and reconciliation skills to ensure accounts, territories, hierarchies, and rollups align correctly across sources.
• Ability to summarize variances, explain anomalies, and communicate insights clearly to stakeholders.
• Ability to manage recurring monthly reporting cycles alongside ad hoc requests while maintaining accuracy and meeting deadlines.
• High attention to detail and consistent accuracy in reporting outputs, tracker updates, and data maintenance.
• Ability to work independently, manage up, proactively anticipate and identify issues, and drive tasks through completion.

Equal Opportunity Employer/Protected Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities

The National Restaurant Association, National Restaurant Association Solutions, LLC, and The National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation (together, "Company") is committed to equal employment opportunity, and it is Company's policy to take affirmative action to employ and advance in employment protected veterans and individuals with disabilities.

It is our policy to recruit, hire, train, and promote persons in all job titles, and ensure that all other personnel actions are administered, without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status and disability, or other legally protected status, and we will ensure that all employment decisions are based only on valid job requirements.

This employer is required to notify all applicants of their rights pursuant to federal employment laws.

For further information, please review the Know Your Rights notice from the Department of Labor