Chief Financial Officer (Remote, East Coast Preferred)

About the role

The Chief Financial Officer (CFO) is the primary steward of NFF’s financial strategy and integrity, setting and executing a comprehensive approach that spans accounting and tax, financial planning and analysis, treasury, and capital strategy. As a member of the executive team, the CFO partners in shaping NFF’s vision, ensuring the organization’s financial model sustains both mission impact and long-term resilience. The CFO provides strategic counsel on the financial implications of enterprise decisions, guiding resource allocation, risk management, and capital deployment to support disciplined growth and operational excellence.

Responsibilities

• Serve on the executive team, shaping NFF’s strategic direction and ensuring strong financial health and sustainability.
• Advise executive leadership on financial implications, tradeoffs, and risks of business decisions.
• Partner with the Board of Directors’ Audit Committee and Finance & Operations Committee, serving as a primary liaison in collaboration with the Chief Operating Officer.
• Set and lead NFF’s financial vision, strategies, operations, and policies to support long-term sustainability and effective risk management.
• Build and lead a high-performing finance team, fostering accountability, integrity, and continuous development.
• Represent NFF externally by (1) sharing how NFF builds equitable prosperity through capital, consulting, and advocacy; (2) partnering with funders, investors, and partners to advance NFF’s goals; and (3) contributing to field-wide learning and impact.
• Communicate NFF’s financial position, performance, and outlook to the Board of Directors, leadership, staff, and external parties providing clear analysis and insights to inform decision-making.
• Provide financial analysis to support organizational strategy, including evaluation of new and existing business models.
• Strengthen data governance and reporting capabilities to enable timely, enterprise decision-grade insights.
• Drive continuous improvement in financial processes, tools, and reporting frameworks.
• Lead multi-year financial planning, annual budgeting process and performance (including variance analysis), rolling forecasts, and scenario analysis to ensure strong financial visibility and discipline.
• Lead NFF’s capitalization strategy, managing a diversified capital stack to support a balanced approach to meeting client needs, mitigate risk, and optimize earning potential.
• Raise lending capital to meet portfolio growth goals and mission impact.
• Maintain and build relationships with banking and investor partners.
• Provide executive leadership on the Asset-Liability Committee (ALCO), providing risk management insight related to liquidity, asset-liability matching, portfolio losses, and interest rate margin.
• Establish investment policies, partnering with investment advisors as needed.
• Ensure the integrity of all accounting and financial reporting operations, ensuring accuracy, transparency, and strong internal controls across the enterprise.
• Oversee annual audit and tax processes for NFF and related entities, including programmatic LLCs and New Market Tax Credit entities.
• Co-lead enterprise risk management efforts (ERM), partnering with Chief Operating Officer and Chief Credit Officer to define and operationalize NFF’s risk appetite.
• Align financial planning with portfolio performance, including loss expectations, CECL considerations, and risk-adjusted returns.
• Integrate financial, credit, and capital perspectives to support a disciplined approach to portfolio growth.
• Contribute to external ratings readiness (e.g., S&P, AERIS, Fitch) through strong financial governance, data integrity, and risk transparency.
• Set the vision and structure for the Finance team to effectively support NFF’s strategy and operational complexity.
• Build organizational capacity by developing a diverse team of finance professionals, strengthening leadership within the team, leveraging technology as a core tool, and ensuring continuity and depth in key functions.
• Audit and evolve financial systems, processes, tools, and resourcing to meet the needs of a growing and increasingly complex organization.

Qualifications

• Fifteen (15) years of progressive financial leadership experience, preferably in the CDFI or financial services industries or in a large, complex nonprofit, with at least five (5) years of direct people management responsibility.
• One (1) or more of the following credentials: MBA, Masters in Accounting, CPA, or CMA.
• Experience serving in a senior finance leadership role (e.g., CFO, VP, or equivalent) with enterprise-wide responsibility.
• Experience overseeing multiple core finance functions, including financial strategy, planning, analysis, treasury, GAAP accounting, internal controls, compliance, auditing, and capital raising.
• Experience managing complex revenue models, including restricted grants, Federal funding, and earned revenue/fee-for-service or investment/interest income.
• Proficiency with enterprise financial systems (e.g., ERP platforms) and advanced use of spreadsheet or financial modeling tools.