Vice President, Strategic Finance

About Acelero and the Opportunity

Acelero is a national early childhood education organization operating across a complex, multi-entity platform that includes federally funded Head Start programs and Shine Early Learning partnerships. This role offers a senior finance leader the opportunity to shape the next phase of Acelero's financial strategy and infrastructure.

Job Summary

The Vice President, Strategic Finance is a high-impact executive responsible for the organization’s strategic financial architecture and technological transformation. This role serves as the primary architect for enterprise-wide financial planning, building the scalable systems and models necessary to support Acelero Inc. and Shine Early Learning.

Essential Duties & Responsibilities

• Budgeting Lifecycle Ownership: Own the end-to-end management of the annual budgeting process, including the technical consolidation and QA of all budgets across federal delegates, Acelero Inc., Shine business lines, and overhead.
• Dynamic Forecasting: Lead the organization’s shift to dynamic forecasting and forward-looking scenario analysis (e.g., 9+3 rolling forecasts) to drive agile decision-making and annual re-forecasting.
• Commercial Growth Modeling: Oversee the financial design for new products and partnerships, ensuring consistent revenue recognition standards (ASC 606) and margin expansion targets.
• B2A & Performance Reporting: Direct the monthly Budget-to-Actual (B2A) process and variance analysis, partner with business unit leaders, diagnosing operational bottlenecks and mandate proactive, corrective fiscal actions across the enterprise.
• Payroll & Capacity Analysis: Oversee complex staffing capacity analysis and monthly payroll allocation updates, ensuring optimal resource utilization across Federal and commercial streams.
• Narrative Leadership: Architect Board-level financial presentations, translating complex operational data and long-range forecasts into a cohesive strategic narrative for executive leadership and external stakeholders.
• Tech Stack Ownership: Serve as the strategic owner of the financial technology landscape (specifically Vena and NetSuite, with HubSpot and Workday integrations), driving a multi-year roadmap for total system optimization.
• Predictive BI Dashboarding: Drive the implementation of advanced BI and data visualization tools (e.g., PowerBI) to eliminate manual reporting and provide real-time dashboards and predictive growth-lever modeling to budget owners.
• Process Automation: Champion the use of automated workflows, APIs, and system integrations to streamline manual financial processes, including grant spend-down tracking and cross-system data flow.
• Data Governance: Establish and enforce data governance best practices across all financial platforms to ensure a single, automated source of truth.
• Fiscal Services & Consultancy Leadership: Consultant Oversight: Provide executive leadership to the group of fiscal consultants delivering direct support to Shine partners, ensuring high-quality technical assistance and coaching. Grant & DRS Strategy: Lead the development and quality assurance of complex grant budgets, including competitive Designated Renewal System (DRS) applications and blended/braided child care subsidy models. Partner Performance: Act as the principal financial strategist for Shine partners, advising on financial and grant management strategy, ensuring their fiscal integrity through robust compliance frameworks, and influencing their long-term sustainability by blending/braiding funding sources.
• Team Leadership & Supervision: Senior Leadership: Supervise, coach, and develop a senior team including the Senior Director, Shine Finance; Senior Director, Head Start Finance; Director, Budgets and Compliance; and Shine Fiscal Consultants delivering direct support to Shine partners. Culture of Excellence: Foster a culture of technical proficiency and strategic partnership, ensuring the finance team is leveraged as a high-value consultant to the broader organization.

Job Specifications

• To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to carry out each essential duty in a satisfactory manner.

Job Requirements

• Education: MBA or Master’s in Finance/Accounting required; CPA preferred.
• Experience: 10+ years of progressive senior management experience in a complex, multi-entity environment. PE-backed or growth-stage experience is a plus.
• Technical Mastery: Proven track record of architecting and leading enterprise financial system implementations (e.g., NetSuite, Vena) through technical teams or external vendors.
• Domain Expertise: Demonstrated mastery of both Federal Grant management (Uniform Guidance) and Commercial Revenue Recognition (ASC 606).
• Knowledge, Skills, & Abilities: Strategic & Technical Fluency: Ability to build complex financial models and the technical systems that power them, aligning financial objectives with mission and growth priorities. High-Impact Execution: Ability to operate with high autonomy and influence at the C-Suite and Board level. Communication: Proven ability to translate complex financial data into actionable insights for non-financial stakeholders, executive leadership, and Boards. Change Leadership: Demonstrated ability to lead complex organizational change, build stakeholder commitment, and drive sustained adoption of new finance systems, processes, and ways of working. Analytical Rigor: Exceptional ability to master detail while maintaining a high-level strategic perspective. Technical Proficiency: Expert-level financial modeling skills and proficiency with mid-to-enterprise level accounting and budgeting software (e.g., NetSuite, Vena, MIP). Agility: Comfort operating in a fast-paced environment with shifting priorities across public and private sectors.