VP of Accounting, Corporate Controller

Position: Vice President of Accounting / Corporate Controller Reports To: Chief Financial Officer Location: On-site five days per week in Brea, California; local or California-based candidates strongly preferred, with relocation considered for the right individual Travel: Limited; occasional travel to brand and branch locations as acquisition integration requires Compensation: Competitive base salary and bonus; medical, dental, vision, and 401(k) benefits; and meaningful equity upside Chamberlain Advisors is conducting an executive search for Champions Group Holdings, a leading residential home-services platform delivering essential HVAC, plumbing, and electrical services to homeowners across the United States. Operating a portfolio of established, locally rooted regional brands across seven states, supported by more than 1,800 field technicians and a base of roughly 150,000 active members, Champions Group pairs the local reputations of its brands with a centralized “home office” shared-services model. Backed by Blackstone through an approximately $2.5 billion transaction in 2026 and executing an active buy-and-build acquisition strategy, Champions Group is building a multi-service residential home-services platform positioned to set a new standard for the industry, through organic growth, acquisitions, and new service verticals. It is scaling its accounting function and control environment toward institutional, public-company-grade rigor. Core Profile: alignment with the following is required to get you in the conversation Branch-Based, Multi-Entity Accounting & Business Partnership (the threshold qualification): You will bring genuine experience owning accounting for a branch-based, multi-site services business that manages many operating entities; this is the single most important criterion for the role, and experience confined to a single-entity, centralized, or commercial-only environment does not translate to this platform. Site and entity count weigh more heavily than revenue here: a thirty-location, multi-state platform qualifies where a larger single-site operator does not. You will operate as a trusted extension of the Chief Financial Officer, owning the platform's centralized accounting function and giving the CFO numbers he can take to the board and sponsor with confidence. You will move beyond recording transactions to interpreting them: owning the reporting output, telling the story behind the numbers, and constructively challenging FP&A rather than deferring to it.Centralization, Controls & an Efficient Close (the hands-on build): You will continue to centralize the accounting function into a single, consistent home-office model and personally build the internal-control discipline that moves the organization toward Sarbanes-Oxley-level rigor and public-company readiness; prior public-company execution is not required, but the capability to get the organization there is. You will make the month-end close efficient and dependable (today a reliable but not-yet-streamlined seven-day cycle) and stand behind a balance sheet that reconciles, and you will own a complex, high-volume payroll operation spanning multiple pay codes across seven states, with California wage-and-hour complexity underneath it (the platform's single largest accrual), and a high-transaction accounts-payable function, bringing a bias toward systems standardization and automation across the shared-services organization.Repeatable Acquisition Integration: You will serve as the accounting owner of the company's active acquisition program, integrating newly acquired brands onto the platform, harmonizing charts of accounts, establishing opening balance sheets, and onboarding each business onto the close, A/P, Payroll, Banking, and controls model. You will migrate acquired brands off founder-run or legacy books onto the platform's systems and close calendar and convert diligence assumptions into disciplined post-close true-ups. You will bring a repeatable playbook, executed at the pace of a company completing multiple tuck-in acquisitions each year, partnering with Corporate Development and the sponsor on financial diligence and purchase accounting, including closing statements and quality-of-earnings findings calls, while owning what happens after each deal closes.Field-First Influence & Servant-Leadership: You will earn the trust of operators you do not manage, leading change through influence rather than authority and treating the field as the customer; this was the most consistent theme across the leadership team. The divisional controllers report to divisional presidents rather than to you, so change in the field is earned rather than directed. You will build credibility with branch leaders and division presidents by being visible, translating the numbers into decisions they can act on, and running the function as a service to the field rather than a check on it. In a people-first, field-led culture, a leader who defaults to “because I said so,” creates an “us-and-them” dynamic with operations, or hides behind the reporting will not succeed.People Leadership, Development & Culture: You will develop and retain a shared-services team of roughly twenty professionals across Accounting, Accounts Payable, and Payroll, raising the function's capability as the platform scales. You will set clear standards and accountability, coach and elevate the people already in seat while hiring selectively, and build the bench strength and succession the function needs as each acquisition adds volume and headcount. You will establish a culture of ownership and continuous improvement, and you will bring the temperament the environment demands: resilient in the specific sense of sustaining momentum through the first round of friction rather than letting initiatives stall, urgent, hands-on, oriented to the long term, and a genuine builder rather than a maintainer of the steady state. Core Responsibilities & Scope Of Work Accounting Leadership & Executive Partnership Consolidated Close, Reporting & Audit: Own the month-end, quarter-end, and year-end close and the external audit across all brands and entities, delivering accurate, timely financial statements under U.S. GAAP while driving the cycle toward greater efficiency without sacrificing accuracy.Executive Partnership: Serve as a trusted extension of the CFO, absorbing a substantial share of the CFO’s current responsibilities and providing a reliable, insight-oriented accounting partner to FP&A, IT, and operating leadership.Insight Over Reporting: Own the reporting output, moving beyond a correct package to interpreting what the numbers reveal, flagging the issues that matter, and, as the platform scales, quickly assessing which brands are on track and why.Sponsor, Board & Lender Support: Deliver timely, credible reporting to the private-equity sponsor, board, lenders, and investors, including covenant and compliance-certificate reporting, ensuring the integrity of the information that underpins value-creation and capital decisions. Payroll, Accounts Payable, Treasury & Transactional Operations Payroll Oversight: Oversee a complex, high-volume payroll function spanning multiple pay codes and brands (the organization’s single largest accrual), ensuring accuracy, control, and continuity in partnership with a strong payroll leader while improving cycle times and efficiency.Accounts Payable: Direct a high-transaction accounts-payable operation, standardizing processes and controls across brands, addressing retention challenges in the function, and improving cycle times and efficiency.Treasury, Banking & Cash Management: Own banking relationships, cash management, and cash forecasting across entities, bringing in specialist treasury support where depth is warranted.Process Efficiency & Automation: Streamline transactional accounting workflows across the shared-services organization, applying automation and, where appropriate, AI-enabled tooling, and evaluating selective outsourcing where it strengthens the function. Controls, Systems & Centralization Internal Controls & SOX Readiness: Design and implement the internal-control framework required to move the organization toward Sarbanes-Oxley-level rigor and audit-ready, public-company-grade reporting, without requiring prior public-company execution experience.Audit Ownership & Remediation: Own the external-audit relationship end to end, working directly with the auditors and resolving findings and remediation before results reach the CFO and audit committee, and coordinate tax and regulatory compliance across jurisdictions.Centralization: Consolidate all accounting (accounts payable, payroll, and core accounting) into a single, consistent home-office standard across brands, enabling field finance leaders to focus on operational partnership.Systems Ownership: Own the accounting, consolidation, and reporting systems environment, including the general ledger (Sage Intacct), field-service platform (ServiceTitan), expense management (Concur), payroll (ADP), and planning and business-intelligence tools (Workday Adaptive, Domo), leading enhancements, integrations, and standardization across a multi-entity, multi-brand landscape. M&A Integration & Platform Scaling Post-Close Integration: Own the accounting integration of acquired brands, harmonizing charts of accounts, establishing opening balance sheets, and onboarding each business’s accounting, accounts payable, payroll, and banking onto the platform’s close and controls model.Purchase Accounting & Diligence: Partner with Corporate Development and the sponsor on financial diligence and purchase accounting (ASC 805), providing the accounting perspective required to close and integrate transactions.Repeatable Playbook: Build and refine a systematic integration checklist and playbook capable of absorbing multiple tuck-in acquisitions per year cleanly and at pace, replacing ad hoc integration with a standard, teachable process.Scalable Infrastructure: Build accounting infrastructure (people, process, and systems) that scales with an accelerating acquisition program and a growing multi-state footprint. Team Leadership & Talent Development Lead, Not Just Manage: Lead rather than administer the function, developing the directors of accounting and payroll, building depth and bench beneath them, and making thoughtful structural changes as the platform scales.Talent Strategy: Attract, retain, and elevate accounting talent, investing in career pathing and raising the capability of the function as reporting and control requirements grow.Field & Cross-Functional Partnership: Partner effectively with FP&A, IT, and Human Resources, and earn the trust of the operating brands and division presidents, serving the field as an internal customer rather than dictating to it.Culture & Standards: Model and instill a culture of accuracy, accountability, efficiency, and continuous improvement consistent with the company’s people-first, field-led operating philosophy. Qualifications Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, or a related field required; CPA and/or an advanced degree preferred but not required, with capability weighted over credentials.Fifteen or more years of progressive accounting leadership experience, culminating in a Corporate Controller, VP of Accounting, or equivalent senior role.Direct experience leading accounting for a branch-based, multi-site services business managing multiple operating entities, the single most important qualification for this role.Experience gained inside genuine multi-site complexity, which is the gate for this search: site, branch, and entity count weigh more heavily than revenue, so a thirty-location, multi-state platform qualifies where a larger single-site operator does not. Company scale preferably in excess of $500 million in revenue, and ideally $1 billion or more, though revenue alone will not exclude a candidate whose multi-site complexity is strong.Experience within HVAC, plumbing, electrical, or adjacent residential and field-services businesses is a plus; comparable multi-brand, multi-site consumer-services platforms are weighted equally.Demonstrated track record operating within a private-equity-backed, acquisition-driven platform, comfortable in a fast-paced, buy-and-build environment.Proven success centralizing a decentralized accounting function into a shared-services or “home office” model.Demonstrated ability to make a month-end close efficient while maintaining close discipline, reconciliations, and a reliable reporting cadence.Deep command of high-volume payroll (multiple pay codes) and accounts-payable operations, with exposure to treasury, banking, and cash management, or the judgment to bring in a specialist where depth is needed.Experience building internal controls toward Sarbanes-Oxley-level rigor and audit- or IPO-ready reporting, including working directly with external auditors and leading remediation; prior public-company (IPO) execution is not required.Hands-on experience owning accounting and consolidation systems and driving systems standardization; familiarity with multi-entity ERP (e.g., Sage Intacct) and field-service platforms (e.g., ServiceTitan) preferred.Demonstrated M&A accounting experience, including post-close integration, chart-of-accounts harmonization, opening balance sheets, and purchase accounting (ASC 805).Proven people leadership at scale: has led and developed a multi-team function of comparable size and scope (on the order of twenty professionals across accounts payable, payroll, and accounting), leading rather than administering and building depth and bench beneath direct reports.A track record of leading change through influence across a decentralized, field-led organization, with the executive presence to partner effectively with senior leadership, division presidents, and the private-equity sponsor.A sound U.S. GAAP foundation with the judgment to interpret results, fluency in private-equity reporting (adjusted EBITDA, add-backs, credit-agreement and covenant reporting, and pro-forma adjustments), and the sense to bring in technical accounting, tax, or treasury specialists rather than relying on deep technical expertise for its own sake.Able to work on-site five days per week in Brea, California (a firm requirement); local or California-based candidates strongly preferred, with relocation considered for the right individual. About Our Client Champions Group Holdings is home to a family of trusted, locally rooted HVAC, plumbing, and electrical brands that have served homeowners in their communities, in several cases for more than fifty years. The company pairs the local reputations, names, and relationships its brands have built with the scale, purchasing power, technology, and talent of a national platform, delivering essential home services to a base of roughly 150,000 membership customers across seven states. Its model preserves what makes each brand exceptional in its market while professionalizing the shared infrastructure behind them. Backed by Blackstone through an approximately $2.5 billion transaction in 2026 and executing an active buy-and-build acquisition strategy, Champions Group is entering a defining chapter of scale and professionalization, building toward a multi-service residential home-services platform that sets a new standard for the industry. The Vice President of Accounting / Corporate Controller is a pivotal hire in that chapter: the leader who will centralize and modernize the platform’s accounting function, build the controls and reporting infrastructure required for the company’s next stage, and integrate a growing portfolio of acquired brands. For the right builder, the role offers meaningful ownership, executive visibility, and equity participation in one of the fastest-scaling platforms in residential home services.