CFO (Chief Financial Officer)

who our client is… 

At a pivotal moment in its growth journey, expanding its impact as a national leader in industrial energy management, decarbonization, and sustainability. The company partners with utilities and large enterprises to reduce waste, improve efficiency, and drive measurable environmental and financial results.

The Chief Financial Officer (CFO) will play a central role in shaping this company's future, leading Finance, Accounting, and Legal while partnering closely with the CEO and executive team to guide strategic growth, operational excellence, and organizational transformation.

This is a unique opportunity for a strategic, visionary, and people-centered finance leader to help scale its reach, deepen its purpose, and advance its technology-enabled offerings. By integrating its long-standing professional services with a growing suite of digital and SaaS-based solutions, the CFO will ensure that continues to deliver predictable financial results while strengthening its ESOP culture, mission alignment, and long-term value creation.

what they need…

The CFO leads an integrated team spanning Accounting, FP&A, and Legal & Risk. Together, this team ensures financial integrity, strategic foresight, and enterprise-wide accountability.

The CFO is responsible for aligning financial strategy with its business transformation goals, including modernizing systems, optimizing the capital structure, guiding M&A and partnership opportunities, and partnering with leaders to scale the organization’s SaaS and platform model.

This leader will also serve as a cultural catalyst, strengthening collaboration, communication, and shared ownership across teams while advancing Cascade’s ESOP values of DO THE RIGHT THING, PUT OTHERS FIRST, SEEK SHARED SUCCESS, LEARN CONSTANTLY, BE INDUSTRIOUS.

This is a rare opportunity to shape the financial and operational foundation of a mission-driven, employee-owned company at a moment of strategic inflection, where engineering excellence meets software innovation. The right CFO will not only drive the financial success but also defines how purpose, performance, and ownership intersect for decades to come. 

what you will do…

The CFO will serve as both a financial architect and a strategic integrator, helping this organization grow, leverage technology, and sustain its culture of ownership, purpose, and performance.

Drive Financial Strategy and Scalable Growth

• Partner with the CEO and Leadership Team to shape a financial strategy that balances growth, profitability, and sustainability.
• Build scalable systems and metrics that support both project-based professional services and recurring SaaS revenue streams.
• Lead long-term financial planning, capital management, and forecasting to enable disciplined investment in innovation, people, and operations.
• Provide clear, data-driven insights to guide decisions on pricing, market expansion, and resource allocation.
  
  

Lead Digital Fluency and Risk Management

• Modernize and streamline Finance and Legal operations through automation, analytics, and digital tools.
• Develop and maintain robust financial infrastructure to support hybrid services and software business model.
• Oversee Legal, Risk, and Compliance functions, ensuring sound governance, proactive risk mitigation, and protection of intellectual property.
• Evaluate build, buy, and partner strategies for technology expansion, including M&A, integration, and strategic partnerships.

Champion Culture, Ownership, and Purpose

• Serve as a cultural steward of 100% employee-owned (ESOP) model, ensuring alignment between financial results and employee-owner value.
• Lead with transparency, inclusion, and collaboration, ensuring financial literacy and shared accountability across teams.
• Develop and empower high-performing Finance and Legal teams, fostering trust, curiosity, and a growth mindset.
• Connect financial performance to the mission of creating measurable value for people, planet, and profit.

Requirements

what you need to bring…

• 15+ years of progressive finance leadership experience, including 6+ years at a CFO or senior finance executive level.
• Financial leadership in a professional services organization evolving toward software or platform models.
• Demonstrated ability to lead mergers and acquisitions (M&A) to drive growth, operational synergy, and long-term value creation.
• Directed digital transformation initiatives - including ERP implementations-  that modernized systems, improved efficiency, and enabled scalable business growth.
• Demonstrated success scaling for growth through strategic planning, process optimization, and operational excellence.
• People-first, values-driven leader who cultivates trust, accountability, and shared success.
• Strong command of financial strategy, forecasting, and capital management, including integration and due diligence experience.
• Experience leading Finance, Accounting, Legal, and Risk functions, exercising sound judgment in governance and compliance.
• Ability to balance financial discipline with innovation, integrating data-driven insights with strategic agility.
• Skilled communicator who simplifies complexity and builds confidence with the leadership team, board members, and employee-owners.
• Travel is approximately 20%, including periodic visits to headquarters, other offices, client sites, and industry conferences. Proximity to a major airport is required.
• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, or related field. 

Nice to have:

• ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan) experience
• Experience growing a U.S.- based company internationally
• Location in the Western US is preferred. Portland, Oregon would be ideal
• MBA, CPA, or CMA preferred.

Benefits

• Total Rewards: Competitive pay range plus annual cash performance bonus.
• Health Coverage: 90% paid for employees and 70% for dependents on HDHP plans; 85% paid for employees and 65% for dependents on PPO plans.
• Additional Coverage: Vision, FSA or HSA options with employer contributions, life insurance, short- and long-term disability, and paid parental leave.
• Retirement: 401(k) with guaranteed 3% contribution plus participation in their Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP).
• Paid Time Off: Generous vacation, sick leave, and flexible paid holiday policy.
• Wellbeing: $500 annual contribution for HSA, FSA, or Lifestyle Spending Account (LSA).