Chief Financial Officer

Children’s Museum of Manhattan • New York, NY

8d • $200,000 - $250,000 • Onsite

About The Position

CMOM seeks an entrepreneurial, visionary Chief Financial Officer (CFO) to drive financial strategy during this transformative, high-growth phase. Reporting directly to the CEO, the CFO will serve as a core strategic partner to executive leadership while providing essential stewardship, transparent reporting, and strategic support to the Board of Directors. This executive will manage a $300M capital project, oversee operational scaling from $8M to $18M, and ensure long-term financial sustainability. This leader will continue to modernize financial systems while cultivating a growth-oriented, collaborative culture.

Requirements

• Substantial experience as a CFO or senior financial leader in a complex non-profit, cultural, or similar organization.
• Expert in non-profit GAAP, endowment management, capital projects, and grant compliance.
• Demonstrated maturity in managing accountability to CEO while maintaining transparent, direct communication channels with Board and Audit Committee leadership on complex risk, strategic and capital matters.
• Experience leading through major organizational scaling or capital transitions.
• CPA, MBA, or equivalent advanced financial education.
• Decisive, innovative, and skilled in analytical storytelling.
• Highest standards of professional ethics, personal integrity, and sound judgment

Responsibilities

• Serve as key strategic partner to the CEO and Executive Leadership Team, actively co-authoring the business models required to support a scaled multi-site operation and doubled budget.
• Act as an entrepreneurial strategist, seeking innovative financial solutions to align creative ambitions with institutional resources.
• Act as a direct liaison and thought partner to the Board Chair and Finance & Audit Committee Chair, providing complete and transparent visibility into financial modeling, cash flow and cash balance forecasting, debt compliance, and risk analysis.
• Work collaboratively with the Finance and Audit Board Committee, driving the meeting agendas and ensuring reporting, governance compliance, and immediate escalation of any potentially material financial or risk exposures to the Board Chair.
• Champion organizational systems maturity, professionalizing internal controls and reporting frameworks.
• Take ownership of the design, and continuous refinement of comprehensive financial models, operating budgets and annual forecast models, cash flow and cash balance models, and long-term forecasts for the scaled-up operation in the new building.
• Partner in an iterative, collaborative fashion with all department heads and executive leadership to build out, optimize, and align coordinated departmental budgets with strategic institutional targets.
• Provide rigorous financial oversight for the $300M capital campaign in close partnership with the Board Chair, Building Committee and Finance and Audit Committee, navigating complex funding, institutional grants, pledge agreements and sophisticated debt and cash management strategy, including active management of and compliance reporting for credit facilities and liquidity bridges tied to pledge realizations.
• Oversee and optimize the endowment portfolio in collaboration with the Finance and Audit Committee to ensure long-term growth.
• Direct cash flow management, ensuring financial stability during the transition to the new facility.
• Instill cross-functional budget discipline, collaborating with program, advancement, and operations teams to monitor and evaluate financial practices.
• Lead core accounting operations, including audits, forecasting, and compliance.
• Evolve the finance team structure, promoting a collaborative and responsive culture.
• Champion equitable People Operations, focusing on competitive, transparent compensation and benefits for a growing staff.
• Manage risk and physical assets through contract reviews and insurance management.

Benefits

• vision
• dental
• medical (free medical coverage for employees, with premium plans available for dependents)
• 403B
• life insurance
• EAP
• Paid Holidays
• Personal Time Off
• Vacation leave
• Sick leave
• FSA
• critical illness
• accident insurance
• legal services
• pet insurance
• free admission to other New York City cultural institutions

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Executive