Client CFO (DTC & CPG): Restructuring & Turnarounds

FinanceWithin•New York, NY

3d•Remote

About The Position

We're building the financial backbone for the most ambitious consumer brands in the country. Our firm combines McKinsey-level strategy, Big Four precision, and founder-grade hustle to serve e-commerce and CPG companies from startup to scale, and from zero to exit. We strike the right balance between traditional accounting and embedded partnership. We work inside our clients' businesses, providing not just financial clarity but operational firepower to move fast, stay lean, and grow with confidence. If you're looking to do the best work of your career — surrounded by smart, motivated, kind people — we'd love to meet you. We're hiring a full-time Client CFO with expertise in restructuring and turnarounds within the consumer products to serve as a fractional CFO to a focused portfolio of brands that are facing liquidity pressure, distress, or the need for a turnaround. This is a high-stakes, high-trust leadership role. You will lead financial strategy, restructuring execution, and crisis-grade FP&A for a small number of brands at a time, owning cash management, creditor and lender relationships, and the hard calls that come with stabilizing a business under pressure. Beyond that, we want someone who brings order to chaos: someone who builds the systems, cadence, and clarity a company needs when the stakes are highest.

Requirements

Strong experience in finance leadership roles, with direct experience in restructuring, turnarounds, or distressed situations (required)
Past experience in a multi-client or portfolio CFO role (required)
Deep understanding of consumer business models (DTC, retail, omnichannel, wholesale)
Hands-on experience building and living inside 13-week cash flow models, and managing through liquidity constraints
Direct experience negotiating with lenders, creditors, or landlords, and supporting workout or forbearance processes
Strong FP&A and modeling skills, including multi-year 3-statement modeling and downside scenario planning
Experience with accounting systems (QBO, NetSuite)
Ability to stay calm, synthesize complex and incomplete data, and communicate hard truths with confidence
Experience working directly with executive teams and boards under pressure
Comfortable managing 2-3 concentrated client relationships simultaneously in a fast-moving, high-stakes environment
Thrives in a lean, high-performance, distributed team, and doesn't rattle easily

Responsibilities

Lead Client Finance in Distress (Fractional CFO)
Serve as Client CFO (fractional) for a concentrated portfolio of 2-3 clients navigating restructuring, turnaround, or special situations
Own cash management, 13-week cash flow forecasting, and liquidity runway with daily/weekly precision
Act as a steady, strategic partner to founders, CEOs, boards, and investors when trust and clarity matter most
Manage lender, creditor, landlord, vendor, and investor relationships with composure and credibility, including forbearance and workout discussions
Own Restructuring Strategy and Financial Clarity
Build and maintain dynamic cash flow, scenario, and downside models to support real-time decision-making
Lead cost restructuring, working capital optimization, and margin triage across the business
Build KPI and early-warning dashboards so leadership sees problems before they become crises
Partner with internal accounting to ensure reporting integrity holds up under scrutiny (lenders, boards, potential buyers)
Special Situations Advisory + Capital Markets Support
Advise clients on out-of-court restructuring, debt renegotiation, bridge financing, and capital triage
Own creditor packs, lender presentations, and act as "deal-time CFO" for recapitalizations, wind-downs, or distressed M&A
Support board material prep and investor communications during periods of heightened scrutiny
Provide clear decision frameworks to help founders navigate runway, burn, and existential tradeoffs
Workflow, Systems, and Judgment Under Pressure
Templatize the tools of the trade - cash flow models, creditor waterfalls, scenario trackers - so they can be stood up fast for any new client
Lean towards being AI-native and actively use Claude and LLMs to move faster without sacrificing rigor
Document playbooks for special situations engagements and improve how the firm delivers under time pressure
Oversee month-end closing and all key accounting-related activities for clients - accurate and timely circulation of financial management reports including, but not limited to, internal and external monthly financial statements and annual audits and annual budgets
Cash Flow projection (and updates) and communicating cash position to clients