VP, Finance

Title: VP, FinanceLocation: Remote (United States), with occasional travelReports To: PresidentDepartment: FinanceDirect Reports: None today. This seat owns the finance agent stack (AI agents that handle bookkeeping, AP, AR, and routine FP&A), our outside tax and accounting firm, and the bookkeeping partner that supports our franchise owners. As the function grows, you will make the case for the people it needs.About French FloristFrench Florist is a floral boutique reimagining what it means to give and receive flowers. Our handcrafted arrangements are designed by expert floral designers using the highest-quality blooms from the best farms around the world. With thriving corporate boutiques in Los Angeles and a rapidly expanding franchise network nationwide, we are on a mission to create a more loving and compassionate world through flowers.Role SummaryThe VP, Finance owns the Finance seat on our accountability chart and is accountable for the financial health of the entire French Florist system: our corporate boutiques, our franchisor, and the franchise owners who run their own businesses under our brand. This is a leadership team seat. You will sit in our weekly Level 10 meetings and quarterly planning, have a real voice in how we invest, and be the person who tells us when a decision does not make financial sense.Finance ownership here has been spread across too many people. Our books are in better shape than most franchisors at our stage, but we are adding locations quickly, and we need one leader who owns the controls, reporting rhythm, margin, and financial infrastructure the next stage of growth will run on.Finance here has a dual mandate: our franchise owners have to hit their profit goals, and so do we. When those do not move together, holding both is the job.This is not a reporting role or a capital markets role. Capital structure, fundraising, and investor relationships sit with our CEO. Your job is to find, protect, and grow margin, and to build a finance function that stays ahead of our growth.Being AI-native is a requirement, not a nice-to-have. Our finance function already runs on AI agents for bookkeeping, payables, receivables, and routine FP&A, and we intend to push that further. We need a leader who uses AI every day, knows how to design and supervise agents that do real accounting work, and holds that work to the same standard of accuracy and control as work done by people.Key ResponsibilitiesFinance Seat Ownership & Leadership• Own the Finance seat on the leadership team: set the finance strategy, own the Finance scorecard, and propose the quarterly Rocks.• Partner with the President on resource allocation, annual planning, and operating priorities.• Build an investment decision framework (ROI, payback, risk) and apply it to every major investment.• Design, build, and supervise the AI agents that run bookkeeping, payables, receivables, and routine FP&A set review and control standards; and manage our outside partners.• Every quarter, move the next piece of manual work to an agent and document the controls so the work stays accurate and auditable.Controls, Close & Compliance• Own the monthly close across all three entities: corporate boutiques, the franchisor, and the reporting relationship with franchise owners.• Finalize and enforce a Delegation of Authority and ensure spend is coded correctly to our standard chart of accounts.• Document and run AP and AR, including collections on past-due franchise owner balances.• Run the finance side of our compensation plan: merit budget, bonus accruals, and quarterly bonus gate confirmation.• Own tax and regulatory compliance: sales tax, 1099s, state and federal filings, local business taxes, and new state requirements.• Own the franchisor financial statements and annual audit for our Franchise Disclosure Document.Margin & Revenue Growth• Own the margin lines that do not come from selling flowers: vendor rebates and commissions, payment processing revenue share, and other system-wide programs.• Get every vendor program onto signed written terms, claim every rebate we are owed, and keep franchisor receivables separate from boutique balances.• Identify new supplier programs and partnerships that create value for owners and the franchisor.• Own the accuracy of royalty and brand fund calculations, including true-ups.• Model the impact of system changes, such as pricing or product margins, separately for the franchisor and franchise owners.Planning, Reporting & Visibility• Build the annual budget and quarterly reforecast, and deliver a monthly budget versus actual package with clear variance explanations.• Embed rebate, royalty, and margin tracking into standard reporting.• Define the franchise owner financial dashboard and benchmarks, including net operating income targets by months open.• Recommend build, buy, or hybrid for our reporting architecture, and keep internal and owner-facing reporting clearly separated.Franchise Owner Financial Health• Treat franchise owner unit economics as part of your job. The system is only as strong as its weakest location.• Partner with Franchise Success to give owners the tools and benchmarks to run profitable businesses, and spot struggling locations early.• Hold our corporate boutiques to the same financial standards as any franchise location, and set standards an owner can actually follow.Where This Seat Ends• The CEO owns capital structure, fundraising, and investor relations. You supply the analysis.• Procurement and Product own vendor selection and cost of goods. Finance owns rebate integrity and margin targets.• Franchise Success owns the franchise owner relationship. Finance owns the numbers it runs on.What Success Looks Like in 6 to 12 Months• The monthly close lands on a fixed business day, every month.• A budget versus actual package with variance commentary reaches leadership monthly without anyone asking.• Zero missed filing deadlines and zero penalties.• The franchisor audit and FDD financials are delivered on schedule.• The recurring work of the close, reconciliations, and standard reporting runs through AI agents with documented human review.• Every vendor program has a signed agreement, and rebate income grows year over year.• Royalty and brand fund billings reconcile every month, and true-ups stop being a surprise.• The franchise owner dashboard is live, and the share of locations meeting their NOI target trends up.Qualifications• 10+ years of progressive finance experience, including at least 3 years as the senior finance leader of a company or business unit, reporting to a CEO, President, or CFO, with ownership of the P&L, budgeting, forecasting, and close.• Demonstrated, hands-on AI fluency in finance. You can show us specific workflows you have personally built or redesigned with AI, such as reconciliations, close tasks, variance analysis, or forecasting, and explain how you verified the output. We will ask you to walk us through real examples.• Franchisor finance experience strongly preferred, including royalty and brand fund mechanics, franchise owner unit economics, FDD financial statements and audits, and multi-state franchise compliance.• Experience in a multi-location consumer, retail, or hospitality business, ideally including inventory, purchasing, and supply chain.• A track record of building controls, processes, and reporting from an early-stage foundation.• Experience creating new margin, such as supplier rebate programs or revenue share agreements, with results you can point to.• Deep hands-on accounting knowledge. You can review a close, find what is wrong, and explain why.• Experience leading through outside partners, firms, and automated tools rather than a large in-house team.Who Thrives Here• You are AI-native. You reach for AI first and know where it is reliable and where it needs a human check.• You look for new margin instead of only reporting on the old, and you treat a slipping margin as yours to fix.• You can protect franchisor and franchise owner profitability in the same conversation.• You make finance understandable and explain variances in plain language that leads to a decision.• You practice radical candor and will push back on spending, with respect and a better alternative.• You build structure where none exists, protect the integrity of the numbers, and operate with discretion.This Role Is Probably Not For You If• You want a CFO role centered on capital raising, M&A, or investor relations.• You need a team of accountants reporting to you to be effective.• You want a function that is already fully built.• You are still deciding whether AI belongs in finance.Why Join Us• A seat at the leadership table of a rapidly scaling national franchise brand, with real authority over the function.• The chance to build the finance infrastructure for a franchise system early and design a modern, AI-enabled finance function from the start.• Work that directly shapes whether every franchise owner in our system builds a profitable business.Compensation and Benefits• $165,000 to $185,000 base salary, based on experience.• Quarterly bonus with an annual target of 10% of base salary, paid on the Finance department's Rocks and scorecard once the company hits its quarterly goal.• Stock option grant under the French Florist stock plan, with vesting beginning after 1 year of employment.• Health insurance (medical, dental, vision) + voluntary benefits (disability, critical illness, etc.)• 401k retirement program• Paid Time Off (Vacation + sick)