Controller

Role: Controller

Location: Austin, TX (In-Office, South Austin HQ)

Our client is a fast-growing consumer packaged goods (CPG) company with retail distribution across 6,600+ locations today at major convenience chains, scaling to 25,000 locations by year-end. They also operate international consumer health product businesses distributed nationally across major retailers and continue to expand globally.

They are well-funded and scaling toward their next chapter. They are a ~40-person team headquartered in Austin, building something rare in CPG: a brand with category-defining products, strong retail distribution, and a clear regulatory moat.

Position Overview:

They need a Controller who owns the close, the books, and the integrity of the numbers presented to their board, auditors, and investors. You'll partner directly with the VP of Finance to build a finance function that scales through the next stage. This is a hands-on role with real agency and ownership.

You’ll play a critical role in ensuring financials are accurate, timely, and defensible as the company significantly expands its retail footprint, with a particular focus on maintaining tight, predictable, and defensible trade accruals.

In partnership with the VP of Finance, this person will also help establish departmental budgeting processes and reporting cadences that allow leadership to monitor spend, identify variances early, and improve financial discipline as the company scales.

You'll have leverage from day one. They have a junior accountant on staff, a bookkeeping team, and an outsourced accounting partner supporting them. Your job isn't to do everything yourself; it's to lead, set the standard, and pull the right levers across people, systems, and tools to keep things tight.

Reports to: VP of Finance

Works closely with: VP of Finance, Fractional CFO, and Junior Accountant

Key Responsibilities

• Month-end close ownership, with a focus on building a disciplined, scalable close process that improves timing, accuracy, and reporting quality as the business grows
• Preparing and reviewing monthly and quarterly financial reporting packages under US GAAP for management, board, investors, and external stakeholders
• Trade accrual methodology, deduction management, and the operating cadence to keep both clean as they scale
• Developing and strengthening internal controls, accounting policies, and SOPs across the finance and accounting function to support scalability, audit readiness, and operational discipline
• Establishing standardized close checklists, reconciliations, review procedures, and reporting cadences across the organization
• Leading or supporting finance systems implementations, integrations, and automation initiatives across QBO, CIN7, reporting platforms, and adjacent operational systems
• Partnering with leadership to evolve the company’s finance systems architecture as the business scales, including ERP, consolidation, and trade management capabilities
• CIN7 hygiene and reconciliation cadence between inventory systems and the general ledger
• Flash close variance analysis, reducing the gap between flash and final to single digits
• Revenue recognition across retail, DTC, and international channels
• Inventory accounting across domestic and international production partners
• AP, AR, payroll oversight, cash management, and bank reconciliations
• Supporting multi-entity consolidation across international operations, coordinating with external and local accounting partners as needed
• Strengthening processes, controls, and reporting to support external audit readiness and institutional-quality financial reporting
• Leading and developing the existing accounting team, including a junior accountant, bookkeeping team, and outsourced accounting partner

Qualifications:

• CPA required
• 8+ years of progressive accounting experience, with at least 3 in a Controller or Assistant Controller seat
• CPG experience is a must, ideally with a brand that has retail distribution and meaningful trade spend at scale
• Battle-tested experience with trade promotion accruals and deduction management
• A track record of building internal controls, process, and reporting structure in a scaling company, not just maintaining what was already there
• Multi-entity, multi-currency experience (US + Canada at minimum, ideally UK as well) is required
• Big 4 or national firm foundation is a plus, especially if you've since moved in-house
• Demonstrated comfort using AI tools and automation to drive efficiency in close, reconciliation, and reporting
• Comfort operating in a venture-backed environment with board and investor scrutiny
• Hands-on experience with QBO, CIN7, Avalara, Ramp, or comparable tools

Who thrives here:

• You have agency. You see problems and fix them. You don't wait for permission to make the function better.
• You get across the whole company: supply chain, sales operations, trade marketing, and ecommerce. You're not stuck in the finance silo.
• You're a builder, not a maintainer. The company is scaling fast and the books need to scale with it.
• You've seen what happens when a CPG brand rapidly expands distribution without finance discipline, and you know how to prevent it.
• You operate effectively in a fast-paced, high-accountability environment and can maintain accuracy, organization, and sound judgment as the business scales rapidly.
• You know what a strong close process looks like and can implement scalable improvements with pragmatism and urgency.
• You want to make a real impact in a high-growth, dynamic environment where your work directly influences company results.

What they offer

• Competitive base salary
• Meaningful equity participation
• Full benefits package
• Opportunity to partner with a newly hired VP of Finance and help build the finance function through the next stage of growth
• A clearly defined Controller seat with significant ownership, agency, and impact in a venture-backed, high-growth CPG company