Chief Financial Officer - SchooLinks

Company Background 

SchooLinks is a venture-backed startup that's solving mission-critical problems in college and career readiness. With a fresh take from technology stack to product design, SchooLinks has become the household name for college and career readiness in many states, serving millions of students and families.     

With customers in more than 35 states, 10+ states experiencing 2x growth, and 30-50% market share in key states, SchooLinks has been consistently named Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Private Companies in America. Our largest logos include Chicago Public Schools, Dallas ISD, Newark, Houston…  Districts typically adopt SchooLinks at a district level (from 6th through 12th grade) on 3-5-year contracts. Our current gross retention is 97%. SchooLinks implementation can range from 2 weeks to 10 months+ depending on data complexity, district size, and amount of products purchased. Once implemented, SchooLinks is the mission control for some of the most critical workflows, such as college application management, state-mandated activities, and accountability tracking.

The current functional areas under this position are

• Cash Management 
• Payroll/ commission reconciliation/ Expense Reimbursement
• Collections/AP Management
• Accounting
• Spend reconciliation
• Month/YE Close
• Budget variance analysis
• Taxes
• Finance
• KPI Management
• Budget Planning
• Revenue Operations
• Deal desk
• Close Management
• Salesforce Maintenance
• Renewals 
• Third-party software management
• Compliance & Risk Management 
• Vendor forms
• Bank/debt compliance
• State registration
• Data privacy agreements, vendor agreements
• Customer contracts

Role Description

We’re looking for a Chief Financial Officer that is a proven leader with a track record of scaling SaaS finance and operations at venture-backed startups (series B or later). This role will develop and lead a strong, collaborative, knowledgeable, and proactive internal support system. The CFO will drive a results-oriented culture and will architect, execute, and continuously improve operational plans and processes alongside the CEO. 

The ideal candidate is 

• Hands-on - not afraid to roll up sleeves and execute, whether it’s chasing down a renewal or creating a presentation or model, they are not afraid to execute. We need this person to lead from the front to advocate for the all hands on deck culture. 
• Technical - not afraid of technical details of the implementation and cares about the actual process. When process problems come up, they should be able to synthesize and help facilitate finding a solution, going into configuration of Salesforce to debug 
• Proactive - they look for problems to solve, processes to improve, and areas to coach. They don’t wait for things to be escalated to them. 
• Accountable - to company goals across all departments, and teammates on the executive team, and fosters a culture of similar accountability in their own department.
• Fast-paced - used to working in a fast-paced environment, and can make decisions and execute on ideas. We understand the importance of change management, but we need to operate on the scale of days and weeks and not months and quarters to move projects and initiatives forward both internally and externally.
• Data-driven & operationally minded - ability to approach problems with an analytical eye based on data and people dynamic. Ability to instrument, analyze, create, and critique processes. Concretely this means excel modeling for capacity, and analyzing data from different platforms
• A thought partner and teammate to other executive team members -  SchooLinks has a strong leadership team culture and subscribes to the “radical candor” communication style. You’ll be joining a talented, ambitious, and devoted team of peers leading other departments and you’ll need to work closely with them to align the finance department with broader goals and initiatives in the company
• Excited and willing to be always learning -  our vertical is changing quickly and subject to legislative change, fast trend switches, a lot of market forces and M&A. Internally we’re always pushing to iterate our methods– you have to be excited by change and the opportunity, understand the need to be nimble. 
• Inspirational  - someone who can motivate and instill confidence in our team and customers 

Responsibilities: 

• Hit board approved KPIs 
• Run 5 functional areas described above 
• Cash management 
• Accounting 
• Finance 
• Revenue operations
• Compliance and risk management
• Be a thought partner to the leadership team to design, implement and manage KPIs  
• Be a thought partner to the CEO on the strategic direction of the company  

Requirements

• 5+ years experience in leading finance organizations, ideally in enterprise software and SaaS
• Gone through a growth phase with a venture backed startup from a Series A through D company
• Strong understanding of GAAP accounting and SaaS subscription business models
• Ability to manage influence through persuasion, negotiation, and consensus building
• Proven ability to design, implement and manage KPIs 
• Strong empathy for customers AND passion for revenue and growth
• Analytical and process-oriented operational mindset
• Demonstrated desire for continuous learning and improvement
• Enthusiastic and creative leader with the ability to inspire others
• Excellent communication and presentation skills

Benefits

• 100% health care coverage
• 401K with matching
• Dental & Vision
• Parental leave
• Subsidized gym membership
• Annual team offsite
• Unlimited snacks, coffee, tea (in-house only)

SchooLinks is an equal opportunity employer that is committed to diversity and inclusion in the workplace. We prohibit discrimination and harassment of any kind based on race, color, sex, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, genetic information, pregnancy, or any other protected characteristic as outlined by federal, state, or local laws.