Chief Financial Officer (UAF)

Overview

Universal Air Filter (UAF) is a leading custom air filter manufacturer dedicated to protecting vital electronic equipment in the most demanding environments. Our wide array of tailored solutions uses standardized filter media that’s adaptable to varying shapes, sizes, and dimensions. We engineer each filter to enhance uptime and reduce maintenance costs, offering end-to-end support from initial design to manufacturing and replacements. UAF is more than just an air filter manufacturer – we’re your partner in creating comprehensive solutions. 

Joining our team is an opportunity to tap into your entrepreneurial spirit by inspiring growth in the sales team and partnering with our other innovative team members to drive business growth and provide value.

For over 60 years, Whirl-Pak, a business of Filtration Group, has been a trusted partner to our customers around the world by providing government and industry compliant sterilized solutions that ensure the highest of integrity. Through intentional product design, Whirl-Pak has developed first-to-market gold-standard features that overcome challenges in aseptic, secure, dependable sample collection. 

As a member of the Filtration Group and Madison Industries family, we can offer many opportunities for you to grow your career and learn about our products that make the world safer, healthier, and more productive.

Universal Air Filter/Whirl-Pak is looking for a Chief Financial Officer to advance the strategic growth objectives, lead short and long-term planning, and establish a best-in-class financial controls environment. Reporting directly to the President of Universal Air Filter/Whirl-Pak, the CFO will be an essential thought partner for the Leadership Team and should support decision making across the most critical factors of the business. An entrepreneurial approach and a high level of accountability to the goals and decisions made by the team are key success factors required to ensure the business is well-positioned to achieve growth targets, reliably deliver financial results and drive a culture of performance.

Responsibilities

The CFO will directly lead the Finance and IT teams based in St. Louis, MO and supporting the Pleasant Prairie, WI location. The ideal candidate will be a team-focused finance leader, with a strong desire to develop individuals, manage Accounting and Financial Controls and lead process improvement that enables the business to focus on what matters most. Reporting to the CFO will be the Controller, Accounting Manager, and contract IT resources. As a functional lead, you will guide the Accounting teams’ professional development, enhancing their performance through regular mentoring and coaching.

The CFO will leverage their deep knowledge of accounting to lead continuous improvement of accounting controls, adhering to Sarbanes-Oxley and Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. This includes supporting the Controller with developing, implementing, and maintaining appropriate accounting policies, processes, systems, tools, and IT infrastructure to meet financial reporting requirements and to remain compliant.

As a member of the Leadership Team, this individual will be responsible for working collaboratively throughout the organization to establish appropriate performance benchmarks and support teams with timely and relevant financial analysis to deepen understanding, build trust and target the most important drivers of results. The ideal candidate will possess a strong understanding of commercial success, including market analysis, pricing strategy and customer-focused problem solving.

The candidate will possess deep ERP experience (Microsoft Dynamics/Epicor) functionality and will have the ability to understand and administer transactions in the system as well as understand the relevant proper accounting. Experience in a manufacturing environment is critical for success.

Key Responsibilities

• Partnering with the President and leadership to influence all the critical elements of business success.
• Driving execution of a wide range of business improvement activities beyond the finance function and across the entirety of the division.
• Working, cross-functionally, with the leadership team to create and implement plans strategies and tactics to improve operating leverage and cash creation.
• Building and maintaining a best-in-class finance team.
• Shaping and supporting a culture that stresses a bias for action and an unwavering commitment to enhancing an entrepreneurial environment and operating model.
• Driving long-range and annual planning activities across the business which incorporates both bottom-up plant input and top-down, strategic priorities to ensure we are meeting or exceeding division potential.
• Maintain proper accounting controls and procedures.
• Accelerating Operating Cash Flow conversion by focusing on profitability, Working Capital efficiency and capital expenditures.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree from four-year college or university (CPA/MBA a plus)
• 8+ years of progressive business experience, preferably in a manufacturing environment.
• 3+ years of managerial experience (managing multiply sites a plus)
• Embraces Filtration Group’s values and culture. Passionate about making the world safer, healthier and more productive and about preserving an entrepreneurial culture and operating model.
• Ability to drive continuous improvement culture capable of challenging the status quo and conventional wisdom to help improve the business.
• An assertive leader with a bias for action and an entrepreneurial orientation, with a willingness to move fast and inject velocity into everything we do.
• A talent magnet. Can attract and develop world class talent and can develop talent across the spectrum of the performance curve.
• A demonstrated track record of owning and driving results; not just reporting results.
• Detail oriented and data driven, without losing sight of the big picture.
• Demonstrates a learning mindset and a high degree of intellectual curiosity about the business.
• Relishes change and is very comfortable operating in an environment of ambiguity.
• Excellent communication skills and ability to build consensus and gain internal alignment across different stakeholder groups – cross functional team, business management, division management and executive leadership.