Company description

Black Seed Bagels is an artisan bagel shop founded in 2014 by partners Matt Kliegman and Noah Bernamoff, and led by James Beard-nominated executive chef and head baker, Dianna Daoheung. Dianna developed Black Seed's signature bagel recipe, a New York-style bagel made with some baking techniques borrowed from Montreal. Since opening its first location, Black Seed has been pushing the boundaries of how NYC bagels are made and prides itself in using only the highest quality ingredients.

Black Seed Bagels will be operating 12 stores by the end of 2022. In a city that’s synonymous with bagels, it’s now the most recognizable stand-alone brand. They’ve been featured in the New York Times, Food & Wine, Crain’s, Grub Street, The Chew, and more. Chef Dianna has received two James Beard Foundation nominations for Outstanding Baker and the company was identified by Nation’s Restaurant News as one of the restaurant industry’s “Breakout Brands.”

To learn more about Black Seed Bagels, please visit: https://www.blackseedbagels.com/.

Job description

Who We're Looking For:

Black Seed Bagels (BSB) is seeking an experienced, dynamic, hands-on Director of Finance (DOF) to lead its finance department and all financial processes and needs. The DOF will be the representative of the financial department within the core leadership team, along with Operations, Culinary, and Customer Experience directors. The DOF will also supervise the current Accounting Manager and any future finance team members or third-party financial services.

The DOF role is a new position in the company as it enters an exciting growth period that will result in a 12-store company by the end of 2022. The DOF will assume leadership of all financial management, reporting, and forecasting functions related to the company, and will also contribute to related strategic planning. The DOF will be responsible for building an in-house team, third-party vendor relationships, and technological systems to optimize the financial department’s operations.

The ideal candidate for this position will have significant financial operations experience in food, beverage, and/or hospitality businesses, and will be a strong self-starter, a creative thinker, and capable of excellent analysis. Outstanding capabilities in development, tracking, and analysis of KPIs, of cash flow forecasting, and multi-unit daily performance dashboards are essential for this role and will lead to growth opportunities within the company.

Responsibilities

General Duties

• Lead the company’s financial team and infrastructure to drive accuracy and consistency of all financial accounting, reporting, and forecasting processes
• Provide timely, accurate, and insightful analysis of financial statements, annual budgets, financial trends, and ongoing forecasts to the owners and leadership team
• Ensure the company meets or exceeds its financial targets by improving financial reporting and by monitoring financial metrics on a continual basis
• Empower and motivate team to achieve financial benchmarks and objectives that contribute to BSB's overall success
• Provide qualitative/quantitative information to owners, leadership team, and store managers to improve the company’s profitability
• Evaluate and implement technological solutions and third-party relationships to improve efficiency, accuracy, and cost of financial management
• Coordinate with operations team to optimize store processes and drive company towards improved store-level profitability
• Develop, mentor, and lead financial team members and provide a framework for improvement and advancement
• Participate in the hiring, firing, and training of finance team members
• Partner with leadership team as required in planning processes for new store openings

Finance & Accounting

• Oversee accounting and bookkeeping teams
• Develop and maintain an enterprise-wide performance dashboard as well as store-level flash reports
• Oversee AR/AP processes across all sales channels and company units
• Actively manage company cash flow and develop short- and long-term cash forecasts
• Develop, implement, and track company-wide capital and operating budgets
• Prepare monthly, quarterly, and annual company financial statements and lead regularly scheduled financial review meetings
• Set up internal and external accounting audits
• Provide strategic financial planning advice to ownership for long-term growth
• Establish internal work processes for financial department and continually monitor performance
• Maintain investor reporting requirements
• Oversee all outside debt, grants, or funding sources
• Develop internal P&L fluency and responsiveness with store-level managers
• Monitor lease compliance and maintain monthly percentage rent reporting requirements
• Develop KPI categories, tracking mechanisms, regular check-ins, and action plans with department heads and store leaders
• Monitor submittal of weekly and monthly reporting requirements from store-level managers
• Lead monthly, quarterly, and year-end close, including account reconciliations and key control activities
• Ensure compliance with taxes, accounting standards, regulations, and internal financial controls
• Participate in special corporate finance projects including capital raises and strategic M&A discussions

Qualifications:

• 5+ years of experience in a director-level financial management role in companies of a similar or greater size
• Strong preference for candidates with prior experience in food service, hospitality, or retail food sectors
• Demonstrated track record of workplace achievement in the selection, coaching and development of employees
• Able to cultivate a positive and cooperative working relationship with all company employees
• Excellent time management skills and diligence in task completion
• Excellent verbal and written communications skills over multiple communication channels
• Exceptional leadership, motivational and team-building skills
• Demonstrated problem-solving, organizational, analytical and business management skills
• Available to work onsite with a regular schedule, with flexibility if needed for occasional evenings and weekends if required
• Pro-actively communicative with leadership team about work schedule, time off, delegated tasks, and/or any other deviations from regular operations
• Proactive self-starter who can anticipate and respond to explicit/regular tasks, expected needs, and potential future challenges
• Capable of handling the high-pressure multitasking requirements intrinsic to the food service sector and recommending appropriate solutions with calm and grace
• Strong understanding of relevant financial, HR, and food industry laws, regulations, and compliance mechanisms
• Able to complete job responsibilities and performance objectives in a timely and effective manner and in accordance with Black Seed’s policies and procedures
• Outstanding qualifications with Quickbooks, Excel, POS systems, KPI dashboards, accounting software, and any other relevant digital tools for financial management
• Strong level of overall digital and IT literacy at the systems level

Compensation:

$125,000 annual salary range with opportunity for performance bonus.

Benefits & Perks:

Black Seed Bagels offers health insurance (50% coverage of individual premium), 30% employee discount in stores, 401k, and two weeks of paid vacation in addition to paid sick leave.

Compensation

this position is: salaried, more than $100,000

Application instructions

Deadline

no deadline