Chief Finance & Operations Officer; CFOO

Full Time Kirkland, WA, US

7 days ago Requisition

Salary Range: $ To $ Annually

Opportunity Statement

Eastside Prep’s Vision is to Inspire Students to Create a Better World.

Our Mission is to Guide Students To:

• Think Critically
• Act Responsibly

Our vision and mission guide the development of the curriculum and program as well as the evolution of the EPS culture. Founded in 2002, Eastside Prep is accredited by the Northwest Association of Independent Schools (NWAIS). The school has grown from 17 students in 2003–2004 to more than 530 students in grades 5–12, supported by an annual operating budget of approximately $30 million.

Over the past two decades, Eastside Prep has moved from a start-up school to a mature institution with a permanent campus, a substantial operating budget, and a complex set of operational functions. What began as a small business office supporting a young school has become an integrated finance and operations organization encompassing the Business Office, Campus Operations, Dining Services, and IT Operations — roughly 30 employees in all.

That growth has been deliberate. The school has invested in a campus within a shared business park, built financial systems and internal controls appropriate to its scale, developed an employee compensation and benefits program designed to attract and retain exceptional faculty and staff, and sustained a need-based financial aid program central to its mission. The Chief Finance & Operations Officer role reflects the next stage of that maturation: a senior officer who is both the steward of the school’s financial health and a strategic partner in shaping its future.

The new CFOO will join the school at a moment of institutional maturation and shifting external conditions. This moment presents certain challenges and opportunities for an incoming officer, including but not limited to the following:

• As a tuition-driven institution, EPS must balance affordability for families against the real costs of an exceptional program — an equation that requires disciplined long-range modeling, not annual improvisation.
• The school is committed to socioeconomic diversity and recognizes the need to grow its financial aid fund, including tuition and the additional school-related expenses that shape a student’s full experience.
• Compensation and benefits represent the largest share of the operating budget. Benchmarking against independent school and regional market data, and modeling the long-term implications of staffing decisions, are central to the school’s sustainability.
• Regional demographic and economic trends on the Eastside of the Puget Sound region will influence enrollment, tuition strategy, and the labor market from which EPS hires.
• The physical campus, shared with a business park, requires ongoing stewardship, capital planning, and an active partnership with the park’s Board of Directors.
• Risk management, employment law compliance, and business continuity planning have grown more demanding for independent schools, calling for both strong internal practice and effective use of external counsel and consultants.
• Technology infrastructure and information security must be resourced to support a forward-looking academic program while protecting the community’s data.

Over the next several years, EPS will work to strengthen the financial and operational foundation that makes its mission possible. The CFOO will lead the development of a long-range financial plan that connects the school’s strategic priorities to the resources required to achieve them, and will build the systems, partnerships, and layers of…