Chief Financial Officer

The Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District (NICTD), operator of the South Shore Line Railroad, is seeking an experienced financial executive leader to serve as Chief Financial Officer (CFO). The CFO is the District's senior financial executive and a principal advisor to the President and General Manager, executive leadership team, and Board of Trustees. The CFO is accountable for the integrity, transparency, efficiency, and long-term sustainability of NICTD's financial operations and for aligning operating and capital resources with the safe, reliable delivery of South Shore Line service.

This is both a stewardship and transformation role. The CFO will maintain disciplined governmental accounting, grant, audit, treasury, debt, payroll, procurement, and internal-control practices while leading the modernization of financial systems, data, workflows, and management reporting. The successful candidate will understand the operational and financial realities of a public railroad, including collectively bargained labor, around-the-clock service, federally funded capital programs, multiple governmental funding partners, and public accountability.

• Give the President and General Manager and Board timely, candid, decision-ready analysis - not simply historical financial reports.
• Protect public funds and funding eligibility through reliable controls, compliant records, accurate reporting, and prompt correction of audit or grant findings.
• Lead the District's transition from operating primarily under a business plan to preparing, adopting, and managing against a formal annual operating and capital budget, supported by a multi-year financial forecast.
• Modernize the finance function through an enterprise roadmap for core financial, payroll, timekeeping, procurement, grants, budgeting, asset, and reporting systems, with disciplined change management and uninterrupted business continuity.
• Develop a capable, accountable finance organization with documented processes, cross-training, succession depth, service standards, and measurable performance.

• Serve as the President and General Manager's principal financial advisor; identify emerging risks, tradeoffs, and opportunities and recommend clear courses of action.
• Design and execute a disciplined transition from the District's current business-plan process to a formal annual operating and capital budget process, while retaining a multi-year business plan as a strategic forecasting and policy tool.
• Establish a budget calendar, revenue and expenditure assumptions, departmental instructions, position and labor-cost controls, capital programming standards, executive review, Board adoption, amendment authority, and clear ownership for every material budget line.
• Administer the adopted budget through monthly budget-to-actual reporting, rolling forecasts, variance explanations, expenditure and position controls, and timely corrective-action plans developed with accountable department heads.
• Integrate the annual budget with cash flow, grants, debt obligations, reserves, capital commitments, ridership and fare revenue, collective bargaining obligations, and multi-year operating and capital forecasts.
• Translate complex financial matters for the Board, elected and appointed officials, funding partners, employees, labor representatives, auditors, lenders, and the public through clear written reports and presentations.
• Establish useful financial and operational performance indicators and lead recurring variance reviews with department heads; require corrective action when results depart materially from plan.
• Evaluate service, workforce, procurement, project, and investment proposals for full life-cycle cost, funding eligibility, affordability, risk, and measurable return to the District.

• Direct general accounting, accounts payable and receivable, payroll accounting, capital assets, revenue accounting, cost allocation, financial close, and preparation of audited financial statements.
• Ensure compliance with GAAP, GASB standards, applicable Indiana requirements, the National Transit Database Uniform System of Accounts, federal award requirements, District policy, debt covenants, and other governing requirements.
• Maintain a practical, risk-based system of internal controls, segregation of duties, delegations of authority,…