CFO

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Jet Excellence is a top 12 US floating fleet aircraft charter operator, and it is growing. The company needs a hands-on CFO to run day-to-day finance and accounting for the business. The work is tactical: get into the numbers, build the SOPs and systems, and stand up a team that executes. The CFO also leads and manages that team, holds it accountable, and uses the financials to drive decisions across the business.

Jet Excellence delivers premium private aviation with a growing fleet of Citation Xs and plans to expand both the size of the fleet and the aircraft types it operates. The business traces its roots to JEM Air Holdings (dba Bell Air), founded in 2009, and was repositioned in 2018 to focus on light jets and King Airs, building a reputation for safety, reliability, and growth.

Headquartered in Raleigh, NC, it now operates nationally and has rebranded as Jet Excellence.

Safety is the operating culture: the company holds Wyvern registration and an ARGUS Platinum rating, and backs every flight with 24/7 AOG response and rigorous maintenance protocols. Over the most recent 30-day period, Jet Excellence flew 977 flights carrying 1,976 passengers, completing 94% of trips as scheduled.

The company employs approximately 170 people and operates 30+ aircraft with more than $170M in top-line revenue.

The CFO owns day-to-day finance and accounting for Jet Excellence, with direct line responsibility for the department and team. The role stays hands-on for the foreseeable future and is responsible for budgeting, forecasting, planning, decision support, and building out the finance function. It reports directly to the CEO and serves as a key financial input to leadership's decisions on the aviation business.

The priority is a doer, someone who rolls up their sleeves and does their share of the work rather than directing all of it from above. Strategic capability matters and the right person has it, but it comes second to hands-on execution. A CFO-minded controller who stays in the details is the right profile. Jet Excellence moves quickly, and the role demands someone who can think and act at that pace, carry several priorities at once, and still deliver on time.

Alignment with the company's Core Values is a requirement of the role, and candidates should review those values and confirm their own align.

• Owns the full accounting and finance function: reporting, budgeting, forecasting, cash flow, and accurate, timely financials; personally runs a disciplined monthly close while systems and team are built out, and stays proactive in both decision-making and task completion.
• Owns budgeting, forecasting, and planning, including a rolling forecast refreshed monthly, and turns financial detail into clear, decision-ready reporting.
• Runs the budget process and cost baseline, knows the principal margin drivers, and holds monthly accountability with functional leaders.
• Builds SOPs, controls, and repeatable processes, and implements finance technology while continuing to run the close; takes the organization from unaudited to audit-ready and leads the first audit.
• Carries early responsibility for financial controls, cash visibility, and finance risk, and solves accounting and process problems directly through hands-on deep dives.
• Leads the current team of six US finance and accounting staff plus two offshore as a player-coach, manages the offshore relationship on service levels and quality, and builds delegation, accountability, and redundancy.
• Assesses the team, identifies gaps, and produces a technology and process plan so the company can grow roughly 25% without automatically adding finance headcount.

• Bachelor’s…