Job Title: Vice President of Finance
Department: Executive
Reports To: President & CEO
Position Type: Full Time
Job Purpose
The VP of Finance role is a vital position on the senior leadership team directly impacting the performance of the company.
The primary purpose of the VP of Finance role is to implement, manage and run all the financial activities of the business. To ensure financial compliance, monitor and anticipate financial risks, and enhance executive decision making by providing cautions, advice, and guidance vis a vis financial analysis and reporting.
The VP of Finance provides leadership to the Kimberley organization with specific attention to the following areas:
- Finance & Administration Leadership
- Strategic Leadership
- People Leadership
- Results-Driven Leadership
- Industry Leadership
It is expected that the leadership, actions, and behaviors of the VP of Finance are completed timely with accuracy, attention to detail, and with a real focus on the client experience, setting the bar and aligning with the expectations Kimberley is setting for its employees, associates, and partners.
Employee Expectations
- Alignment – It is expected that the attitudes, behaviors, and work of each of our employees align to and support the key elements of our Mission – with care, attention to detail, and delivering homebuilding experiences that differentiate in ways that matter most to clients. This includes having keen anticipation and sense of how the client will and is feeling, and treating the client as you, yourself would like to be treated. Employees operate as one aligned team, displaying active agreement. The clients’ and company’s interests are put ahead of individual department interests. Team members are trusted and empowered to perform their roles and deliver on their accountabilities. Disruptive behavior that challenges alignment is not tolerated.
- Urgency – Time is of utmost importance in our business. It is expected that employees’ behaviors reflect a level of energy, urgency, and sensitivity to the importance of time and acting. This includes taking ownership of tasks, embracing empowerment to deliver on the accountabilities of your job, and avoiding deferring responsibilities to others including the executive leadership team.
- Client Experience – Client experience, both internal and external, are a high priority at Kimberley Homes. Our unique way of creating trust, care, and ease in our homebuilding experiences differentiates us from other builders. It is expected that attention is given to building trust and minding confidentiality with clients and colleagues. It is expected that every employee in the organization completes his/her work with a keen client experience focus in both internal and external interactions. This includes looking ahead to anticipate clients’ feelings and experiences that will result from our actions. As part of this pursuit, we avoid making assumptions and we close the loops in our interactions with profound certainty.
- Team Player – Our company prides itself on our positive attitudes, family-like values, and caring, considerate ways we deal with people. We are a small team that by working tightly together, we achieve more than our individual efforts. The client’s interests come first over department interests. We work cooperatively, trusting and supporting our fellow team members. We are conscious of how our actions impact others – colleagues and clients.
- Communications – It is through communications that our work gets done. Effective communications internally and externally with our clients are essential and part of every role in the company. It is expected that each employee gives the required attention to proactively and professionally communicate in a timely, relevant manner with real diligence to follow up to ensure the delivery of positive home-building experiences.
- Accountable – It is expected that every employee is accountable to their responsibilities and keeping their word. We strive to do things right the first time. Employees act with honesty, integrity, and appropriate confidentiality in their roles. It is expected that employees step up to proactively lead and own their areas of responsibility. We avoid venting, blaming others, finding excuses, not keeping our word, and passing the buck. We expect our direct reports to hold us accountable in real-time for our work, attitude, and behaviors.
- Expertise – Kimberley Homes knows that our greatest asset is the talents and expertise of our people. Our leaders are committed to developing employees. It is expected that our people are open to developing, changing, and transforming. It is expected that each employee owns their performance and actively explores ways to improve their work habits, skills, and the quality and efficiency of their contributions.
Key Accountabilities
- Policy Governance – The VP of Finance is given a very clear scope via an ends statement and executive limitations about, failing all else, what she can/cannot undertake.
- Finance & Administration Leadership – You are the company’s leader and expert in the financial and administrative aspects of the business at both strategic and operational levels. This role has important responsibilities in ensuring strong leadership, high performance, and delivery of results.
- Strategic Leadership – It is expected that the VP of Finance serves as both a financial and strategic leader, keeping the interests of the company top of mind. You are a key strategic leader in the organization, owning the company’s strategy and its execution. We depend on you to be actively involved in crafting vision and strategy and bringing it to life through our people to achieve our goals. This involves taking a holistic view of the company, like the president, proactively considering all departments and functions of the organization. As part of strategic leadership, it is expected that the VP of Finance will continuously develop, improve, and transform along with the new strategies of the business. From bold thinking to managing ambiguity, to facing conflict creatively with optimism, to leading with deliberate opportunism, this role is required to drive the transformational activities and desired results of Kimberley’s strategy.
- Culture Leadership – Culture is generated by the most senior leaders of an organization. Kimberley is transforming its culture to be a client experience company. As second in command to the president and with this role’s strong office presence, having inherent mindfulness to positively impact Kimberley’s culture is expected. This includes taking initiative to actively role model Kimberley’s desired culture, identifying and demonstrating the expected employee behaviors for how work gets done and how results are delivered. Consistently displaying the company’s expected behaviors in the areas of alignment, urgency, client experience, team player, communications, accountability, and expertise is required. This responsibility includes addressing the inconsistent behaviors of leaders and employees as they arise. Noticeable shifts in Kimberley’s culture including the presence of new, consistent behaviors as outlined above will indicate the VP of Finance’s contribution to culture transformation.
- People Leadership – A key accountability of the VP of Finance is to serve as a leader of people, leading and managing the key finance and administration roles of the company; and leading as a member of the senior leadership team. Creating a high-performance team of individuals who are competent, engaged, collaborative, taking initiative, and delivering on the required financial and administrative tasks of the business as expected, is an important accountability of this role. People leadership includes several expectations as outlined below:
- Presence, Communications & Teamwork – it is expected that a confident, capable, and empowering presence is exhibited. Proactive, timely, professional, and detailed communications are required to support people engagement, teamwork, and the delivery of positive and profitable business outcomes for Kimberley.
- Talent Development, Coaching & Recruitment – another important responsibility of the VP of Finance is to recruit, engage, train, coach, and retain individuals of high expertise, multi-talents, and values aligning with the company culture and expectations. It is expected that sufficient time is assigned to developing and growing Kimberley’s talent pool through informal and formal training and coaching activities. In consideration of the evolving expectations of the VP of Finance, it is expected that sufficient time and attention will be taken by you, as a senior leader to create and follow development plans of your own to enable valuable contributions and future personal success.
- Organization & Delegation – the extensive scope and high activity levels involved with the VP of Finance position require strong organization, time management, and delegation skills. It is expected that this leadership role organizes themselves and their multiple team members effectively, with consideration to the right levels of empowerment and follow up, to achieve the required high engagement, productivity, and quality results.
- Performance Management – a team’s performance is as strong as its weakest link. As part of this leadership role, it is expected that the performance of employees, suppliers, and partners will be actively managed both informally and formally. Required performance and feedback discussions will be timely (at the time of an incident), clear, and constructive, including agreed-upon actions going forward. Employees will be formally met with at least twice a year for collaborative performance conversations. Managing performance issues, mentoring, and advancing the office team’s performance is key accountability.
- Succession Planning – it is expected that the VP of Finance is mindful of the unique and critical talents involved in the various roles of the office team and is planning for the succession of key roles. An expectation of this planning process is identifying and developing high potential candidates for the VP of Finance’s role and other key roles. Success in people leadership will be measured in a variety of ways including employee attendance and engagement, ability to attract and retain talent, frequency of performance issues and their resolution, internal client experience, and delivery of defined departmental and company goals.
- Results-Driven Leadership – The VP of Finance is expected to take ownership for contributing to the company’s delivery of results and advancement. Generating a results-driven focus with strong accountability is required. Results-driven leadership involves: (1) delivering on functional department accountabilities; (2) supporting Kimberley’s primary purpose of revenue generation and profitability; (3) establishing and driving the strategic direction and bold goals; (4) delivering high-performance leadership and engagement; (5) achieving desired results through effective tactical planning, delegation, and execution – timely with accuracy, attention to detail and client experience focused. Creating, effective plans with disciplined execution for the achievement of company goals are indicators of the VP of Finances’ success in this area of accountability.
- Industry Leadership – It is expected that the VP of Finance will build industry visibility, expertise, and partnerships. Establishing relationships across the industry to promote Kimberley’s leading reputation and to enable information sharing, synergies, partnership opportunities, etc. is expected. Liaising with land developers, builders, lawyers, and mortgage specialists on an ongoing basis to seek out new opportunities and ensure solid communications with ongoing transactions is the accountability of this role. It is expected that the VP of Finance will grow knowledge of the evolving homebuilding industry and financial business practices for an understanding of emerging building, marketplace, business, financing, and client trends for a continued strong and proactive understanding of risks, threats, pricing shifts, new trends, new opportunities, new technologies, etc. Actively sharing evolving industry knowledge with the Kimberley team is the responsibility of the VP of Finance. With the increasing strategic importance of partnerships within and beyond the industry and current geography, the VP of Finance is expected to play a role with the president in growing awareness of Kimberley’s differentiated value available for strategic partnering opportunities.
- Other Responsibilities as Assigned – Perform other responsibilities related to strategic or day-to-day operations as assigned by the president. The Kimberley Homes’ president is committed to supporting the development and strengthening of each executive team member. The VP of Finance can expect both informal and formal performance conversations to take place providing both praise and providing feedback on opportunities to improve. Informal performance conversations may take place with the president amidst day-to-day operations. At least twice per year, more formal performance conversations will take place, led by each executive with the president. A conversation guide to support and document these conversations will be provided to each executive.