Accounting Senior Manager - CPG Team Lead

Job description

ROLE PURPOSE Ensure high-quality, consistent client delivery across an assigned team of CPG-focused Client Leads and staff by enabling, coaching, and coordinating their work. The Accounting Senior Manager — CPG Team Lead is accountable for team effectiveness across a portfolio of consumer packaged goods clients — not just individual client outcomes. This role requires both delivery leadership and people leadership, and carries formal responsibilities for performance reviews, career coaching, and development planning. CPG is a demanding vertical. Clients in this space deal with trade promotion complexity, multi-channel revenue structures, inventory and landed cost challenges, and margin pressure that requires precision at every level. The Team Lead must be fluent enough in CPG accounting to coach Client Leads through these challenges credibly — and to recognize quality work product when they review it. WHAT IT TAKES TO SUCCEED HERE This is a fully remote leadership role within a client-facing professional services firm. You lead a team of Accounting Managers (Client Leads), Senior Associates, and Associates serving CPG clients who expect Graphite-quality accounting every month. The following qualities define what high performance looks like at this level. • CPG Accounting Fluency: You understand CPG accounting at a practitioner level — trade spend, deductions, landed cost, inventory reconciliation, gross-to-net revenue across channels. You do not need to prepare every reconciliation yourself, but you need to review one and know immediately whether it is right. • Leadership Without Proximity: You set clear expectations, provide consistent coaching, and hold your team accountable — entirely through remote communication and structured operating rhythms. Your presence is felt through the quality of what your team produces. • Client Credibility: You maintain the technical depth and professional presence to engage senior CPG client contacts directly when needed. Your team’s standards reflect yours — invest in both. • Coaching Over Fixing: Your job is to make Client Leads better — not to do their work for them. When something goes wrong on a CPG engagement, your first instinct is to coach, not to take over. • Responsiveness at Scale: You model the responsiveness you expect from your team. Delayed decisions and slow escalations create client risk in a fast-moving industry. Move fast, communicate clearly, and resolve things. • Accountability for Team Outcomes: You own what your team delivers across the CPG portfolio. You do not deflect to process or capacity. You identify problems early and solve them. • Professional Standards Enforcement: You hold Client Leads and Associates to a high bar for written communication, client interaction, and deliverable quality. This is not optional in a remote, client-facing environment. CORE RESPONSIBILITIES Team Enablement & Oversight • Coach Client Leads on solution design, client management, delivery approach, and professional judgment across CPG engagements • Review CPG client engagement approaches for technical risk, complexity — particularly around trade promotion accounting, inventory, and multi-channel revenue — or inconsistency with firm standards • Serve as the first escalation point for delivery challenges, CPG-specific technical questions, and team capacity problems • Ensure all work produced by the team meets Graphite’s quality standards before it reaches clients People Leadership • Conduct formal performance reviews and ongoing career development conversations with direct reports • Identify CPG accounting capability gaps within the team and address them through coaching, targeted training, or resourcing decisions • Build a team environment where Client Leads operate with confidence and accountability, not dependency Capacity & Quality Management • Balance workload across Client Leads and adjust resourcing to manage close peaks, seasonal CPG demand cycles, and coverage risks • Drive execution consistency across the CPG client portfolio without creating bureaucratic overhead • Ensure no CPG client engagement is a single point of failure — cross-training and documentation are standing expectations Client Execution (Selective) • Maintain a purposefully limited personal CPG - focused client book • Use direct client execution to stay current on CPG accounting complexity, model the standards you set for your team, and remain credible as a coach and escalation resource Cross-Team Coordination • Partner with Standards and Technology teams to translate firm-wide standards into practical, CPG-ready execution within your team • Surface recurring CPG delivery issues, client patterns, and improvement opportunities to the Director proactively CLIENT INTERACTION • Not a primary client contact in the standard operating model • Engages directly with CPG clients during escalations, complex onboarding, or when providing real-time coaching to Client Leads on high-stakes situations • Maintains the professional presence, CPG industry fluency, and technical credibility to represent Graphite confidently in any senior client conversation QUALIFICATIONS • Bachelor’s degree in Accounting required; CPA required • 7–10 years of accounting experience including at least 2 years in a client lead, manager, or team leadership role; public accounting (Manager level) or outsourced accounting leadership experience strongly preferred • Demonstrated CPG accounting experience — this is a firm requirement. Candidates must be able to speak specifically to trade promotion accounting, inventory reconciliation, landed cost, and multi-channel COGS in a CPG context • Familiarity with CPG-specific platforms and operational systems including QuickBooks Online, NetSuite, Cin7, Shopify, and 3PL management systems preferred • Deep working knowledge of GAAP with direct experience navigating startup-specific accounting complexity: SAFEs, convertible instruments, ASC 606, equity compensation, and more • Demonstrated ability to manage a team and a client portfolio simultaneously without sacrificing quality on either • Strong coaching and feedback skills — you have developed junior accounting professionals before and take that responsibility seriously • Excellent written and verbal communication skills; executive presence in client-facing situations • Experience working in a remote professional services environment is strongly preferred Comprehensive Benefits & Perks: Health & Wellness: Competitive Medical, Dental, and Vision coverage. 100% of the employee's health insurance premium is covered by the company. Financial Security: Company-paid Short-Term and Long-Term Disability insurance. Work/Life Balance To Include: Generous Unlimited Paid Time Off (PTO), 11 Paid Company Holidays, and comprehensive Paid Parental Leave. Remote Work Setup: Fully remote position with company-provided technology equipment and a $250 technology stipend to support your ideal home office setup. 401k: With a company match Graphite Financial is a growing boutique finance, accounting, tax, and strategy firm () built to help startup and high-growth companies scale efficiently and sustainably. Graphite Financial is redefining the “finance department” for early-stage companies and VC-backed startups. We deliver high-caliber accounting and finance leadership and support to entrepreneurs and management teams building scalable, high-growth companies. Our clients are actively managing cash burn, measuring performance, reporting to investors, making capital allocation decisions, and preparing for fundraising. All of that takes expertise and time that founders don’t have and can’t afford to hire for. Graphite bridges the gap with flexible, fixed-fee support packages that provide fractional leadership and operational support from CFOs, Controllers, FP&A Managers, and Tax leaders.