Director, College Go-to Market Finance

Position Title: Director, College Go-to Market Finance Location: Indianapolis, IN Starting Pay for position: $205,000 JOIN OUR TEAM! About Herff Jones: Indianapolis-based Herff Jones is the leading provider of graduation and educational products and services designed to inspire achievement and create memorable experiences for students. Herff Jones’ products include class rings and jewelry, caps and gowns, diplomas and announcements as well as motivation and recognition programs. Focused on building long-term relationships through a nationwide network of over 1,400 employees and sales partners, the professionals at Herff Jones have been helping elevate the student experience throughout the lifelong journey of education for more than 100 years. For more information about Herff Jones, please visit . Your Opportunity: The Director, College College Go-to Market Finance serves as the primary financial and strategic partner to the College General Manager and is a key member of the College leadership team. This role sits at the intersection of sales, operations, finance, and strategy and helps shape the future direction of the College segment by driving profitable growth, improving cash generation, strengthening business performance, and translating data into actionable decisions. The ideal candidate is equally comfortable discussing long-term growth strategy with executive leadership, partnering with Sales on customer economics and pricing decisions, and developing a high-performing team responsible for licensing, customer rebate administration and segment accounting. This is a highly visible leadership opportunity with direct influence on one of the company’s most important business segments. What we want you to accomplish: • Become a trusted strategic advisor to the College General Manager & College leadership team. • Create a transparent view of customer, product, territory, channel, and program profitability. • Improve forecast quality and decision speed through driver-based, action-oriented performance management. • Identify and execute margin improvement opportunities involving pricing, mix, discounts, commissions, rebates, licensing, and cost-to-serve. • Improve working capital performance, particularly aged customer and partner receivables. • Build and develop a high-performing team responsible for licensing, customer rebates, segment accounting and related financial processes. • Create a multi-year financial roadmap supporting sustainable growth and improved profitability. Core Activities: Strategy and Segment Leadership: • Serve as the principal finance partner and thought partner to the College General Manager and College leadership team. • Jointly develop the segment strategic plan, annual operating plan, growth priorities, and investment agenda. • Provide an independent financial perspective, constructively challenge assumptions, and help leaders make fact-based trade-offs. • Lead scenario analysis and business cases for strategic initiatives, investments, territory changes, and new commercial programs. Commercial Finance and Profitable Growth: • Build a clear understanding of profitability by customer, product, geography, channel, and sales territory. • Partner with Sales, Revenue Operations, and plant leadership to improve pricing, product mix, customer economics, and contribution margin. • Establish financial guardrails for proposals, discounts, promotions, gifts with purchase, commissions, and special agreements. • Evaluate territory acquisitions and buyouts, including expected returns, cash requirements, risks, and post-transaction performance. Performance Management and Decision Support: • Own the College segment financial outlook, including forecasting, budgeting, management reporting, and variance analysis. • Develop leading and lagging performance indicators for the College leadership team. • Convert complex financial and operating data into clear recommendations and decisions. • Improve the accuracy, transparency, and actionability of unit, net revenue, margin, SG&A, and cash forecasts. • Partner with operations and plant finance to connect commercial decisions with capacity, service, cost, and execution implications. Cash Flow, Working Capital, and Financial Discipline: • Improve working capital and cash conversion across the College segment. • Partner with Sales and Accounts Receivable to reduce aged customer and partner balances and resolve underlying commercial issues. • Strengthen oversight of deferrals, OD payback, commissions, ISP economics, partner balances, rebates, and other contractual obligations. • Identify financial and commercial risks early, establish corrective actions, and ensure appropriate accountability. Team Leadership: • Lead, develop, and elevate the team responsible for (1) licensing across the business (2) College customer rebates (3) College accounting and (4) other College financial support. • Ensure licensing and rebate obligations are properly forecasted, accurately recorded, properly supported, and administered in accordance with contractual requirements. • Improve visibility into the financial impact and commercial effectiveness of licensing and rebate programs. • Standardize processes, strengthen controls, clarify ownership, and reduce manual or reactive work. Decision Rights and Influence: • Recommend and help establish College pricing and discount guardrails. • Review or approve commercial proposals within defined authority levels. • Influence resource allocation and investment priorities. • Escalate customer, territory, and contractual arrangements that do not meet financial return expectations. • Establish financial performance routines for the College leadership team and define expectations for licensing and rebate administration. Success Indicators: • Commercially minded, with a strong understanding of how pricing, customer economics, sales incentives, product mix, and cost-to-serve affect profitable growth. • Strategic and hands-on, with the ability to shape a multi-year strategy while remaining close enough to the details to identify risks and drive execution. • Influential and credible with general management, Sales, operations, finance, and executive leaders; able to challenge assumptions constructively. • Decision-oriented, moving beyond reporting what happened to recommending what the business should do next. • Analytically rigorous, with high standards for accuracy and the ability to develop clear insights from complex or imperfect information. • An effective people leader who sets clear expectations, develops talent, delegates appropriately, and creates accountability. • A clear executive communicator who translates complex financial issues into concise recommendations. • Demonstrates Herff Jones core values: achieve greatness, do the right thing, be accountable, show respect, and be passionate. Education / Certifications Required: • Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting or Finance • Advanced degrees or certifications a plus (MBA, CPA, etc) • 10 - 15 years of relevant Finance and/or Accounting experience in a manufacturing environment. Commercial Finance or FP&A experience a plus. • Strong financial modeling, forecasting, executive communication, Excel, and presentation capabilities; Power BI or comparable analytics experience is preferred. • Demonstrated experience partnering directly with a General Manager, Sales leader, or business-unit president. • Experience improving profitability through pricing, customer economics, sales effectiveness, product mix, or cost-to-serve initiatives. • Experience leading and developing a team. • Experience in manufacturing, consumer products, education, seasonal, or multi-channel businesses is beneficial. • Experience with licensing, customer rebates, commissions, or complex commercial agreements is beneficial. Physical Requirements: • Daily activity includes but is not limited to lifting, carrying, sitting, grasping, reaching, standing, kneeling, walking, bending, twisting. • Reading, communication, math. • Working at a computer for extended periods of time. • Ability to regularly lift/move up to 50lbs. • Noise level in the work environment is usually moderate to above Herff Jones, Inc. and its affiliates are equal opportunity employers and maintain affirmative action plans to recruit, retain, develop, and promote qualified individuals without unlawful consideration of race, gender, gender identity, color, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, citizenship status, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local law. Herff Jones strives to maintain a work environment free from unlawful discrimination and harassment, where associates are treated with respect and dignity. 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