Finance Director / Administrative Department Director

Company
Oxbow Design Build
Location
Easthampton, MA

Job Title: Finance Director / Administrative Department Director   

Department: Administration   Reports to: Board of Directors

Company Overview

Oxbow Design Build Cooperative is a worker-owned company that offers architectural design and construction services for residential and commercial projects. We are a values-driven company that prioritizes sustainable and ethical construction. We use local, environmentally friendly materials whenever possible and produce buildings that meet the highest energy performance standards. As a cooperative, we value all our workers and provide a path to ownership, with equal participation in company governance and profit sharing.

Position Overview

This is a senior leadership position at a growing and successful worker-owned cooperative. The Finance Director / Administrative Department Director owns the company's financial health and leads the Administrative Department, which supports every other department at Oxbow—Design and Construction. This is a dual-focus role: roughly half financial management (hands-on bookkeeping, job costing, budgeting, cash flow, payroll, and reporting to the Board and Member Owners) and half administrative leadership (managing the admin team, PTO/benefits administration, member-owner onboarding, and company-wide operational support).

This person will work closely with the Board of Directors and Member Owners to keep the cooperative financially sound and sustainable, while ensuring the company's day-to-day administrative functions run smoothly. The ideal candidate is detail-oriented, comfortable with both high-level financial strategy and hands-on bookkeeping, and is drawn to the mission and structure of a worker-owned cooperative.

A note on hands-on work

This is a working director role, not a purely supervisory one. The Director performs the company's bookkeeping and accounts payable directly. We are hiring two administrative positions concurrently, and there is room to delegate more routine bookkeeping entry and accounts receivable follow-up to administrative staff—but the Director is expected to have a direct hand in AP and the books rather than reviewing someone else's work.

 

Job Duties

Finance — Transactional (performed by this role)

  • Perform & oversee day-to-day bookkeeping: record transactions, reconcile accounts, and maintain the general ledger in QuickBooks
  • Own accounts payable end-to-end — enter and code bills, schedule payments, and manage vendor and subcontractor payment relationships
  • Manage accounts receivable, including client invoicing and collections follow-up, with support from administrative staff on routine entry and follow-up
  • Run weekly payroll and ensure timesheets are reviewed and processed accurately and on schedule (approximately 3 hours per week)
  • Maintain financial records in compliance with applicable regulations

Finance — Analysis, Planning & Reporting

  • Track job costing across active Design and Construction projects and flag budget variances in coordination with Project Managers and Department Directors
  • Prepare monthly, quarterly, and annual financial statements and reports for the Board of Directors and Member Owners
  • Develop and manage the annual company budget in coordination with the Board and Department Directors
  • Monitor cash flow and provide forecasting to support company decision-making
  • Coordinate with outside CPA/tax preparer for tax filings and annual review or audit
  • Administer the company 401(k) plan in coordination with the plan administrator
  • Oversee insurance renewals (general liability, workers' comp, etc.) and support the annual Workers' Compensation and General Liability audit process using timesheet data
  • Support profit-sharing calculations and distributions in accordance with the cooperative's governance structure

Administration — Team & People

  • Directly supervise the Administrative team, including the Administrative Assistant and Finance-related staff
  • Serve as a point of contact for employee questions regarding payroll, PTO, and other benefits
  • Oversee administration of PTO, holiday pay, bereavement leave, and PFML processes
  • Oversee onboarding and offboarding administrative processes for employees
  • Support the Cooperative Resource Manager(s) with HR-related matters as needed

Administration — Member Owner Support

Serve as the administrative point of contact for employees interested in becoming Member Owners, in coordination with current Member Owners. In practice, this is a light but steady responsibility, estimated at one hour per month or less, and includes:

  • Distributing the Member Owner Bylaws to interested employees and answering procedural questions
  • Tracking each candidate's progress against Member Owner prerequisites
  • Tracking Member Owner buy-ins and maintaining individual Member Owner accounts

Administration — Operations & Governance

  • Maintain and update company policies and the Employee Handbook as needed, with approval from the Cooperative Resource Management Department
  • Maintain company records, insurance documentation, and licensing/registration filings
  • Manage relationships with outside vendors supporting administrative functions (e.g., software, benefits providers)
  • Provide regular financial and operational updates to the Board of Directors
  • Strategize with the Board about the financial direction and administrative operations of the company

Qualifications

Required

  • Our ideal candidate has 5+ years of experience in accounting, bookkeeping, or financial management — or 3+ years paired with a Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, or Business Administration or combined relevant experience — ideally within construction, design, or a related project-based industry
  • Demonstrated hands-on bookkeeping experience, including full-cycle accounts payable and account reconciliation
  • Strong understanding of job costing, budgeting, and cash flow management
  • Experience with payroll processing and general HR/administrative functions
  • Proficiency with accounting software (e.g., QuickBooks) and with Google Workspace — Gmail, Google Sheets, and Google Docs
  • Excellent organizational skills and close attention to detail
  • Strong written and verbal communication skills
  • Ability to manage confidential and sensitive information with discretion
  • Comfortable both setting strategy and doing hands-on day-to-day work
  • Strong leadership and team management skills

Bonus

  • Experience working within a worker-owned cooperative or similarly structured organization
  • Experience with construction accounting practices (WIP reporting, percentage-of-completion, retainage, etc.)
  • Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, Business Administration, or a related field
  • Experience with Asana or a comparable project management platform used alongside Google Workspace

Contact

Compensation

  • Full-time, salaried, starting at $85,000 annually. Pay is subject to regular review and raises.
  • Paid time off
  • 401(k) with employer match
  • Mileage reimbursement
  • Ownership track for equal profit sharing within 2 years
  • Professional development opportunities