Vice President – Finance

Company Description

When you join Renaissance®, you join a global leader in pre-K–12 education technology.

Renaissance’s solutions help educators analyze, customize, and plan personalized learning paths for students, allowing time for what matters—creating energizing learning experiences in the classroom. Our fiercely passionate employees and educational partners have helped drive phenomenal student growth, with Renaissance solutions being used in over one-third of US schools and in more than 100 countries worldwide.

Every day, we are connected to our mission by exemplifying our values: trust each other, win together, strive for the best, own our actions, and grow and evolve.

Job Description

Founded in 1986, Renaissance is a global leader in pre-K–12 education technology. Our 1,500+ dedicated professionals develop and support world-class assessment and practice solutions that are used in over one-third of U.S. schools and more than 100 countries worldwide.

The Renaissance mission is at the heart of everything we do:
“To accelerate learning for all children and adults of all ability levels and ethnic and social backgrounds, worldwide.”

At Renaissance, employees are appreciated and rewarded for the expertise and passion they bring to work every day. Also, while most leaders are measured on the basis of business results, we hold our leaders accountable for building a strong and enduring culture, listening to employee feedback, and engaging and retaining talented teams.

Our leaders are committed to:

• A continuous dialogue with employees and customers
• An openness to new ideas and innovation
• Delivering dependable, authentic, and trustworthy experiences

Competitive Advantages:

• Outstanding Existing Footprint: Renaissance Learning products can be found in more than one-third of U.S. schools and key International markets
• Stable & Recurring Order Base
• Subscription Model
• Strong Cash EBITDA & Margins
• Strong Subscription Renewal Rates
• NPS scores >/= 50

Financial Performance:

• Long history of organic topline growth
• Highly profitable; Cash Adjusted EBITDA
• Annual recurring SAAS revenue model
• Strong renewal rates
• Strong cash flow conversion
• Pricing power

Market Overview:

• $8 Billion Addressable Market
• 3.2 million Teachers and 55 Million Students
• Key Leader in Fragmented Market
• Instructional Material Category Growing 6% per Year

OVERVIEW OF POSITION

Reporting to the CFO, Lynn Danko, and serving as an integral member of the senior management team, this role is a key component to the company’s financial and operational success. The VP of Finance will be an expert in FP&A, and will be responsible for leading the development and execution of Renaissance Learning’s long term strategic and financial planning initiatives, as well as evaluating competitive differentiation and corresponding business plans that will increase enterprise value. The VP of Finance will be a key team member and liaison with the accounting team leader ensuring the company’s story is told and coordinated with accounting leadership as well as when strategic initiatives are determined, and budgets are complete. They will help to drive the creation and development of a robust and scalable analytical framework for data analysis and decision-support within the company and will often be the primary touchpoint inside the company, for the board directors from Francisco Partners.

The ideal candidate will have experience building deep business partner relationships across the organization and will have worked at companies where the finance function is positioned as a critical strategic asset, and a driver of risk-informed, data-driven decisions. The ideal candidate will be one that has experience in working both for private equity in a key finance leader role as well as for public companies.

RESPONSIBILITIES

● Actively manage long term financial planning and analysis including budgeting, forecasting, resource management and multi-year financial plans, working closely with functional leaders across the company.

● “Own and operate” the Renaissance Learning business model, and drive benchmarks and KPIs for measuring the financial and operating performance of the business.

● Provide in-depth financial modeling and analysis for a wide range of initiatives including, but not limited, to financial analysis for contract negotiations and product investment decisions, recommendations on business model, product pricing, and special promotions, analysis of customer segmentation and product adoption.

● Proactively partner with leadership and cross-functional teams to develop and support strategic initiatives and improve actual financial results.

● Develop monthly and quarterly management and Board reporting to ensure a high degree of quality, timeliness, and accuracy in reporting as well as providing business insight.

● Develop, maintain and utilize the appropriate financial systems, tools and resources required to support all of the financial planning, management and reporting needs of the business.

● Evaluate effective budgeting and reporting tools and lead the implementation of any new budgeting and reporting tools determined necessary.

● Institute and maintain effective processes and best practices in modeling, financial tools, communication and coordination for the FP&A role in the Company.

● Manage lender and rating agency relationships with the CFO, including preparing all lender and rating agency communication.

● Coordinate debt reporting and debt covenant compliance.

● Produce cash flow forecasts along with income statement forecasts by working closely with Controller and executive leadership.

● Help CFO drive high level strategic initiatives for Treasury related functions, including cash flow projections.

● Develop strategic planning models for the organization.

● Actively participate with executive and senior leaders to drive business decisions, utilizing KPI’s and other metrics to help drive appropriate business decisions.

● Develop M&A models to support key acquisitions

● Lead three and five year projections for both cash flow and earnings.

● Maximize the use of systems automation

LOCATION

● Executive Headquarters is in Bloomington, MN

● There are options also to work remotely with travel to key offices.

PERSONAL ATTRIBUTES AND VALUES

This individual will lead Renaissance Learning’s Financial Planning & Analysis functions. The VP Finance will foster a culture of thought leadership, team orientation, high performance, integrity and commitment to getting the job done right.

Qualifications

PERSONAL ATTRIBUTES AND VALUES

This individual will lead Renaissance Learning’s Financial Planning & Analysis functions. The VP Finance will foster a culture of thought leadership, team orientation, high performance, integrity and commitment to getting the job done right.

● Bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution is required.

● Minimum of 12+ years experience in senior financial positions.

● Financial Modeling and Analysis: well-versed in the creation of robust, scalable, and flexible financial models. Takes a creative approach to this process. Analytical and business minded. Must be able to dig into the details to analyze and understand causes of budget/actual variances.

● Experience working in the software space, preferably SaaS, and comfortable with complex revenue recognition models

● Experience in both private equity and public company environments

● Cash Management: Skilled at highly efficient working capital management and the creation of meaningful long-term projections.

● Proven ability to engage all relevant members of the executive team to align financial management with short and long term financial planning and projections. Demonstrated success working across functional groups to achieve key operational goals that have financial implications.

● Flexible, independent, forward-thinking with a willingness to engage in all aspects of the business.

● Metrics-driven. Able to translate strategy into measurable operational goals and objectives. Disciplined in assessing performance and addressing problems.

● Demonstrated ability of performing in-depth analyses of industry market trends, addressable markets and implementing forecasting techniques.

● Comfortable in outward-facing situations with investors, customers, partners. Strong executive presence and ability to serve as a strong representative for the Company in any environment.

● Excellent written, oral, interpersonal and presentation skills while having the ability to work effectively with multiple functional areas in a collaborative, team environment

● Able to lead by doing. A hands-on mentality and low ego approach to building a great company.

Additional Information

Rewards:
Compensation will consist of the following elements:
● A cash compensation (base and incentive) package in line with an entrepreneurial growth company.

● Equity in the form of stock options, with high upside potential.

● The personal reward associated with a position of leadership in a company creating a new business. This position is one of major importance, high impact and high visibility.

Benefits:

• Medical, dental, vision including Health Savings Accounts
• 401(K)
• Tuition & Professional Development Reimbursement
• Parental Leave – 20 weeks total, 14 weeks paid
• Vacation Time Off
• 12 Holidays and 2 Volunteer Days
• Commuter benefits
• Wellness Incentives

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.

At Renaissance our mission is: “To accelerate learning for all children and adults of all ability levels and ethnic and social backgrounds, worldwide.” Inherent in that guiding principle is dedication to serving all identities by recognizing the importance of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in our organization, our work, and our products.

Frequently cited statistics show that women and underrepresented minorities will only apply to roles if they meet 100% of the qualifications. At Renaissance, we write our job descriptions to articulate our flexibility and we encourage all applications. Roles evolve over time, especially with innovation, and you may be just the person we need into the future. NO ONE ever meets 100% of the criteria in a job post. We hope you’re open to learning new skills to grow with us. Make our team, your team!

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