Director of Finance in ARMADA, Michigan at Blake's Orchard, Inc.

Director of Finance

Full-Time • Armada, MI • Reports to President • Blake’s Orchard & Cider Mill

Who We Are & About This Role

Since 1946, Blake’s Orchard & Cider Mill has been a cornerstone of Michigan agriculture and agritourism: an 80-year family operation with deep roots in Armada and a genuine growth ambition. Our mission is to cultivate growth in our people, our community, and our business. We farm, we produce, we host, and we sell across four locations, restaurants, tasting rooms, retail, and a fall season that draws guests from across the state.

The Farm has been here for eighty years because generations of people made careful decisions about how to grow it and how to protect it. The Director of Finance carries that responsibility forward. This is the senior-most finance seat at Blake’s Orchard & Cider Mill, reporting directly to the President and sitting above the Controller.

You own the financial strategy, planning, and performance of the business. You partner with the President and ownership on the decisions that shape where this company goes next: capital investment, growth planning, banking relationships, and long-range financial health. You also lead the finance function day to day, with the Controller and accounting team reporting to you, and you own the Information Technology function for the Orchard.

This role sets the company’s operating tempo. You lead our weekly L10 meeting, run weekly financial reviews with department leaders, and build the financial literacy across the business that lets every leader own their own numbers.

This is a business partner role as much as a finance role. Blake’s is a seasonal, asset-heavy, multi-channel agricultural business, and the right person here will be as comfortable walking the orchard as reading a balance sheet.

If you want to shape the financial future of a family business with real history and real ambition, we want to hear from you.

Your Role With Blake’s: Key Responsibilities

Financial Strategy & Business Partnership

You are the President’s financial partner and the voice of financial clarity in every major decision. Trust & Communication: ownership should always know where the business stands and what the numbers are telling us.

Partner with the President and ownership on financial strategy, growth planning, and long-range business decisions

• Prepare and present financial results, forecasts, and analysis to the President and ownership with clarity and directness
• Build the financial case for major decisions: new locations, capital projects, acquisitions, and expansion opportunities
• Provide financial guidance to department leaders across Farm Operations, Food & Beverage, Retail, Events, and Production
• Translate strategy into financial plans and financial results into plain language leadership can act on

Planning, Budgeting & Forecasting

Blake’s is a seasonal business with a concentrated revenue window, which makes planning everything. Achievement & Accountability: you own the plan, the forecast, and the honest reporting of how we performed against both.

Own the annual budgeting process across all departments and locations

• Build and maintain rolling forecasts that account for seasonality, weather risk, crop yield, and guest traffic variability
• Develop and maintain a three-year financial outlook with integrated cash flow forecasts and long-term capital strategy, positioning Blake’s to thrive for decades rather than quarters
• Lead monthly and quarterly business reviews with department leaders: analyze variances, identify drivers, and drive corrective action
• Build financial models for scenario planning, capital decisions, and new business opportunities

Cash Flow, Treasury & Banking

A seasonal agricultural business lives and dies on cash management. Integrity & Commitment: disciplined stewardship of the company’s cash is a direct expression of protecting the family legacy.

Own cash flow planning, working capital management, and liquidity across the seasonal cycle

• Manage banking and lender relationships including credit facilities, covenants, and reporting requirements
• Lead capital planning and financing strategy for equipment, facilities, orchard investment, and expansion projects
• Oversee treasury operations, debt management, and lease obligations
• Manage relationships with external partners including auditors, tax advisors, and insurance brokers

Accounting Oversight & Financial Reporting

The Controller runs the close. You own the integrity of what comes out of it. Teamwork & Character: you lead the finance team, develop the people on it, and set the standard for how this function operates.

Lead the finance and accounting function with the Controller and accounting team reporting to you

• Oversee the monthly close, financial statement preparation, and the accuracy and timeliness of all financial reporting
• Ensure sound internal controls, appropriate segregation of duties, and audit readiness across the organization
• Oversee tax planning and compliance in partnership with external tax advisors, including agricultural and multi-entity considerations
• Develop the finance team: build capability, create growth paths, and raise the standard of what this function delivers
• Build succession plans and cross-train the team so the finance function is never person-dependent; no single absence should put the close, the reporting, or the controls at risk
• Build a team that does not just follow financial processes but teaches and enforces them, so good practice becomes embedded across the organization

Systems, Reporting & Continuous Improvement

Good decisions require good information, delivered fast. Learning & Innovation: you continually improve how Blake’s sees and understands its own numbers.

Own the financial systems environment including NetSuite; drive adoption, data integrity, and continuous improvement

• Build reporting and dashboards that give leaders across the business timely visibility into their performance
• Improve financial processes to reduce manual work, shorten the close, and increase the speed of insight
• Partner with operations on costing, margin analysis, and unit economics across farm, production, retail, and hospitality
• Support pricing, inventory, and capital allocation decisions with rigorous analysis

Operating Rhythm & Financial Leadership Development

Blake’s runs on a weekly cadence, and Finance sets the tempo. Teamwork & Character: your job is to make every department leader financially confident, not financially dependent on you.

Facilitate and lead the weekly L10 input for Finance & Accounting: drive actionable outcomes, hold the room accountable, and keep the focus on what moves the business

• Ensure L10 dashboards and scorecards are accurate, reliable, and consistently updated so decisions are made on real numbers
• Hold structured weekly reviews with department leaders covering sales revenue, profit, cash flow, and controllable factors including labor, cost of goods, and expenses
• Provide financial education that equips leaders to contribute confidently in weekly and monthly reviews and to demonstrate genuine P&L ownership
• Drive cultural adoption of financial discipline across the organization; be approachable enough that leaders come to Finance early rather than late

Information Technology Oversight

The IT function, through the Director of Data, Systems and ECommerce reports into this role. Integrity & Commitment: the systems that run this business and the data inside them need the same stewardship as the finances.

Own the IT function for Blake’s Orchard & Cider Mill including managing the Director in Technology as they take on strategy, budget, vendor relationships, and team leadership

• Be the accountable leader for systems infrastructure including networks, databases, endpoint and email security, malware protection, and backup and disaster recovery
• Lead technology planning and capital investment decisions across business systems, point of sale, and operational technology with the Director of Data, Systems and Ecommerce running point and you guiding them through it

Risk, Compliance & Stewardship

Protecting this business is part of growing it. Passion & Positivity: you bring genuine care for this place and its people to every recommendation you make.

Oversee risk management including insurance coverage, crop risk, and business continuity considerations

• Ensure compliance with all applicable financial, tax, and regulatory requirements across entities
• Steward the Family legacy of this business: make decisions with an eighty-year horizon, not a twelve-month one
• Support the Community commitments Blake’s makes with sound financial planning that allows us to keep making them

What Great Looks Like: Qualifications

The right person has led a finance function, partnered closely with ownership or executive leadership, and has the judgment to know which numbers matter and why.

Required

• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, or a related field
• 8+ years of progressive finance and accounting experience, including leadership of a finance function
• Proven experience partnering with executive leadership or ownership on strategic financial decisions
• Strong command of financial planning and analysis, budgeting, forecasting, and cash flow management
• Experience managing banking and lender relationships including credit facilities and covenant reporting
• Deep understanding of GAAP, internal controls, and financial reporting standards
• Demonstrated ability to lead, develop, and retain a finance team
• Experience owning or overseeing an IT function, or the demonstrated capability and appetite to take it on
• Working knowledge of systems infrastructure including databases, network and endpoint security, malware protection, and backup and recovery
• Comfortable leading a recurring leadership meeting and holding peers accountable in the room
• Excellent communicator: you make complex financial information clear to people who are not finance people
• Advanced Excel and strong ERP proficiency

Preferred

• CPA, CMA, or MBA
• Experience in agriculture, food and beverage, hospitality, retail, or another seasonal business
• NetSuite experience
• Multi-entity accounting and consolidation experience
• Familiarity with agricultural accounting considerations including crop and biological asset treatment
• Experience in a family-owned or closely held business environment
• Familiarity with EOS, Traction, or a comparable operating system including L10 meeting discipline and scorecards
• Experience managing IT vendors, managed service providers, or an internal IT team

How This Role Works

On-site role based out of Blake’s Armada campus

• Onsite leadership and support expected during peak operational months of September and October, including weekend availability as the season requires
• Physical presence required during quarter-end and year-end close periods
• Company blackout dates apply during peak season and close periods unless pre-approved PTO is granted
• Travel to Blake’s other locations as needed for business reviews, systems work, and operational support

Busy season is part of the plan. Our Festival, Events, Fall and Holiday season runs from June through the end of the holidays, and weekend work across that stretch is core to how we operate, it’s when we create the experiences we are known for. Team’s participation is not an exception or an occasional ask, some, or all of the team will be a part of it. Your week stays at five days: the days shift to cover events, festivals, and weekends as the calendar requires. Standard Monday through Friday schedules apply during the quieter months. This is the Orchard career, arranged around the seasons that define this business.

The Fall Incentive Plan. For team members who want to take on more during our peak season, Blake’s offers an optional program: work six-day, sixty-hour weeks through fall and earn additional PTO plus a cash bonus. Participation is entirely voluntary and has no bearing on performance reviews or standing. It exists for people who want to go all in during the season that matters most, and want to be paid for it. Full program details are shared during onboarding.

How You’re Rewarded: Compensation & Benefits

Competitive base salary, performance-based incentive, 401(k) with match, full health/dental/vision benefits, PTO, and all the perks of working at one of Michigan’s most beloved farms. Full details shared during the interview process.

What’s Next: How to Apply

Don’t just send a resume into a void. Reach out on LinkedIn, visit the farm, try the cider, and show us you want in. We can’t wait to meet the right person.

Blake’s Orchard & Cider Mill is an equal opportunity employer.