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About the Company

With a passion for great coffee, Pilot Coffee Roasters was founded in 2009 with the goal of introducing specialty coffee to Toronto. With its first location and original roastery located in Toronto’s Leslieville neighbourhood, Pilot was built around its core values of sourcing ethical, Direct Trade coffee and building transparency in the process from farm to cup.

Pilot operated as a specialty café and roastery, supplying coffee, equipment, training, technical support, and consulting services for new café owners across Canada. Two years later, a second café was opened on the Ossington strip in Toronto’s west end, and by 2013, having outgrown the original location, the roastery operations moved to its current headquarters at 50 Wagstaff Drive.

Pilot’s dedication to quality, education and state-of-the-art facilities propelled it to earn a number of accolades over the last 12 years including a place on the GROWTH 500 list (Canada’s fastest-growing companies), several design awards, and achieving Great Place to Work Certification. With a growing presence in Toronto’s specialty coffee scene came new and exciting opportunities. More cafés were opened in Toronto’s downtown core, new Direct Trade partnerships were developed, a cold brew production department was introduced, quickly establishing Pilot Cold Brew™ as a leader in the category, and a growing eCommerce presence emerged.

Pilot Coffee Roasters is a full-service roastery, wholesaler and cafe operator with multiple locations across Toronto. Pilot’s coffee can be purchased directly on its online store, at one of its own branded cafés, through its extensive wholesale partner network across Canada, or in a growing number of specialty grocery stores.

As the company has grown and evolved, so too has its consumer and wholesale partner’s needs. In 2021 Pilot released new sustainable and fully bilingual packaging to better align with the company’s values and developed a virtual coffee education platform so that customers can continue to expand their skills and coffee knowledge.

Pilot’s passion for great coffee and commitment to quality remains at the heart of everything it does.

Scope of the Position

Our client now seeks to bring on a Director of Finance & Procurement who will contribute to the growth and profitability of the business while maintaining and adhering to a solid internal control environment.

Reporting to the Chief Executive Officer, the Director of Finance & Procurement is responsible for strategic business management and oversight of all Pilot Coffee Roasters finance functions and controls. As a member of the Leadership Team, the Director of Finance & Procurement contributes to short- and long-term planning and conducts financial analyses for all areas of the business to identify key performance opportunities/challenges and supports management decisions and planning.

The successful individual will be accustomed to dealing with a range of financial reporting, demand planning and operating issues while being a strong technical resource for various internal and external stakeholders.

Functional Tasks

• Responsible for department and strategic, financial and demand planning
• Ensure compliance with regulatory requirements, adhere to best-practice accounting methods
• Oversees process and approves monthly and annual budget/forecasts to ensure alignment with strategic goals and provides support for variance analysis
• Maintain an appropriate capital structure to enable strategic objectives without undue risk exposure
• Oversee and create controls over cash, Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, payroll, and intercompany transactions
• Develops, maintains and monitors compliance with accounting and tax policies
• Responsible for all GST/HST tax matters including tax return filing, tax payments and tax audits
• Oversee cost control process and preparing monthly and quarterly cost accounting KPI reports
• Provides reports and commenting on cost factors affecting costs allocations and profitability of the business
• Performing variance analysis as compared to budgets and actuals
• Partners with Business Leaders to interpret their needs, deliver insightful and impactful Financial fact-based information and provide sound recommendations grounded in business practicality
• Participates in Quarterly Leadership meetings • Build effective relationships with key external vendors and service providers
• Monitors industry, general and regulatory developments and networks to ensure compliance, best practices and innovations
• Identifies and recommends process improvements opportunities, including revenue enhancements and cost reduction strategies and tactics
• Foster a culture that is inclusive to everyone and diverse
• Promotes ethical practices, individual integrity, accountability and responsibility
• Provide regular feedback and coaching to encourage development of the team
• Lead performance management and supports engagement process for everyone on the finance team
• An understanding of and commitment to the mission and values of Pilot Coffee Roasters;
• All other reasonable duties assigned by the company.

Competencies

• Business Awareness – Stays informed of what’s happening across the company and builds meaningful relationships with relevant stakeholders in order to effectively carry out their job duties.
• Drive for Results – Ability to focus on the desired result of one’s own or one’s team’s work, through setting challenging goals and remaining optimistic and tenacious even in the face of adversity.
• Promoting Diversity, Equity & Inclusion – The ability to recognize individual truths and needs in order to assess professional skills according to the individuals’ differences. Diversity is celebrated in the act of acknowledging individual differences that contribute to the culture of Pilot Coffee Roasters. Considering professional experience equally as valuable as lived experiences that contribute to the improvement of any role
• Inclusive Leadership – A team or collective of folks in a leadership position who can personalize each interaction according to the individual(s). Considering and acknowledging each employee(s) identity and truths when interacting and/or coaching individual(s). Being able to understand intersectional identities that contribute to the individual(s) and customize leadership approach and the ability to seek out different perspectives and views while setting aside any biases in order to make better informed decisions.
• Problem Analysis – Able to identify a problem, seek information to solve the problem, and gather relevant stakeholders to ensure an effective solution is implemented.
• Fostering Innovation – Generate or support creative solutions to work situations, such as a new method, procedure or technology; Try different and novel ways to deal with organizational problems and opportunities.
• Teamwork + Collaboration – Cooperates with other team members to achieve personal, team, and company goals; If managing others, can demonstrate interest, skill, and success in getting people to work together.
• Coaching + Developing Organizational Talent – Shares information, advice, and suggestions to help others to be more successful; provides effective coaching to individuals in a timely manner; If directly managing people, set clear goals, ensure feedback and address performance matters promptly and clearly.
• Collaborative Leadership – Builds and develops team in order to foster a sense of cooperation within the team and across the company
• Promotes Taking Initiative – Encourages employees to make active attempts to influence events to achieve goals, self-start, and take action to achieve goals beyond what is required.
• Strategic Leadership – Ability to analyze the company’s competitive position by considering the market, existing and potential customers, and the company’s strengths and weaknesses; Create and achieve a desired future state through influence on company values, personal and team goals, reinforcements and systems.
• Change Agent / Change Leadership / Influence – Able to influence and enthuse others through personal advocacy, vision and drive, and to access resources to build a solid platform for change, sometimes through mobilizing people to take action.

Preferred Experience and Education

• The following indicates specific industry, academic and functional experience/qualifications that are important to the successful achievement of the identified responsibilities and performance deliverables.
• Post-Secondary Education – University Degree with professional accounting designation, preferably CA (CPA)
• 10-12 years of experience in Finance Management in progressively more senior roles with a minimum of 5 leading and supervising other Finance team members
• Strong knowledge of business governance, including internal control processes and accounting/business Best Practices
• Proficiency and aptitude to gather and dissect timely data to discern trends and understand complex issues thereby supporting business in effective decision making.
• Individual with exposure and/or experience in demand planning, supply chain management and procurement is a ‘must have’.
• Experience in CPG, Retail, Hospitality or related industries is strongly desired with preference to individuals with CPG experience.
• An analytical, detail oriented, team player that adapts well to change and brings a proactive, “own it, solve it” mindset.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including strong facilitation skills

Remuneration & Benefits

• Highly competitive compensation package structured to the needs of the successful candidate.

DIVERSITY, INCLUSION Pilot Coffee Roasters is committed to building and fostering an environment where everyone feels included, valued and heard. We aim to provide a barrier free experience for those looking to join our team and we welcome and encourage applications from people with disabilities, Indigenous peoples, racialized people, people from gender and sexually diverse communities and / or people with intersectional identities. Accommodations are available on request for people taking part in aspects of the recruitment process. People requiring accommodation(s) during the recruitment process, can notify their recruiter directly.

If interested, please contact:

StoneWood Group Sal Rocco [email protected]

StoneWood Group Shreya Rao [email protected]