HIRING: Director Of Finance & Administration
Director Of Finance & Administration
Position Summary
Local Ocean Seafoods is seeking a finance and business leader with strong financial management, analytical, and systems skills and the ability to lead a small Finance and Administration team. The Director of Finance & Administration leads the financial, data, and administrative systems that support the company. The role is responsible for strong financial management and controls, useful management information, reliable business administration, and continued improvement of the systems and processes that support the organization. The Director provides accountability and supervision for HR administration while working within Local Ocean’s manager-led approach to people management. The Director’s role is to provide leadership, judgment, analysis, supervision, and systems improvement - not to personally perform every transactional task or serve as the company’s primary employee-relations function.
Core Areas of Responsibility
1. Finance & Business Intelligence
Own the integrity and timeliness of monthly financial reporting and the financial close.
Lead budgeting, reforecasting, cash-flow planning, and financial forecasting.
Build practical financial models that help leadership evaluate scenarios, risks, and opportunities.
Establish a regular financial management cadence with the CEO and operating leaders, translating
results, forecasts, and key performance indicators into clear priorities and decisions.
Analyze labor, food cost, margins, business-channel performance and other key variances and translate results into useful management insight.
Maintain appropriate accounting controls and oversight of banking, debt, payroll liabilities, accounts payable and accounts receivable.
Coordinate with outside accountants and professional advisors on tax filings, year-end reporting, and related financial matters.
2. Data, Systems & Process Improvement
Improve the quality, consistency, and usefulness of financial and operational data used by management.
Understand and improve the flow of information among systems such as QuickBooks, Toast, MarketMan, 7Shifts, Paychex, SharePoint, and related platforms.
Routinely assess the financial and administrative technology stack for relevance, utility, and cost. Research and develop new systems when appropriate and maximize functionality and interoperability among platforms.
Develop simple, reliable management reports and dashboards that help leaders see trends and make decisions.
Identify duplicate data entry, manual reconciliations and inefficient workflows and simplify, integrate or automate them where practical.
Build a department that spends less time moving information and more time understanding and using it.
3. Administration, HR Systems & Risk
Supervise and develop staff responsible for HR administration, ensuring payroll, tips, benefits administration, onboarding/offboarding, employee records, permits and certifications, and other HR administrative functions are accurate, timely, and well documented.
Oversee the administrative systems and controls supporting payroll, benefits, compensation, insurance, workers’compensation, licenses, permits, and other recurring business-compliance requirements.
Support specialty reporting and administration of the Local Ocean Seafoods Stewardship Trust, as assigned.
Ensure Finance, HR, and Administration functions have clear owners, documented processes, recurring calendars, and appropriate backup coverage.
Provide management with guidance on HR policy, documentation, compensation, compliance, and administrative matters within the Director’s area of expertise.
Recognize employee relations, compliance, and legal risks and ensure complex matters are appropriately escalated to the CEO and/or qualified outside HR or legal advisors.
Coordinate outside professional support when specialized employment, legal, accounting, or other expertise is required.
People Management. Local Ocean expects managers to manage people. Employee concerns, performance management, and corrective action generally follow the company’s management pathway from supervisor through Operations leadership and the CEO as appropriate. The Director may provide administrative, financial, policy, and compliance support but does not serve as the primary owner of employee relations.
4. Team & Leadership
Lead, coach, and develop Finance, HR, and Administration staff and build clear accountability within the team.
Work closely with the CEO, Operations, Sales, and other managers while maintaining clear functional boundaries and accountability.
Communicate financial, administrative and systems information clearly to people who are not specialists in those areas.
Demonstrate sound judgment, confidentiality, emotional intelligence, and calm problem-solving.
Take a whole business view, follow problems through resolution, and continually improve the systems that support the work.
Support Local Ocean’s purpose, mission, vision, values and stewardship model.
Qualifications & Experience
Required
Demonstrated experience in financial management, accounting, business administration, or a closely related leadership role.
Strong working knowledge of financial statements, budgeting, forecasting, cash flow, reconciliations, and internal controls.
Proficiency using AI-enabled tools to support analysis, reporting, documentation and workflow improvement, with sound judgment regarding data privacy, accuracy and appropriate use.
Demonstrated expertise working in QuickBooks, including financial reporting, reconciliations and general ledger/accounting workflows.
Advanced spreadsheet and financial modeling skills with the ability to translate data into decisions.
Experience supervising payroll, benefits and/or other business administrative functions.
Sufficient HR knowledge to effectively supervise HR administration, recognize compliance and employee-relations risk, and appropriately escalate matters requiring specialized expertise.
Strong technology fluency and experience working across accounting, payroll, POS, scheduling, inventory, or other cloud-based business systems.
Demonstrated ability to improve processes, reduce manual work, and establish reliable documentation and controls.
Experience supervising and developing staff.
Desired
Experience with HR compliance or employee-relations support.
Restaurant, hospitality, food business or other operational business experience.
What Success Looks Like
Local Ocean has accurate and timely financial information, routine forecasting and cash planning, and clearer insight into the drivers of business performance. Leaders have useful financial and operational information for making decisions. Finance, HR and Administration staff have well-defined responsibilities, effective supervision, and appropriate support. HR administration is reliable and appropriately supervised, while managers understand and exercise their responsibility for managing people.
Critical business processes are documented and resilient. The company’s technology and data systems produce better management information with less duplicate work. The CEO has a trusted finance and business partner who can identify risks, model choices, improve systems, and help the organization make sound decisions.
Compensation & Benefits
• Pay range: Salary, $87,000 - $102,000 DOE
• 2 weeks flexible PTO/Sick pay accrued as per company policy
• Non-taxable reimbursement for mileage, technology and cellphone
• Profit sharing (when applicable) yearly
• Employee discounts as per company policy
• Employee Meal Menu
• Access to health benefits including health insurance, vision, dental, and life insurance
• Opportunities for professional development & leadership growth
Application Timeline
Application Deadline: Applications must be received by October 16, 2026, 11:59PM PST. Applications will be reviewed as they are received; however, the application period will remain open through the deadline and a final selection will not be made before that date. Interviews: Initial screening will begin in early October, with first-round interviews beginning in mid-October. Finalist interviews are anticipated in late October, following the application deadline. We plan to make final selection prior to Oct 31.
Preferred Start Date: November 16, 2026. We recognize that the right candidate may need to provide notice to a current employer and/or relocate to Newport. The start date is flexible, up to approximately four weeks from acceptance to accommodate those circumstances.
How to Apply
Submit your resume and statement of interest to hiring@localocean.net by October 16, 2026, with the subject line “Director of Finance & Administration Application – [First Name Last Name].” We encourage interested candidates to apply early so that initial review and screening can begin during the application period. All qualified applications received
