Jewish Federation Los Angeles- Chief Financial Officer
| Req Number: | 4JYQ3O |
| Location: | Los Angeles, California |
| Posted: | 11/6/2026 |
| Category: | Government/Not-For-Profit : Not-For-Profit |
| Job Type: | Permanent |
| Compensation: | USD 280,000.00 - 310,000.00 Yearly - 0 |
The Organization
Our Mission
Based on Jewish values, Jewish Federation Los Angeles convenes and leads the community and leverages its resources to assure the continuity of the Jewish people, support a secure State of Israel, care for Jews in need here and abroad, and mobilize on issues of concern to the local community, all with our local, national, and international partners.
• Combat Hate & Antisemitism- We believe in standing up to hate and that everybody should feel safe. When our Jewish community feels protected, it flourishes. Across Los Angeles, our synagogues, summer camps, Jewish day schools, and other Jewish institutions receive round the clock protection and emergency response training from our Community Security Initiative.
• Addressing Jewish Poverty & Needs- Jewish hearts are compassionate to those who need help. The most vulnerable in our Jewish community, at home and in Israel, deserve to have their basic needs addressed, to help provide stability in their lives. We provide a lifeline for help, critical access to services, and wrap-around support, to ensure that those most in need are not facing their challenges alone.
• Inspiring Jewish Joy- Everybody deserves to experience the joy of being Jewish. Together, we create pathways for joyful and inspiring Jewish life. Through celebrating our diverse community, we connect young adults, parents, and families to foster a sense of belonging across Jewish Los Angeles and Israel. We work to ensure that Jewish learning and growth is accessible to all who wish to participate.
• Build Bridges Across L.A.- It’s in our nature to help our community grow through showing kindness. To help build a stronger Los Angeles and combat antisemitism, based on understanding and collaboration, we are committed to strengthening our relationships with civic partners, elected officials, and other key leaders in our city. We convene diverse coalitions to ensure a broad representation of voices, enabling us to be stronger in our ability to address systemic issues that impact the Jewish community and broader population.
• Developing Leaders- Jewish leaders exist to serve the community. Our Federation believes in creating and shaping our next generation of leaders. We maintain an unwavering commitment to cultivating and training the people who will propel Jewish Los Angeles into a vibrant tomorrow through our diverse array of leadership development programs.
•Support Global Jewry- Jews maintain a sacred bond with each other. It is the basis of our peoplehood. When crisis strikes Jews across the globe, we respond urgently with life-saving support. This is how the Federation sustains vibrant, secure, and joyful Jewish life around the world.
The Opportunity
Position: Chief Financial Officer
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Reporting Relationship: Deputy Chief Executive Officer
Website: https://www.jewishla.org/
Purpose of the Position
The Jewish Federation Los Angeles is seeking an accomplished, strategic, and highly collaborative Chief Financial Officer to join the organization at an important moment in its continued evolution. As one of the most significant Jewish communal organizations in the country, the Federation operates at the intersection of philanthropy, community impact, organizational stewardship, and long-term financial sustainability.
The next CFO will inherit a strong platform with the opportunity to further elevate how financial strategy, stewardship, insight, and decision-making advance the Federation’s mission. More than the organization’s senior financial leader, the CFO will be an enterprise partner and steward of the resources entrusted to the Federation, helping ensure they are deployed thoughtfully today while strengthening Jewish life for generations to come.
Reporting to the Deputy Chief Executive Officer and serving as a member of the Executive Management Team, the CFO will lead the Federation’s finance function and play an integral role in shaping enterprise strategy, strengthening organizational performance, and stewarding its financial and investment resources. Working closely with the Deputy CEO, executive leadership, the Board, and an engaged community of lay leaders, the CFO will bring financial insight, disciplined analysis, and a forward-looking perspective to organizational strategy and the decisions that shape the Federation’s future.
For the right leader, this is an opportunity to put financial expertise in service of something much larger: the strength, resilience, and future of Jewish life. The CFO will help ensure that the generosity of today translates into meaningful impact now, while stewarding the resources and financial strength that will sustain safe, joyful, and connected Jewish life for generations to come.
The Leadership Mandate
• Strategic business partner: Move beyond reporting what happened financially. The CFO should bring foresight, scenario planning and financial perspective into major organizational decisions.
• Steward for generations: Oversee the resources entrusted to the Federation with both today's mission and tomorrow's Jewish community in mind. The CFO will help leadership make thoughtful choices about where to invest, where to exercise discipline, and how to balance current community needs with long-term financial sustainability and the responsibility to preserve resources for generations to come.
• Trusted advisor and financial storyteller: Serve as a trusted advisor to executive leadership, the Board, and lay leaders, translating complex financial information into clear, timely, decision-useful insights. Bring candor, accessibility, and sound judgment to conversations, enabling stakeholders with varying levels of financial expertise to make informed decisions with confidence.
• Modernize systems, processes and insights: Build on recent systems improvements to further modernize financial processes, reporting, forecasting, and technology, identifying opportunities to leverage automation and emerging tools to improve efficiency, accuracy, transparency, and the quality of financial insight available across the organization.
• Build a high-performing, mission-connected finance organization: Build upon the strengths of the existing team while developing a high-performing, collaborative finance function known for accountability, service, accessibility, and partnership. The CFO will develop talent, create greater clarity around roles and processes, and ensure the finance team understands how its work enables the Federation's broader mission and impact.
Few CFO opportunities offer this combination of financial complexity, community impact, and generational consequence. The next CFO will have the opportunity to help shape the strategy of one of the country's most consequential Jewish communal organizations while stewarding resources that fuel work across Los Angeles, Israel, and around the world. For a finance leader motivated by both rigor and purpose, this is an opportunity to build lasting organizational strength while helping ensure the vitality, security, and continuity of Jewish life for generations to come.
Key Responsibilities
• Lead the Federation's enterprise financial planning, budgeting, forecasting, and analysis, providing forward-looking insight into financial performance, liquidity, emerging risks, and opportunities to support executive and Board decision-making.
• Partner with the Deputy CEO to develop organizational strategy, ensuring financial considerations inform enterprise priorities, resource allocation, growth opportunities, and long-term sustainability; represent the organization and its mission with key internal and external stakeholders.
• Oversee operations of the accounting department, setting accounting policies and procedures to ensure recordkeeping is accurate and proper financial and internal controls are in place at all times in accordance with GAAP.
• Responsible for all contract processes, procedures and compliance.
• Assess and review accounting systems to ensure productivity and efficiency are maximized.
• Work with the Executive Management Team and department heads to drive the priorities of budget development and manage effective implementation of the annual budget & monitoring of the budget throughout the year with department heads.
• Manage the Federation's banking and financial institution relationships, including negotiation of terms and oversight of related services and agreements.
• Serve as a trusted financial advisor to the Board and lay leadership, providing clear, timely, decision-useful reporting and executive support to the Finance & Administration, Budget, Audit, Investment, Risk Management, Pension, and other financial committees and subcommittees, and partner with COO as appropriate. Assure coordination of staff support activity with appropriate Federation committees.
• Investment, Treasury & Long-Tern Stewardship:
- Oversee the stewardship of the community’s endowment and long-term investment assets, working closely with the Investment Committee to establish and execute investment policy, asset allocation, and spending policy that balance current needs with protecting the Jewish future for generations.
- Select, manage, and evaluate outside investment advisors, consultants, and fund managers, establishing clear expectations around performance, risk, reporting, benchmarks, and fee transparency.
- Lead treasury and liquidity management, balancing cash requirements for current programs, grants, and allocations with the responsible management and growth of restricted and unrestricted reserves.
- Bring forward opportunities for mission-aligned and impact investing, helping the Board and Investment Committee thoughtfully weigh financial return, risk, liquidity, and the Federation’s shared values.
• Development & Philanthropy
- Partner with the Development team on planned and legacy gifts, including complex and non-cash assets such as real estate, closely held business interests, and securities, ensuring each gift is appropriately evaluated, accepted, valued, accounted for, and managed in partnership with legal, tax, and outside advisors as appropriate.
- Ensure donor-restricted and endowed funds are tracked, managed, and deployed in accordance with donor intent, providing clear and transparent reporting that builds confidence and trust with donors, executive leadership, and the Board.
• Oversee management of retirement plan(s).
• Manage relationships with partner organizations and former beneficiary agencies on shared programs, benefits and billings.
• Responsible for risk management processes and programs, and annual insurance renewals. Advise and coordinate with COO on liability issues pertaining to the work of the Federation.
• Develop relationships with relevant fiscal agents and bodies locally and nationally; stimulate and facilitate lay leaders' policy making & advisory participation in the affairs of Federation.
• Supervise Federation and certified audits.
• Recommend & assist in formulation of new fiscal and compliance policies & procedures & modification of existing policies & procedures.
• Provide financial information to support disposition of community owned facilities.
• Serve as a member of The Federation’s Executive Management Team. Campaign assignments as designated by senior leadership. Participate in development of management's proposal to the Union by providing financial analysis supporting Contract negotiations. Be available to the Deputy Chief Executive Officer for additional assignments as needed.
The Candidate
The Federation is seeking a CFO who sees finance not simply as a function to manage, but as a strategic lever for mission, impact, and long-term resilience. This leader will combine sophisticated financial expertise with the judgment, curiosity, and interpersonal effectiveness to operate as an enterprise leader, equally comfortable engaging deeply in complex financial matters and helping colleagues and lay leaders understand what the numbers mean for the organization's strategy, priorities, and future.
This individual will be a relationship-oriented finance executive rather than a finance leader who operates at a distance from the organization. The CFO will be visible, accessible, and collaborative, able to earn trust across the organization while also having the confidence to raise difficult questions, challenge assumptions, and provide an independent financial perspective.
Equally important will be humility, emotional intelligence, and a genuine interest in people. The successful candidate will listen and learn before acting, build trust across levels of the organization, and be willing to engage in the details when necessary while empowering others to own their work. This is a leader who will bring both high standards and humanity to the finance function.
Candidates may come from nonprofit, philanthropy, healthcare, higher education, professional services, or other complex environments, although meaningful exposure to nonprofit finance, fund accounting, or similarly complex mission-driven financial models will be highly valued. Regardless of sector, they should understand what it means to serve a mission-driven institution with sophisticated governance, multiple stakeholders, and significant fiduciary responsibility.
Experience and Qualifications
• 10+ years progressive senior financial leadership.
• Sophisticated experience within a complex, multi-stakeholder organization.
• Meaningful nonprofit/fund accounting experience or highly transferable equivalent experience.
• Significant experience with budgeting, forecasting, financial reporting, cash/liquidity, audit and controls.
• Experience leading and developing finance teams.
• Experience presenting to Boards/committees.
• CPA/MBA/advanced degree preferred.
• Jewish communal experience welcomed but not required.
Knowledge, Skills, and Leadership Competencies
• Exceptional financial acumen, with demonstrated expertise in financial planning and analysis, budgeting, forecasting, accounting, financial reporting, cash management, internal controls, and organizational financial strategy.
• Strong strategic and data-informed judgment, with the ability to analyze complex financial and operational information, identify trends and risks, evaluate alternatives, and translate financial data into clear recommendations that support organizational decision-making.
• Comprehensive understanding of financial governance, audit requirements, regulatory compliance, risk management, and generally accepted accounting principles, with the ability to maintain strong systems of financial accountability and internal control.
• Demonstrated experience overseeing investment, treasury, liquidity, reserve, or endowment assets, with the ability to work effectively with investment committees, external advisors, consultants, and fund managers; experience with donor-restricted assets, planned giving, or complex non-cash gifts is highly desirable.
• Exceptional written, verbal, and presentation skills, with the ability to communicate complex financial information clearly and effectively to executives, staff, lay leaders, Board members, auditors, financial institutions, and other stakeholders.
• Exceptional interpersonal, advisory, and relationship-building skills, with the confidence and executive presence to serve as a trusted strategic partner to the Deputy CEO, executive leadership team, Board, and Board committees. Brings humility, empathy, sound judgment, and the courage to offer an independent point of view, navigate differing perspectives, and constructively challenge assumptions when needed.
• Demonstrated ability to lead, develop, and hold accountable high-performing Finance teams while fostering collaboration, operational discipline, continuous improvement, and effective partnership across departments.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities, lead through periods of organizational change or financial complexity, meet critical deadlines, and maintain accuracy and sound judgment under pressure.
• High degree of integrity, discretion, accountability, and professional judgment, with a strong commitment to responsible stewardship of organizational resources and the ability to address complex financial and organizational challenges.
• Knowledge of Judaism and the Jewish community, or a demonstrated ability and commitment to develop that knowledge quickly and apply it with cultural sensitivity and an understanding of the organization’s mission and community responsibilities.
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Korn Ferry shall provide equal employment opportunity to all qualified candidates, and will refer candidates without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, disability, veteran status or any other legally protected basis. Artificial Intelligence tools may be used in connection with the recruitment process for this position.