Has every other job ad you’ve seen so far left you feeling flat - even though you can’t explain why?

If you’re not quite 100% sure how to explain what you’re looking for in your next role (but you’ll know it when you find it).

Then you might just be the CFO we’re looking for.

You’re the rarest kind of finance executive because you have a head for numbers and a heart for people.

You can talk strategy, capital, risk and enterprise value with a Board in the morning, then get close enough to a broken process, reporting problem or systems issue in the afternoon to understand what really needs to change to fix it.

Instead of gate-keeping finance as a power-play, you see financial literacy across the business as a competitive edge that also makes success in your role easier.

And while salary is of course important, what you value most at this stage of your career is ownership. Impact. Autonomy. A meaningful challenge. You want the chance to build something you can be genuinely proud of.

If this sounds like you, keep reading.

Yes this job ad is longer than you’re used to, but if you’re the person we’re looking for you’ll appreciate the detail.

Who we are

Animal Emergency Australia exists for one reason: the constant pursuit of better patient outcomes.

Over the last two decades, AEA has grown into a significant national network of 15 emergency and critical-care veterinary hospitals and entities supported by dedicated business operations functions with a team of ~800 and turnover close to $100m pa.

Our vision is to become Australia’s most trusted and respected, team-owned emergency and critical-care veterinary network. And we’re ambitious about what comes next.

We want to expand access to emergency veterinary care across Australia, continue advancing clinical practice, grow our people and build an organisation capable of scaling without losing the independence, purpose and humanity that make AEA what it is.

That requires strong commercial performance.

But we don’t believe purpose, people and profitability sit on opposite sides of the equation. We believe the strongest businesses understand how they work together.

And we don’t just say that on posters around the office, we are an open book management company with an employee share ownership scheme in place. We walk our talk.

Of course, it goes without saying that our next CFO needs to believe in the value of these principles and live them every day too.

Why this role exists

The nutshell reason: AEA has grown faster than parts of its financial infrastructure.

We’re a large, complex, national, multi-site organisation - but elements of the Finance function, systems and processes still reflect the business we grew from rather than the business we’re becoming.

There are multiple systems and processes across the 15 national business units and there’s a bigger question sitting underneath all of that:

What should a genuinely high-performing Finance function look like to help us achieve our strategic goals?

We need someone who can answer that question and then bring it to life over the coming years by designing the right structure, capability, systems, disciplines, data, processes and service philosophy to support a national organisation that intends to keep growing.

The CEO also needs a true financial counterpart at the Executive level. Someone who can look at where the organisation wants to go and say:

👉 Here are the economics and the data
👉 Here are the risks.
👉 Here are the trade-offs.
👉 Here are the alternatives.
👉 And here’s what I believe we should do.

This role exists to build the financial operating system that makes AEA’s strategy achievable and sustainable.

The CFO mandate

If you’re the person we’re looking for, there’s a good chance you’re already wondering: How much do they actually understand about what needs fixing?

To put your mind at ease, this role hasn’t been created by taking the previous CFO position description and adding a few strategic-sounding words and ‘AI literacy’ to the list.

We’ve spent time truly considering what the business needs for the next stage of evolution and even brought in an interim Finance Executive to look at everything with fresh eyes.

This is why we know AEA doesn’t just need a better accountant. It needs a builder + executive + translator + enabler.

Someone who knows what good looks like and who also knows enough about how the work actually gets done to build it from the ground up.

The challenge

We’d love to tell you that you’ll inherit a beautifully integrated Finance environment where every process is documented, every system talks to every other system and everyone agrees which dashboard contains the right number.

You won’t. And because transparency is one of our values, we’d rather tell you now.

You’ll be joining an organisation where Finance is itself going through a significant period of transformation. But that’s also the opportunity. You’re not being hired to polish somebody else’s finished model. You’ll get to build one.

If the thought of inheriting something unfinished makes you uncomfortable, this probably isn’t the right role for you.

About the CFO role

As Chief Financial Officer, you’ll become AEA’s senior financial leader and a key member of the Executive Leadership Team.

But this isn’t a role where Finance sits on the side of the business commenting on what everybody else is doing. You’ll help shape what the business does next.

Here's an idea of the things you'll own.

➡️ Getting underneath performance variances and trends to understand the operational drivers, then turning that analysis into practical recommendations about what the business should do next

➡️ Designing and building the Finance operating model required for AEA’s next stage of scale

➡️ Strengthening financial controls, reporting, payroll, compliance, treasury and governance

➡️ Creating reliable forecasting, planning and commercial analysis that helps leaders see what is coming rather than simply explaining what already happened

➡️ Establishing and be hands on in building the future ERP, EPM, BI, data and automation roadmap for Finance

➡️ Building better procurement, working-capital and capital-allocation disciplines

➡️ Helping the CEO, Executive and Board understand financial risk, strategic risk, opportunity cost and the trade-offs behind important decisions

➡️ Building a high-performing Finance team with the capability to partner effectively with the rest of the organisation

➡️ Improving financial literacy so hospital and operational leaders understand the economics they can influence

➡️ Designing management reporting, dashboards and KPIs that give the Board, Executive and operational leaders the right information, at the right level of detail, at the right time to make decisions confidently

➡️ Helping improve the economics of the organisation without creating unacceptable consequences for patient outcomes, client experience, people or culture

Your role will be to lead Finance as part of the business rather than as a function sitting outside it.

Who’s the right person for this role?

We’re looking for someone who has spent enough time inside sophisticated finance environments to know what excellence looks like - but hasn’t become dependent on having a huge corporate machine around them.

You’re disciplined without being bureaucratic. Empathetic without becoming conflict-avoidant. Commercially rigorous without believing everything important can be measured in a spreadsheet.

Your current title might be CFO. But it doesn’t have to be.

What matters most is that you’ve accumulated enough breadth to be ready to own the whole function.

And you'll recognise yourself in these statements:

📌 I'm a builder, not a maintainer.

📌 I understand both financial control and commercial value creation.

📌 I can operate credibly with a CEO and Board without needing to agree with them.

📌 I understand risk but my automatic response to it isn’t “no”.

📌 I naturally think in scenarios, trade-offs and opportunity cost.

📌 I'm commercially ambitious without being financially reductive.

📌 I can simplify complicated financial ideas without dumbing them down.

📌 I'm comfortable sitting in constructive disagreement without becoming defensive or combative.

📌 I understand the people and operational consequences sitting behind the numbers.

📌 I'm confident enough to challenge and low-ego enough to change my mind.

📌 I'm willing to roll my sleeves up when something needs to be understood or fixed.

📌 When something doesn’t look right, my instinct is to understand why, not simply report that it happened.

📌 I want to build capability in my team and across the organisation rather than becoming the person everyone depends on.

📌 I'm energised by creating something meaningful rather than inheriting something finished.

One thing to note: If this is your first significant Finance transformation, this role won’t be a fit for you because we’ll be looking to you for what’s worked elsewhere.

What this role offers you (other than just a salary)

Yes, you’ll be paid competitively. But if you’re the person we’re looking for, we suspect the real attraction isn't purely financial.

Ownership:
You’ll have a real mandate to shape the philosophy, structure, systems and capability of Finance.

Enterprise influence:
You’ll sit alongside the CEO and Executive team and influence decisions across the whole organisation - not just the numbers.

Board exposure:
You’ll become a trusted financial voice to a Board that expects strong judgement and meaningful leadership from its CFO.

The build:
You’ve spent your career seeing what great finance environments look like. Now you get to build one around what you believe.

Purpose:
You’ll do it inside an organisation where better commercial performance ultimately exists to help create better outcomes for animals, clients, teams and the sustainability of the organisation itself.

Impact:
The systems, standards and capability you establish could influence how AEA operates for years to come.

This is meaningful, demanding work with people who care deeply about what they do. And for the right financial leader, it could be a defining next chapter.

Ready to find out more?

If you’re still reading, we’re guessing at least part of you is thinking: This sounds interesting.

You probably also have a lot of questions.

We’ve created a detailed digital Application Pack to answer some of those and give you more context before asking you to decide whether you want to apply.

Inside you’ll find:

📍The AEA story and strategy

📍Why this role matters now

📍What success will look like

📍The Finance team structure

📍The package and working arrangements

📍What the first stage of the build is likely to involve

📍The roadmap as we see it

📍The link to apply

👉 To get it just click Quick Apply - and go through the process selecting ‘don’t include resume’ and ‘don’t include cover letter’ then clicking continue - and we’ll send the Application Pack directly to your inbox.

PS: If you bump into any tech glitches, please email hello@unforgettable.agency