Controller

Controller Haven Office Costa Mesa, CA Job Details Full-time $185,000 - $235,000 an hour 9 hours ago Qualifications Internal controls GAAP QuickBooks Full Job Description About the company We're a vertically integrated California cannabis operator: retail under our own brand, plus cultivation, manufacturing, and distribution. The manufacturing arm produces both our own private label and product for outside customers. The distribution arm services both lines. The last few years have been hard for cannabis. We've stayed disciplined on fundamentals where some peers got over their skis, and we're still growing: additional retail under construction, additional cultivation in acquisition talks, structural advantages others haven't built. That same discipline has also made us cautious. We've passed on growth we should have taken because we couldn't underwrite it cleanly enough on the financial side. The Controller is what changes that. There's real urgency too: federal rescheduling is in motion, the cannabis-tax landscape is shifting, and operators who move fast through the next 18 months will create distance from the rest of the industry. We want someone in this seat who's part of building that and benefits when it works. The Mandate You are being hired to architect this company's financial-visibility infrastructure: cash controls across multiple retail locations, formal approval workflow across 20+ legal entities, a 13-week rolling cash forecast, a redesigned chart of accounts that supports divisional P&Ls, and a monthly close that lands in 10 business days. This is a build role, not a maintain role. The company has scaled past its current accounting infrastructure, and you are the one who replaces it. You will own this end to end. You will inherit a small accounting team that is being restructured around you on Day 1, and you will participate in defining the Day-1 architecture. What you'll deliver in your first 100 days Cash controls operational across all retail locations. Vault counts, courier coordination, deposit timing, segregation of duties at every cash interface. California cannabis runs heavy on physical cash, and this needs to be locked down first. 13-week rolling cash forecast and weekly cash position report , live and shipping to the executive team. Formal PO environment with authorization thresholds and approval-stage segregation. Eliminates the single-point bottlenecks that exist today. Independent bank accounts mapped and stood up across the 20+ entity structure. Executive-ready 3 to 5 page consolidated reporting deck drafted and shipping by Day 100. What you'll deliver in your first year Audit-ready prior-year financials closed, with divisional P&Ls live for retail, cultivation, manufacturing, distribution, and private label. Monthly close in 10 business days by Day 180. Manufacturing cost accounting stood up across the production operation (WIP, finished-goods costing, yield variance, scrap). Proven control environment that supports a clean external audit and the capital-markets conversations that come with the next phase of growth. Required qualifications 8+ years progressive accounting experience, with 4+ years in a Controller or Assistant Controller role at a multi-entity operator. Documented experience building cash controls in a high-volume physical-cash environment (multi-unit retail with armored-car routes, alcohol or beverage distribution, gaming, courier, or cannabis). Multi-entity consolidation experience, ideally 10+ entities. Strong GAAP fluency and a track record of clean external audits. Comfort working primarily in QuickBooks plus a mix of custom-built and purpose-fit operational tooling. We are not implementing an off-the-shelf ERP. You'll be working with what's in place and building what's needed. CPA preferred but not required if the operator track record is strong. Preferred qualifications Manufacturing cost accounting experience (WIP, yield variance, finished-goods costing, scrap). The production operation is a real cost-accounting workstream that the controller owns end to end. Cannabis vertically integrated operator experience, particularly hands-on operationalization of 280E through Section 471c cost capitalization. This is how we minimize federal tax exposure today, and the controller owns it going forward. Federal rescheduling is in motion, and operators who move fast on the tax-strategy implications will benefit. We want someone who can drive that. Cannabis or regulated-industry external audit reps. Alcohol distribution or regulated-CPG background as a non-cannabis analog. Experience inside a finance function build at a private-investor-backed company. You'll thrive here if You're a builder who saw the work clearly when you read this, not the chaos. You can hold your ground organizationally without being a jerk about it. Saying no to a peer is in your toolkit. You like operating in environments where the system isn't fully built, because you'd rather build it than inherit one. You're current on technology and use AI tools to do more with less. We don't add headcount to solve every problem; we use leverage. You think of cannabis-specific items (280E posture, regulatory nuances, banking specifics) as solvable problems within a 60 to 90 day window with outside counsel as backstop, not as deal-breakers. You want a stake in what you build. A bigger company means more upside, and you're at the table when those growth decisions get made. You won't thrive here if You need polished systems on Day 1 to be effective. You expect FP&A staff and a finance committee to filter requests for you. You're looking for hierarchy and guardrails. We are still building those.