A commercial electrical chief financial officer pays crews and buys wire and gear weeks before a general contractor's payment clears, then waits out the retainage held until closeout. The CFO sets the labor rate behind every bid and keeps taxes, benefit fund payments and job cost reports right.
By the HireBus team · Updated · Pay data: BLS, May 2025
Median pay, electrical contractors · BLS, May 2025
Annual pay: 10th percentile $90,720, middle half $118,510 to $266,910, 90th percentile $403,030. Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025.
Reports to
Chief Executive Officer
Department
Finance / Executive
Schedule
Weekdays, about 40 hours, in the office · Longer days at month-end close and budget time, some trips to jobs and vendors, and on call near reporting deadlines
Also called
CFO · Vice president of finance · Director of finance
Lead and oversee all financial operations for large commercial electrical projects. Develop and manage budgets, financial planning, and cost controls to drive strategic growth. Provide key financial insights and support decision-making processes at the executive level. Enhance profitability through robust financial analysis and proactive risk management.
2. Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Develop and execute financial strategies that align with the company’s commercial electrical project goals.
Direct the budgeting process, ensuring accurate cost controls and timely financial reporting.
Oversee financial planning, forecasting, and analysis to optimize resource allocation.
Monitor project performance against budget and take corrective actions as necessary.
Ensure compliance with financial regulations and internal policies across all operations.
3. Key Tasks / Daily Activities
Review daily financial reports and variance analysis for large-scale electrical projects.
Meet with project managers and department heads to discuss budget performance and forecast updates.
Oversee the preparation of monthly, quarterly, and annual financial statements.
Collaborate with external auditors and regulatory bodies to ensure compliance.
Lead continuous improvement initiatives to enhance financial efficiency and project cost management.
4. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Budget adherence with variance kept under 3% per project.
Cost reduction initiatives achieving at least a 5% decrease in overall expenses.
Project gross margin maintained above 20%.
Financial reporting accuracy with error rate lower than 1%.
On-time delivery of financial statements with a 100% compliance rate.
5. Required Qualifications and Skills
Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, or a related field; CPA/CFA preferred.
Minimum of 10 years of progressive financial leadership experience.
Strong expertise in budgeting, cost control, and financial planning for large projects.
Excellent analytical, strategic thinking, and communication skills.
Proficient in financial modeling and relevant accounting software.
6. Preferred Experience
Extensive experience in the home services or construction electrical industry.
Proven background in managing finances for large-scale commercial electrical projects.
History of successful strategic financial planning and budgeting in a similar role.
Experience collaborating with cross-functional teams and external stakeholders.
Demonstrated success in implementing cost reduction and financial efficiency initiatives.
7. Physical Requirements
Ability to review financial materials and reports for extended periods.
Occasional travel to project sites and related locations.
Standard office-based role with a typical 40-hour work week.
Occasional extended hours during budgeting cycles or financial close periods.
Some travel may be required for meetings with project teams and vendors.
On-call availability during critical financial reporting periods as needed.
9. Compensation and Benefits
Annual salary range of $150,000 - $200,000 USD, based on experience and qualifications.
Eligibility for performance-based bonuses and profit-sharing schemes.
Comprehensive benefits package including Health, Dental, and Vision coverage.
401(k) plan with company match and additional fringe benefits.
10. Company Culture and Overview
We foster a collaborative and innovative environment where each team member’s contributions drive success.
Our culture emphasizes continuous learning, growth, and excellence in customer satisfaction.
We pride ourselves on transparency, inclusivity, and strong leadership at all organizational levels.
Join a forward-thinking company committed to nurturing talent and achieving shared milestones.
11. How to Apply
If you meet the above criteria and want to be part of a growth-oriented company focused on customer satisfaction, please send your resume to [INSERT EMAIL HERE] or apply online at [INSERT WEBSITE LINK HERE].
Need help filling this role? HireBus posts the ad, Iris interviews every applicant by phone before you do, and you decide who to hire. Start hiring now
Cash, tax and benefit traps for a commercial electrical CFO
Electrical work is heavy on labor and on costly gear, and most of it is paid through a general contractor's monthly pay application. The CFO's year is shaped by when cash goes out, when it comes back, and which taxes and benefit plans ride along.
Who holds the contract changes the tax
In Mississippi, for example, a contractor's tax falls on the prime contractor for non-residential jobs over 10,000 dollars. A subcontractor working for a qualified prime uses the prime's Material Purchase Certificate to buy the wire and gear built into the job without sales tax. When your company signs with the owner directly, it is the prime. It applies for its own certificate before work starts, owes the tax, and must prepay or post a bond on larger jobs. Tools and rented lifts are still taxed. Source: Mississippi Department of Revenue: Guide for construction contractors.
Know the price of leaving a union plan
If the company pays into a union multiemployer pension plan, the CFO should know what leaving would cost before anyone asks. Federal law lets a contributing employer request an estimate of its withdrawal liability in writing, once in any 12 months, and the plan generally has 180 days to answer. Plans that mainly cover construction use a narrower test for when a contractor has withdrawn, tied to whether it keeps doing covered work in the area. Get the estimate before a sale, merger or switch to open shop. Source: 29 U.S.C. 1021(l): Notice of potential withdrawal liability (govinfo).
Open-shop benefits on federal jobs
On Davis-Bacon jobs, an open-shop contractor can count what it pays into health or retirement plans toward the posted fringe rate. Under the current rule, it must spread those payments over every hour each worker puts in, public and private, to find the hourly credit. A monthly premium spread over private hours too earns less credit per federal hour, and the rest is owed another way, such as cash. Some retirement plans with immediate vesting are exempt. The CFO runs this math before the bid. Source: 29 CFR 5.25: Rate of contribution or cost for fringe benefits (eCFR).
Retainage waits on the last trade out
Electricians are often among the first trades on site, setting pipe in the ground, and among the last to leave, after the gear is tested and the final inspections pass. Retainage held from early pay applications can sit until the whole building is done. Ask for your share to be paid when your own work is accepted, or reduced partway through the job. Then track every open balance by job and general contractor.
The distributor is a lender too
Most wire, conduit and fixtures come from one or two electrical distributors on credit. On a large job, the distributor may open a separate job account, send its own lien or bond notices, or ask the general contractor for joint checks. The CFO keeps those accounts current from each pay application, since a distributor that is owed too much can hold the next gear release. Paying on time also wins better terms and rebates.
How much commercial electrical chief financial officers make
The closest BLS group for commercial electrical chief financial officers is chief executives. Chief executives who work for electrical contractors earned a median of $172,410 a year ($82.89 an hour) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s below the $213,990 median for chief executives in all industries. About 630 of the 204,350 chief executives in that survey work for electrical contractors.
Pay is salary plus bonus and profit sharing. Weight the bonus toward cash collected and retainage released, which the CFO controls more than any one job's margin.
Electrical contractors
$172,410$172,410 median Middle half $118,510–$266,910 10th–90th $90,720–$403,030
All industries
$213,990$213,990 median Middle half $129,540–$356,200 10th–90th $75,700–$507,730
10th–90th percentileMiddle halfMedianAnnual pay, May 2025. Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics.
Annual pay by percentile
Group
10th
25th
Median
75th
90th
Electrical contractors
$90,720
$118,510
$172,410
$266,910
$403,030
All industries
$75,700
$129,540
$213,990
$356,200
$507,730
BLS reports residential and commercial electrical contractors together. Post a real range for your market in the ad.
The pay line in the template above is an example from our Role Blueprint. Set yours from these figures and what local companies pay.
Skills to hire for, and what you can teach
Hire for these
Has run finance at a subcontractor that bills through general contractors' pay applications
Turns project managers' labor forecasts into a work-in-progress schedule, and pushes back on weak ones
Can build a burdened labor rate from wages, fringes, taxes and insurance
Has sat across from a surety underwriter at year-end and answered for the numbers
Ties every payment out to a lien waiver and every payroll to approved timecards
Teach these on the job
Each general contractor's pay application portal and cutoff dates
Sales and contractor tax on job material, state by state
Your distributor accounts and how they price copper
The fringe rates in each union agreement and when they step up
The cost codes your estimators and foremen use
General contractors often collect pay applications through portals such as Oracle Textura or GCPay, so a CFO who has billed through them starts faster. Behind those, the accounting system has to run job cost and union fund reports from the same timecards.
Two of the 6 questions we'd ask, and what a strong answer sounds like. Ask every candidate the same questions, and rate each answer on your own before you compare notes.
Situational · Long-lead gear deposits
A switchgear manufacturer wants a large deposit months before delivery. What do you do?
A strong answer: Checks whether the contract allows billing for deposits or stored material, negotiates with the general contractor, plans the cash, and uses the credit line if needed.
Behavioral · Influencing operations
Tell me about a time you changed how project managers handled money on their jobs, such as turning time-and-material tickets into change orders faster.
A strong answer: Explains what was wrong, how they got buy-in, the tools or reports they built, and the result.
Swap the template's figures for targets your bank and surety would call reasonable, based on your closed jobs, and report on them in each month's close package.
Budget adherence with variance kept under 3% per project
Each month, add each job's labor hours spent to the project manager's hours left to finish, and compare the total with the estimate's hours. Check material against the buyout the same way.
Cost reduction initiatives achieving at least a 5% decrease in overall expenses
Book a saving only when the ledger shows it, such as a better price on the wire and fixture buy, assemblies moved into a prefab shop, or idle rented lifts sent back early. Report overhead and job cost savings on separate lines.
Project gross margin maintained above 20%
Margin on each closed job, sorted by general contractor and by kind of work: tenant work, new buildings and service. A client or kind of work that lands low two or three times belongs in the next bid review.
Financial reporting accuracy with error rate lower than 1%
Count corrections after each close: reversed entries, costs posted to the wrong job, and pay applications a general contractor sent back. Track the causes from month to month.
On-time delivery of financial statements with a 100% compliance rate
Monthly statements and the WIP report out by a set day after month-end, and year-end statements by the dates the bank and surety set in writing.
Career path
Construction audit seniorAudits contractors at a CPA firm and learns how sureties read statements.
ControllerRuns payroll, billing and the WIP schedule, and checks each forecast.
Chief financial officerFunds the work, answers to the surety and bank, and runs tax and fund reporting.
Why does union payroll matter to a commercial electrical CFO?
A union contractor pays wages plus fringe payments to several funds, such as pension, health and training, at rates each agreement sets. The rates change when an agreement steps up, and reports go to each fund on its own schedule. Mistakes are slow and costly to unwind. A CFO who has filed these reports knows where errors start. If you are open shop, look instead for someone who has run benefit plans and pay scales the company sets itself.
How much does a commercial electrical chief financial officer make?
Chief executives who work for electrical contractors earned a median of $172,410 a year ($82.89 an hour) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The middle half earned between $118,510 and $266,910 a year. Pay also depends on your local market, experience and bonus terms.
Should the CFO set the labor rate estimators use?
The CFO should own it. The rate behind every bid is more than the wage: payroll taxes, workers' comp, fringe payments or benefits, small tools, and paid time that isn't billed to a job. When a union agreement steps up or insurance renews, the CFO updates the rate before the next bid goes out. A stale rate shaves margin off every job in the backlog.
What changes for a CFO coming from a general contractor?
A general contractor's CFO mostly pays subcontractors and draws money from owners. At an electrical subcontractor, your own crews are the biggest cost, so labor forecasts, payroll and burden matter more. You also get paid after the general contractor does, which stretches the time cash is tied up. Ask finalists from general contractors how they would forecast labor on a dozen jobs at once.
Which outside groups does a commercial electrical CFO work with?
The template mentions auditors and regulators. In practice that means the CPA firm that reviews or audits the year-end statements, the surety and bank that read them, and state tax departments for sales, use and contractor taxes. A union company adds the benefit fund offices. Public jobs bring wage and payroll records that an agency may check.
