First for a reason:
At First Student, we are a family of 60,000+ employees who take pride in safely transporting more than 5 million students and passengers to and from their destinations each day! Our family of brands include Transco, Total Transportation, Maggies Paratransit, and GVC II. Our employees are at the forefront of safety and innovation; they create and implement the most advanced training and technology the transportation industry has to offer.
The Regional Finance Director serves as the business co-pilot to the Regional Senior Vice President (SVP), who acts as the region’s CEO. This role is the CFO-equivalent for the region, accountable for overall regional financial performance, including profit margin, customer retention, and pricing discipline for renewals. The Regional Finance Director provides actionable insights, leads financial planning & analysis, manages period-end close, and oversees both operating expenses and capital expenditures (CapEx).
The role also leads and develops the regional finance manager team, while building capacity and capability across the finance function. The Regional Controller and Regional Revenue Manager have dotted-line reporting to this position, ensuring alignment on accuracy, compliance, and commercial growth.
The Regional Finance Director is responsible not only for managing financial processes but for delivering financial outcomes. By driving profit margin improvement, customer retention, and disciplined renewal pricing, this role directly impacts the region’s success and sustainability. Acting as both a strategic advisor and operational leader, the Regional Finance Director ensures the region achieves its growth, profitability, and efficiency goals while building a strong, future-ready finance organization.
Key Responsibilities
Regional Financial Performance
- Drive accountability for regional profit margin, renewal retention, and overall P&L results, acting as the financial steward for the business.
- Proactively identify opportunities to expand margin, improve efficiency, and strengthen customer and contract retention.
- Ensure renewal pricing supports both competitiveness and long-term profitability.
Business Partnership & Leadership
- Act as strategic financial partner (“co-pilot”) to the Regional SVP, providing insights and recommendations to influence strategic and operational decisions.
- Serve as the financial voice in regional leadership discussions, aligning finance with operational and commercial priorities.
- Collaborate closely with operations, sales, and corporate finance to achieve both top-line growth and bottom-line performance.
Financial Planning & Analysis
- Lead the regional budgeting and forecasting processes, ensuring they reflect both corporate expectations and local realities.
- Deliver clear financial analysis, including variance reporting, scenario modeling, and forward-looking insights.
- Provide early visibility into risks and opportunities, recommending corrective actions or investment strategies.
Pricing & Commercial Support
- Lead renewal pricing decisions, balancing market competitiveness with margin protection.
- Support contract negotiations with financial models, pricing analyses, and ROI assessments.
- Partner with sales and commercial leaders to maintain strong customer economics and retention.
Financial Operations & Controls
- Oversee period-end close processes to ensure accurate and timely reporting of P&L and CapEx.
- Partner with the Regional Controller to uphold compliance with accounting policies, revenue recognition, and expense booking.
- Ensure robust financial governance, risk management, and audit readiness across the region.
Team Leadership & Development
- Lead and develop the Regional Finance Manager team, fostering a culture of accountability, analytical excellence, and continuous improvement.
- Build organizational capacity and strengthen finance capabilities across the region.
- Provide dotted-line leadership to the Regional Controller and Regional Revenue Manager to ensure coordinated financial management.
Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, or related field (MBA/CPA preferred).
- 10+ years of progressive finance leadership experience, ideally within multi-site, service, or transportation industries.
- Demonstrated success driving regional-level financial performance, profit margin, and customer/contract retention.
- Proven expertise in P&L management, FP&A, pricing, and renewal economics.
- Strong leadership skills with the ability to influence cross-functional teams and build high-performing finance organizations.
- Excellent communication and presentation skills, translating complex financials into actionable insights.
- Demonstrated ability to act as a true business partner and CFO-equivalent, balancing strategy with operational execution.
What We Do
As the leading pupil transportation solutions provider for school districts in North America, First Student provides the best start and finish to every school day. Our teams complete five and a half million student journeys each day, moving more students than all U.S. airlines combined. We operate more than 44,500 vehicles in 41 U.S. states and 8 Canadian provinces/territories.
What makes First Student the right choice for your school district's needs?
Our partnerships:
We believe great transportation is always the result of close, trusted partnerships with the school districts we serve. Understanding that needs change sometimes throughout the school year, our goal is to remain responsive to your district's needs. We work closely with school districts to ensure the transportation solutions we provide represent a collective, forward-thinking response to the needs of your district and community.
Our engagement:
We believe education offers a child – and their family – the foundation needed to lead a productive and successful life. We support education by making sure children have a safe and reliable way to get to and from school each day. Students start and end their school days with us, and we recognize the opportunity we have to impact each student’s day in a positive manner.
Our people:
Our people are our advantage. With a team of highly-trained drivers and the industry’s strongest safety record, we’re able to leverage the best practices, technologies and processes needed to deliver quality, consistent service.
Visit http://www.firststudentinc.com for more information about how First Student is Caring for students, today, tomorrow, together.®
