Unit Controller Jobs in Chicago, IL (NOW HIRING)

Lily & Fox is a direct-to-consumer nail wrap brand with 35 employees across the US, Australia, and Germany. We design, sell, and fulfill 10,000+ designs, ship worldwide, and are in the middle of bringing manufacturing in-house at our US facility - a transition that will make us one of the few vertically integrated players in our category. Our mission is to make beauty products radically more affordable and easier to use, starting with nails.

Finance today is lean; you'll be building alongside us, not inheriting a mature department.

What you'll do:

You'll own the core accounting engine: monthly close, reconciliations, and accurate financials across a multi-entity, multi-currency business. As manufacturing spins up, the role grows into inventory and cost accounting - landed cost, WIP, standard costing, and variance analysis for a high-SKU (~1,500 active SKUs), low-price-point ($2.99) product line where unit economics precision actually matters.

This is a hands-on role reporting to the CEO. You will not have a team on day one. You will work closely with internal operational teams, and external accounting and tax firms. This is an individual-contributor role with the opportunity to help build and improve the company's accounting infrastructure.

Responsibilities:

• Own the monthly close end-to-end: journal entries, accruals, account reconciliations (bank, merchant processors, marketplace payouts), and financial statement preparation
• Reconcile Shopify, PayPal, and payment processor settlements against bank deposits and revenue records
• Manage multi-entity bookkeeping across US, Australian, and German operations, including intercompany transactions and FX
• Build and maintain inventory accounting as we transition to in-house manufacturing: raw materials, WIP, finished goods, landed cost, and cost of goods sold
• Support sales tax (US), GST (AU), and VAT (DE/EU) compliance in coordination with external advisors
• Prepare schedules and documentation for external accountants at tax time; be the internal point of contact
• Identify and fix process gaps — you should leave every workflow more automated and better documented than you found it
• Partner with operations on physical inventory counts, shrink analysis, and cycle counting as manufacturing scales

What we're looking for:

• 4+ years of progressive accounting experience with full ownership of a monthly close
• Inventory or cost accounting experience — manufacturing, CPG, e-commerce, or distribution strongly preferred
• Experience with e-commerce revenue recognition (Shopify or similar platform settlements, refunds, chargebacks, gift cards) is a significant plus
• Multi-entity or multi-currency exposure is a plus
• CPA or CPA-track preferred but not required if experience is strong
• Comfort with spreadsheets at an advanced level; comfort with (or curiosity about) SQL is a plus — our data lives in PostgreSQL and you'll get more leverage if you can query it
• Bias toward documentation and systems. We are building this function, not maintaining it

What this role is not:

• It is not remote or hybrid -  the interesting parts of this job (manufacturing costing, inventory) happen at the facility
• It is not a big-company role with narrow scope - you'll touch everything, and ambiguity is part of the deal

Process:

• Application → skills assessment → structured interview (behavioral + technical case) → final interview with the CEO → offer. 

We respond to every applicant and move fast.

This is not a work-from-home position.

Good luck to everyone who applies!

Equal Employment Opportunity:

Lily and Fox is committed to providing equal employment opportunities in all employment practices. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, citizenship status, marital status, age, disability, genetic information, protected veteran status, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by law.

This job specification should not be construed to imply that these requirements are the exclusive standards of the position. This is not to be considered a complete list of job duties, which appear in the job description for this position, and which may be amended from time to time at the discretion of Lily and Fox. Incumbents will follow any other instructions and perform any other related duties as may be required by their manager.

Please note, this job description is not a contract of employment and may be modified to meet evolving business needs. Employment at Lily and Fox is at-will, meaning that either the employee or the company may terminate the employment relationship at any time, with or without cause or notice.

Type: Full-time, on-site

Salary: $100,000-$130,000