No executive role has changed more in the past two decades than the CFO.
What was once a position focused on compliance and accuracy has become one of the most strategic (if not the most strategic) seats in the C-suite. Today’s finance leaders are expected to design systems, interpret data, and build cross-functional teams that help the business move faster and make smarter decisions.
That evolution was the focus of a recent F Suite panel, The Modern CFO Suite: Teams, Tech & Transformation, moderated by John Glasgow, CEO and CFO at Campfire, with Kunal Agarwal (CFO, Gorgias), Omar Muakkassa (CFO, Fellow), and Summer Redmon (former CFO, Ascend Healthcare). They discussed how finance teams are evolving in an era defined by automation, AI, and constant organizational change. And what it takes to thrive as a modern CFO.
These leaders explained that the best CFOs are not only closing the books but also designing the infrastructure, both technological and human, that allows their organizations to learn, adapt, and grow.
Here’s how they’re doing it.
Approach the role like a data engineer
Modern finance organizations are only as strong as the data systems beneath them. Where spreadsheets once defined the limits of visibility, today’s CFOs are responsible for the architecture that powers every decision across the company.
Viewing data as part of the company’s core infrastructure reshapes what finance is responsible for. It requires thinking less like an accountant and more like a data engineer. Someone who understands how information moves, how it’s structured, and how it connects back to business logic.
Start by owning the data model
If decisions depend on data, finance must own how that data is organized rather than relying on IT or engineering for data access.
That begins with unifying systems of record — ERP, CRM, billing, and payroll — into a single, consistent warehouse that ties directly to the general ledger. Each data flow should be built for reconciliation, eliminating manual review cycles. And the most effective teams treat metric definitions like code, not spreadsheet math, so that ARR, churn, or CAC always mean the same thing across dashboards.
A finance-owned data model delivers long-term scalability when it:
Unifies core systems. Centralized data warehouses prevent fragmentation and keep every department aligned to one version of truth.
Automates reconciliation. Integrated flows between operational data and the GL eliminate manual cleanup and reduce the risk of reporting errors.
Builds reusable logic. Standard metric definitions live in code repositories, not spreadsheets, ensuring consistent calculations as the business scales.
Plans for growth. Architecture choices should anticipate three to five years of scale so data pipelines don’t have to be rebuilt every time volume doubles.
Kunal Agarwal said “you can’t build analytics on bad foundations.” Which is why strengthening your data foundation has to be core to the CFO role.
Think in systems, not snapshots
Most organizations still treat data analysis as a one-off exercise. A systems-first CFO flips that model by designing repeatable pipelines that deliver answers automatically.
Automation comes before analysis. Every hour spent cleaning data is an hour not spent interpreting it. Standardized ingestion, transformation, and validation free the team to focus on insight. Documentation then becomes a cultural tool, like a data dictionary that helps everyone understand where numbers come from and how they connect.
The modern CFO builds a living data environment where teams can explore scenarios, test assumptions, and make confident decisions in real time. When finance owns that environment, precision and transparency stop being deliverables and start becoming part of how the company works.
Hire for more than technical finance skills
As automation absorbs more transactional work, the value of a finance hire depends less on how well they manage numbers and more on how they think about systems, data, and collaboration.
A high-performing finance org blends financial rigor with technical fluency and cross-functional empathy. Hiring for that mix requires a different lens than usual. Look beyond resumes and focus on the traits that shape how people solve problems. Those traits include:
Technical curiosity. The best hires want to understand how tools work, not just how to use them. They experiment with automation features, test AI capabilities, and learn integrations that make processes faster and cleaner.
Operational fluency. People who have worked outside of finance in operations, sales, or customer success bring context that improves partnership. They understand what other teams care about and how financial data fits into their daily decisions.
Systems thinking. Modern finance runs on interconnected platforms. Team members who can visualize workflows, map dependencies, and spot inefficiencies will always create leverage.
Communication range. Translating financial insights into clear business implications is a skill. The best analysts can move seamlessly between talking to engineers, department heads, or executives without losing clarity.
Adaptability. Tools and priorities evolve constantly. A hire who thrives in change will outgrow their job slower and scale with the business.
This kind of team culture starts from the top. When finance leaders demonstrate curiosity, experiment with tools, and share what they learn, they give permission for everyone else to do the same. Curiosity becomes contagious.
“We focused on hiring people with operational experience, not just traditional finance backgrounds. That helped us partner better with other departments because we spoke their language.” — Summer Redmon, Former CFO, Ascend Healthcare
The next generation of finance teams will succeed not because they have the best technical accountants, but because they hire people who know how to make the numbers matter across the business. And the CFO’s job is to instill that mindset across the team.
Make AI Experimentation a Core Competency
For modern CFOs, AI represents the next phase of systems thinking. The same mindset that drives data architecture and process design now applies to how finance teams use AI finance tools to work smarter, faster, and with greater impact.
But as Kunal Agarwal said, “we don’t fully know what’s possible with these tools yet, so curiosity is the point.”
The most forward-thinking CFOs enable their teams to start small with AI, experimenting in areas where structured data and repeatable tasks already exist.
Common starting points include:
Automating audit and close tasks. AI tools can draft flux commentary, identify unusual variances, and audit transactions against revenue recognition policies in minutes.
Summarizing and explaining. Large language models can condense contracts, highlight key risks, or produce narrative summaries for board decks.
Accelerating analysis. Query-based assistants make it easier to pull metrics on demand or test forecast scenarios without relying on BI specialists.
Streamlining operations. AI-driven invoice matching and expense categorization can remove friction from AP and AR processes.
Each successful experiment compounds. Automation frees time for higher-value analysis, while hands-on use builds technical fluency across the team. Over time, this steady exploration turns AI from a project into part of the company’s operating rhythm.
Designing your CFO role for the future of finance
The role you’re building today won’t look the same a few years from now. The tools will keep changing. So will the expectations. But the opportunity for finance leaders has never been bigger.
Great CFOs are stepping up to design the systems that make the entire business smarter. They’re owning the data models, the team structures, and the feedback loops that help every department move faster and with more confidence.
But as team structures continue to evolve, new technologies continue to emerge, and business demands continue to change, your ability to adapt will set you apart from the average CFO.
While there’s no single way to stay ahead of the curve, learning from your fellow CFOs will always help. Join the F Suite for access to our exclusive CFO events and tap into a network of the world’s best finance leaders.