What the role covers
The finance director sits between the accounting team and the executive table. Below them: the close, the controls, the reporting, the compliance. Above them: the numbers the board and the CEO make decisions on. The job is translating one into the other, and being trusted in both directions.
What that produces when it is working is specific and visible. Reporting gets clearer, forecasts become more believable, board prep gets less chaotic, cash conversations get more accurate, and hiring plans get properly tested before they become commitments.[1] Those five changes are the deliverable. If you cannot see them, the seat is filled but the job is not being done.
The influence half is the part most founders underestimate. A replacement Head of Finance I placed built CEO credibility in their first week and solved a long-standing operations problem in month one, using their first board pack to drive a strategic decision.[2] That is the finance director job at its best: the numbers are the tool, the decision is the output.
Finance director, financial controller or CFO
The titles blur badly in Australia, so use scope and stage rather than the words. A financial controller owns accuracy and control: the close, the ledgers, the compliance. A finance director owns that plus the commercial layer: forecasting, decision support and business partnering. A CFO owns the capital structure, the investor relationship, the strategy and the finance function as a whole.
In practice, at the scale I work with, most of these titles collapse into two hiring moments: the first finance hire, typically a Head of Finance or Financial Controller at a business of roughly 10 to 20 headcount and $5-10M ARR or less, and the first CFO at 50-plus heads and $10M-plus ARR.[3] A finance director search at a startup is nearly always one of those two, and naming which one settles the salary band and the candidate pool immediately.
| Finance director under a CFO | Finance director as the whole function | |
|---|---|---|
| The scope | Reporting, control, FP&A and business partnering, with a defined remit and a team already in place. | The entire function. The model, the close, the board pack and the first hires beneath them, with no precedent to follow. |
| Who they answer to | A CFO, who owns capital, strategy and the investor relationship. | The founder or CEO directly, often as the only senior finance voice in the business. |
| What to screen for | Depth at comparable scale, technical strength and clean delivery. | The ability to think with no playbook, and willingness to do the work personally in month one. |
What a finance director earns in Australia
For calibration in the startup and scale-up segment: a Finance Manager sits at $140-170k plus super and a Financial Controller at $160-200k plus super, depending on industry, business size and location.[4] Around $180k, a founder can find an excellent first finance hire capable of significantly advancing the business.[5] At the top end, a late Series A CFO runs $275k to $325k base plus equity, and a Series B CFO commands $325k to $375k-plus base plus equity for someone who has raised capital, hired a team and sat in board meetings.[6]
A finance director prices between those poles and the position depends on scope rather than title. If they own the whole function and report to the founder, price it toward the upper band. If they run reporting under a CFO, the controller band is the honest comparison. Equity matters at this level in a way it does not in corporate roles, so settle strike price, vesting and the last round valuation rather than discussing a percentage.
The full 2026 Australian salary bands by finance role and stage are set out here.
When you actually need one
Complexity is the trigger, not revenue. A single-product SaaS business might not need a first finance hire until Series B and can rely on a fractional CFO for a long time, while complex deep tech businesses like robotics need a finance professional sooner.[7] Count the moving parts, not the ARR: entities, currencies, revenue models, regulatory exposure and how much of the plan depends on numbers nobody currently owns.
Below that threshold the honest answer is often no hire yet. For early-scale startups up to around 20 staff, the finance team does not need to be big, it needs agility, usually led by a Finance Manager or hands-on Financial Controller supported by a bookkeeper or an outsourced accounting firm.[8] And a financially savvy, AI-comfortable founder can often get away with less reliance on senior finance at seed stage by using a fractional bookkeeper plus tooling for runway tracking, actual versus forecast and lightweight commercial analysis.[9]
When you do hire, screen for environment over scale. The best hires at this end are not defined by the size of their previous business, but by their ability to think when there is no playbook.[10] A finance director from a business with a team of thirty beneath them may struggle badly as the only finance person in the building, and that is the failure mode I see most often at this stage.
If you want the stage-by-stage view of who to hire and in what order, the finance team structure is set out here.
Common questions
What is the difference between a finance director and a CFO?
A finance director owns day-to-day finance operations, FP&A and commercial input, bridging the accounting team and executive management. A CFO owns the capital structure, the investor relationship, the strategy and the finance function as a whole. In large businesses the FD reports to the CFO. In startups and scale-ups the titles collapse, and most searches are really one of two hiring moments: a first finance hire at 10 to 20 headcount, or a first CFO at 50-plus heads and $10M-plus ARR.
What does a finance director earn in Australia?
It depends on scope more than title. For calibration: a Finance Manager sits at $140-170k plus super and a Financial Controller at $160-200k plus super, depending on industry, size and location. Around $180k a founder can find an excellent first finance hire. At the top end, a late Series A CFO runs $275-325k base plus equity and a Series B CFO $325-375k-plus. A finance director prices between those poles, toward the upper band if they own the whole function and report to the founder.
When does a startup need a finance director?
When complexity arrives, not at a revenue number. Count entities, currencies, revenue models, regulatory exposure and how much of the plan depends on numbers nobody owns. A single-product SaaS business might not need a first finance hire until Series B and can lean on a fractional CFO for a long time, while complex deep tech such as robotics needs a finance professional far sooner. Below that threshold, a Finance Manager or hands-on Controller supported by a bookkeeper is usually the right structure.
What is the most common hiring mistake at this level?
Screening for scale instead of environment. The best hires at this end are not defined by the size of their previous business, but by their ability to think when there is no playbook. A finance director who had a team of thirty beneath them can struggle badly as the only finance person in the building, and that is the failure mode I see most often. Ask what they would personally be doing in month one, and listen for whether they can answer without delegating.
References
- Tom Hunter: with strong finance ownership, reporting gets clearer, forecasts more believable, board prep less chaotic, cash conversations more accurate, and hiring plans properly tested before they become commitments.
- Tom Hunter: a replacement Head of Finance built CEO credibility in their first week and solved a long-standing operations problem in month one, using their first board pack to drive a strategic decision.
- Story Recruitment focus: the first finance hire in a startup (Head of Finance or Financial Controller, 10 to 20 headcount, $5 to $10M ARR or less) and the first CFO hire (50+ heads, $10M+ ARR).
- Story Recruitment salary data: Finance Manager $140-170k + super, Financial Controller $160-200k + super, depending on industry, business size and location.
- Tom Hunter: around $180k, a founder can find an excellent first finance hire capable of significantly advancing the business.
- Story Recruitment 2026 salary data: late Series A CFO $275-325k base plus equity; Series B CFO $325-375k+ base plus equity, expected to have raised capital, hired a team and sat on a board.
- Tom Hunter: a single-product SaaS business might not need a first finance hire until Series B, relying on a fractional CFO for a long time, while complex deep tech businesses like robotics need a finance professional sooner.
- Tom Hunter on early-scale startups up to circa 20 staff: the finance team does not need to be big, it needs agility, often led by a Finance Manager or hands-on Financial Controller supported by a bookkeeper or outsourced accounting firm.
- Tom Hunter on seed-stage finance: a financially savvy, AI-comfortable founder can rely less on a fractional CFO by engaging a fractional bookkeeper and using tooling for runway tracking, actual versus forecast and lightweight commercial analysis.
- Tom Hunter: the best first finance hires are not defined by the size of their previous business, but by their ability to think when there is no playbook.